Page 77 of Fated to the Dragon Warlord

“The females will remain still.”

The voice drops into my brain.

“Did anyone else hear that?”

“It’s how they communicate,” Rosalie says, pressing herself against the wall. “Some sort of telepathy, we think.”

I make a grab for the containers on the flat stone.

“What are you doing?” Lydia asks.

“If you think I’m sitting here while alien cockroaches crawl all over me, it’s not happening,” I hiss.

Part of the wall cracks into pieces which slowly dissolve as if wanting to spin out the fear. A set of antennae flick over the edges as the Veseli sticks its head in.

I throw the first canister. It bounces off the thing. The head, such as it is, disappears again.

“You’re only going to piss them off,” Maggie says.

“Good.” I heave the other canister into my throwing hand. “Why should they be happy when I’m not? If they were going to kill us, they’d have done it by now.”

The wall closes over again.

“See,” I point out triumphantly. “A little resistance goes a long way.”

The general mutterings suggest my sentiments are not shared.

“The female will put down the projectile or no further food will be provided.”

Balls. It seems like resistance is overrated.

I put down the container. Even if the food isn’t popular, I don’t want us to be starved into compliance. Not only will it be distinctly unpleasant, but it would mean they have an intent to keep us for a long time.

I am not hanging around to be a prisoner of an alien cockroach.

Not when Darax is out there somewhere. I miss him like my heart has been ripped from my chest. I thought I hated him.

I don’t.

Not because I’m in the hands of the Veseli. But because somehow, sometime, he’s wormed his way into my psyche, become part of me in a way I was not expecting.

An image of Deus flits through my mind. The warring brothers. One who wanted revenge but when it came to it, he couldn’t carry it through. A brother who thought he was doing the right thing, whatever that was, in keeping Deus out of the way.

I’ve seen what loss is like to a Sarkarnii in the haunted eyes of Deus. I don’t want that for Darax.

The wall dissolves again, and this time the Veseli comes through faster, angling its armoured back towards us. We huddle together.

“Take the one who has mated with the Sarkarnii.”The words crawl into my brain.

Pincers reach out, grabbing hold of my leg.

“This one stinks of Sarkarnii.”

“Get off.” I kick at the hooked, hairy leg. Maggie and Rosalie grab hold of me, attempting to hold on, but it has the hooks in my trousers, and with a tremendous tug, I’m pulled away.

“I’ll be back,” I shout at my terrified friends as I’m dragged from the room and out into the clutches of the Veseli.

Outside of our cell, I’m in a vast space which is filled with round, egg-shaped structures. There are so many of them I can’t count.

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