Page 49 of Bonded Queen: to the Alien Warlord Triad

I get a pang of guilt. “Look. I don’t know what to say. I wish I could believe that the guns fired by accident, but it’s too much of a coincidence. There’s people on this planet who are trying to kill Aurelians. I don’t think it’s safe for you two to be near me. If you don’t want to, I’m not going to force you to.”

Nash crosses her arms tight. “I’m not going anywhere. First of all, we’re safer here than anywhere else. And second, I like you.”

I smile at her. “Thanks.”

Raneeda grins. “I was massaging the feet of people who thought they were better than me for the last three years. This is a real step-up. At your service, my lady.” She’s more confident than when I first met her, and I’m glad they are relaxing around me. After dealing with Princess Bitch for nearly a decade, I’m surprised I have hair left. If these two are going to be my servants, I’m not going to treat them like they’re lesser.

“Well. I’m glad to have you with me.” I really am. These two are the only sense of normalcy I have.

“I could use a drink,” Raneeda says, looking wistfully down at the broken wine barrel. Most of it spilled on the floor, but there’s enough left at the bottom to get a horse drunk.

“Let’s go find some cups,” says Nash, looking towards the middle tunnel. We help each other jump over the puddle, balancing on the bigger pieces of wood that don’t look too splintery, but by the time we make it over, all of our feet are stained red.

We leave a trail of footprints as we walk up the tunnel. It slopes lightly upwards and leads into a huge mess hall-style room, with two long picnic tables made of stone on each side. More tunnels lead out in every direction. The room is spartan, with nothing but a wall of white storage containers. There’s a replicator but no sink. Replicators can make soup and porridge, but you get the occasional gross chunk of organic matter that freaks me out.

The far hallway seems to beckon to me. While Raneeda and Nash start to explore the mess hall, I walk down the hallway. There are doors on either side. I peer in. It’s dorm-style rooms at first, bunk beds packed in with thin, hard mattresses, but the beds are big, made for aliens. As I walk down the hallway, the doors open to bigger bedrooms, with individual beds, probably for higher ranking triads.

There is a single big set of doors at the end of the hallway. It opens soundlessly as I approach. Inside is the master bedroom, three times the size of any other others, with three huge beds, a couch, a desk, a private bathroom…

And another door that is pure black.

My breathe catches. It is the purest marble, so smooth it looks like liquid. It’s the same material as the slab where the triad Bonded me to them. I step towards it, drawn to it.

“I found something!” yells Raneeda, and I jolt to my senses, rushing out of the room.

18

Rachel

Ipractically run back to the mess hall. Nash and Raneeda are standing over one of the storage chests. They managed to get it open, and they’re looking inside.

“What is it?”

“We’re not sure,” says Nash.

Raneeda turns to me, cocking her head to the side. “I know we’re staying down here and everything. I was just wondering, do you have a way to open the tunnel back up?”

I pause. Huh. “I…I don’t think so.”

“What if… What if something happens to those three?”

“Nothing could kill those three,” says Nash, reassuringly. “They’re unstoppable.”

“I’m sure they planned for any eventuality, even so, “ I say, hoping it’s true. The thought of being stuck down here is terrifying.

“Well, if we do get trapped, at least we won’t starve,” muses Raneeda, pulling a package out from the chest.

Another fact about the Bond hits me, one so obvious I don’t know how I didn’t think of it. Queen Jasmine was the first Bonded human…

And she was Bonded over two hundred years ago, yet she still looks like she’s in her twenties. My heart pounds, in a strange kind of a panic. The human mind isn’t ready for the idea of centuries spanning ahead of them.

What if we really do get trapped down here? What if I live for a thousand years, stuck here, because they didn’t set it up so I can leave?

I push the thought out of my mind. It’s too awful to consider.

Raneeda holds the ration up to the light. It’s vacuum sealed. My stomach grumbles. When was the last time I ate?

“Yeah, I’m starving too. I didn’t eat anything since we heard about the…” She trails off. The Scorp attack is like a bad dream.

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