Page 35 of Rebel
“I hope you choke on me.”
They lunged. I closed my eyes.
The world erupted in dazzling light and the whirr of an engine.
The creatures scattered as I gazed up at the light. So bright, so pretty, and then my face met the floor.
* * *
Oh, hangover headache. I opened my eyes to find Lore looking down on me.
I groaned. “Shit, what did I get hit with this time?”
Lore’s gaze flicked away, then back to me. “It was a paralysis toxin. I assume they wanted you alive but immobile when they fed.”
“Nice.” I made to sit up and froze. My hands … My legs. “Lore, why have you got me tied down.”
Lore’s jaw ticked. “Rogue, I—”
The lights …There had been lights above the quad. Shit, the signal … An Athion ship had come for us. For me.
“You don’t have to do this.” I pleaded with my eyes. “Just let me go.”
Lore opened his mouth to speak, but another voice interrupted.
“I’m afraid your Athion medic has no say in the matter.”
Ice flooded my veins. I knew that voice. It had haunted my nightmares for too long.
A shadow fell over me, and then Marick’s weasel face was looking down on me. “Welcome to the land of the living, Rogue.”
19
XAVIER
“We should have run when we had the chance.” I glare at Tide. “This is your fucking fault. If you hadn’t sent that signal.”
“I did what I thought was right at the time,” Tide snaps back. “Arguing about that isn’t going to help us now.”
He paces the kitchen. There are guards with guns stationed outside the room. Trad soldiers trained to kill without hesitation.
Marick wants Rogue alive, but we’re dispensable. So, why hasn’t he killed us?
“It makes no sense,” Vex says. “He could have gunned us down once he knew Lore was the medic. Why keep us alive?”
“We have to get out of here,” Tide says.
“And go where?” Vex points out. “They’re guarding their shuttle. There’s no way off this rock …” He shoots me a look. “How were you planning on getting us off this planet without Athion help?”
Tide blinks slowly and then glares at me, arms crossed.
“You think I’d sabotage a ship without a fucking plan. There’s a shuttle in hangar B.”
Tide’s frown is almost comical. “I didn’t see a hangar B.”
“That’s because it’s underground, accessed via the regular shuttle chamber. There’s a hatch and a tunnel and an underground hangar with a fully functional shuttle for emergencies.”
“And how the fuck do you know this?”
