Page 30 of Shadows of Stardust

Just a couple more feet and I’ll be up and over.

I’ll be on the other side, out of here, and I can make a mad dash for the open yard where the production team keeps its fleet of transport hovers. With any luck, I’ll be able to override the operating system on at least one and be on my way.

My mind tumbles over the rest of the plan while my hand finds purchase at the top of the fence. Triumph breaks over me, sharp and sweet and—

“Oh no you don’t.”

The low, rumbled words, spoken close enough to my back to rip a fractured scream of surprise from my throat, are the only warning I get.

The instant after they’re spoken, two impossibly strong arms close around me.

Fuck.Fuck.

This isn’t happening.

There’s no fucking way this is happening.

One arm banded around my abdomen, the other reaching up so he can clap a hand over my mouth, Zandrel pulls me off the fence and into an unbreakable hold.

Even though I try my damnedest to break it.

I thrash and kick and bite at the hands that bind me, losing a boot for my trouble. I rear my head back and slam it hard enough into his jaw to earn myself a satisfying grunt of pain, even while my teeth rattle in my jaw and agony blooms over the back of my skull.

“Roslyn,” Zandrel hisses. “Enough.”

It’s not enough. Not even close.

Driven by a fury and helplessness and desperation that spring up from the very bottom of my broken, reckless soul, I keep fighting, keep struggling. I don’t care how much I hurt myself or Zandrel in the process.

His chest is an unmovable wall behind me, his arms unrelenting iron bands. Even his damn fingers feel like steel pins as I gnash at him, the firm line of his jaw like hitting my head against the edge of a table. The pinpricks of his claws press into my cheek, a reminder he could tear me to pieces in half a heartbeat if he really wanted to.

He lets out a low, harsh curse, one that must be particularly colorful in his native language, because my translator chip can’t quite pick it up. The closest approximation is a condemnationfor the Revexoran fates to damn me or him or this whole situation to hell, and I couldn’t agree more.

Damn this. Damn him. Damn each second that’s putting Savvie further and further from my grasp.

“Roslyn,” Zandrel commands again, harsher this time. “Cease your struggling. Unless you want me to call in the rest of the security team and have them cease it for you.”

It takes a couple of moments for his words to pierce the haze of my fruitless anger, but when they do, they strike a discordant note.

He hasn’t called any backup?

He could be lying. He probably is lying.

But then again… I’ve been his little pet project since the day I arrived here, haven’t I? And he seems arrogant enough to believe he can handle one helpless human on his own.

Which, I mean, he’s not wrong, but as long as it’s just him, my odds aren’t zero. As long as it’s just him, I might still have a chance.

My struggle slows, and Zandrel grunts something that might be approval.

“I’m going to let you down,” he says low into my ear. “But the second you try something, I’ll have you restrained again. And this time I won’t let go.”

I believe he means it.

I believe it so much that I nod awkwardly where he’s still got his hand over my mouth, restraining my head.

Still, when my feet hit the ground, I almost try it.

The frenzy hasn’t faded, and the wild, animal instinct to flee tightens all my muscles.

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