Page 44 of Charmed By the Alien Warrior

Sevvern steps out from behind his friend, the sneer on his face cruel and twisted. “You thought you could escape, didn’t you?” His voice drips with venom as he continues, “But you can’t. You’re going to rot down there like the worthless trash you are.”

Terrik’s foot presses harder, grinding my hand into the stone and adding new wounds to my already damaged flesh. I gasp as my vision blurs from the pain.

Sevvern’s lip curls in disgust, and before I can react, he orders Terrik to press harder. The larger male has all his weight digging into my hand, now. I cry out as a new wave of white-hot agony crashes through me as my free hand claws and scrabbles against his ankle, trying to remove his weight. But it’s no use. Terrik is older than me and bigger.

Sevver’s laughter echoes around me, loud and mocking, filling the pit with its cruel sound and stabbing into my mind. The sound twists and grows, warping as it surrounds me until I can’t tell if it’s coming from him or the darkness around us.

The walls seem to be closing in as the darkness reaches out to me again, eager to drag me into the void below, and this time I don’t fight it. I don’t have the strength. Tendrils of cold claw through my skin and into my veins, spreading through my body.

My racing heart slows, growing sluggish until it feels as if it barely beats. Sevvern’s laughter blends into the oppressive silence, and I feel myself slipping away into the cold, empty void below.

Just as the void is about to swallow me whole, something else reaches through the darkness to me. It’s a voice, distant but achingly familiar, and it sends a ripple of warmth through my veins.

“Sorrin.”

At first, the voice is a whisper, like the softest brush of warm breath against my cold skin. But then, it grows louder, more insistent, and demanding that I pay attention to it.

“Sorrin!” The disembodied voice cuts through the darkness, beckoning me back to the light.

Back to softness and a smile that is rare but blinding and precious. To a gaze that is brighter and greener than anything I’ve ever seen on my world. And to lips that I ache to feel against my own again.

I glance up and there she is.

“Mara?” I choke out her name.

She’s watching me now, her face seems to be illuminated from within, her expression is filled not with mockery, but with concern. Her bright green eyes shine with some emotion that I don’t know what to call. Could it be lo… No, it can’t be.

I shake my head at my thoughts. Mara could never, would never have those feelings for me. She is courageous and amazing and so very alien to everything I know, and I can sense how much she longs to return to her planet. I can see the hope on her face every time I mention the Ancestors’ Ship.

“Sorrin.” she says again, her voice steady and reassuring. She bends low and reaches out a slim hand to me. “Come with me.”

Her words cut through the fog of fear and pain, and for the first time since I woke up in this hole, I feel a flicker of hope. I reach up, my fingers trembling as they brush against hers. The warmth of her touch is like fire to my frozen, lonely spirit.

As my fingers close around her hand, I realize something. The warmth? It’s real. My eyelids flutter and through the remnants of my disappearing nightmare, I feel it. Mara’s soft skin against my own.

“Sorrin!” Her voice breaks through the last remaining haze of sleep forcing out the last remnants of my fear. “Wake up!”

I open my eyes, blinking against the dim light in the room. Mara’s face hovers above me, her brows furrowed with concern and fear, and I curse myself for putting that expression on her face. She clutches my hand tightly in hers as if she’ll never let go.

“Mara?” My words come out hoarse and I have to swallow to force down the lump that has suddenly lodged in my throat.

My heart is still racing at double its normal speed as memories of the pit and Sevvern’s cruel laughter linger in the back of my mind.

“You had a nightmare,” she explains softly, her thumb brushing lightly over my hand as if trying to soothe me.

I take a deep breath, trying to separate the dream from reality. My pulse slows as I focus on her touch and her presence here beside me.

“It was just a dream,” I mutter, as if saying it aloud will make it true. But I know it’s a lie. The pit, the pain, Sevvern—they were real. All too real.

Mara’s hand tightens on mine, pulling my attention back to her. “You’re safe now. I’m here.”

I swallow hard, nodding at her words. Her presence, her warmth, it pushes away the lingering tendrils of the memories, and suddenly my thoughts become clearer than ever.

I’m not alone anymore.

Chapter 16

Mara

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