He’ll take us home.
“Deal.”
Thirteen
Rekker
“You bastards! You traitorous, Empire scum! Fight me like a real alpha,” Vraik shouts.
Vraik is cuffed, but he’s still being himself, lunging at the sentinels, teeth out. It’s stupid as hell, but I admire his tenacity.
They beat him to a bloody pulp. Then they beat Lök and I. It’s a total fucking party.
When we’re aching, dizzy and downright docile, they drag our bodies into their mothership and shut the doors.
“Slain wishes to see you,” the sentinel leader says, eyes black as coal.
“Why? What business does the Emperor have with us?” I growl.
What a stupid question.
Another hit to my face collapses my body into his chest. He pushes me to the floor, boot resting against my neck.
“You didn’t follow the rules,” he says, coldly.
I’ve always played by the rules. Lök used to called me a stargazer, but I was never a dreamer. I wanted to understand the laws of the universe. I thought there might be a way to force power into the hands of our people.
But I was wrong.
Logic, facts and reason don’t make a difference to living beings. Power comes with a loud enough person and a good story.
It’s up to Slain to have the only argument. That’s the way he continues winning.
The mothership slowly wades through the air, shadowing the landscape below us. The sentinel laughs and points at the view from one of the many windows. “Your female is somewhere below,” he says.
“What female?” I ask, eyeing him carefully.
“Do not play games,” he says, kneeling to my level. “We saw her. She brought us to you.”
She’s the only thing I care about in this universe, and she’s lost on our hellish planet. “Don’t hurt her.”
The sentinel turns and nods to one of the captains of the ship. He presses a button.
A great hum overtakes the mothership.
“Dont,” I plead.
The sentinel does not react.
First, the facility explodes. Then, they start blasting the entire city. It happens faster than I can blink.
“NO!” I scream.
My brethren grieve, but my mind cannot wrap my head around what I have just witnessed. It’s not possible.
She can’t die.
“What have you done?” Lök cries, tears falling down his scales.