Chapter 41
Holly
This was surreal.
Holly and Hattie were entangled together, trapped in a bubble made of iridescent light that sparked and fizzled against anything on the outside, but felt as solid as a sun warmed wall from the inside.
They were being dragged through the flooded forest floor.
The water couldn’t touch them and only occasionally would their bubble float up enough to break the surface for a moment before they were dragged back under and enclosed again in a strange sphere of pretty light that kept away the darkness.
Like a tiny submarine.
“Where are they taking us?” Hattie asked, clearly trying to sound brave but failing.
“I don’t know,” Holly mumbled honestly, her eyes fixated on her combot.
It was at the top of their ovular, egg-shaped bubble, just inside the barrier it was creating.
It didn’t really look like her combot anymore.
It had burst open, like the petals of a flower, and refused to respond to her commands to make calls or explain what was happening.
Like creating the barrier of light was so taxing, it couldn’t do anything else at the same time.
Romival had given her that combot personally, so she had no doubt that this was intentional. And given that it was only her combot and Hattie’s couldn’t even be seen, she didn’t think this was normal. But it seemed exactly like something her highly intelligent, alien boyfriend would make for her.
It had reacted the moment she was in danger, which was a relief. But since she couldn’t get it to respond to her commands, she didn’t know if it had alerted Romival or not. Did it send out an emergency SOS signal before it locked up or was it just the light?
She wanted to assume that her super hot, super smart alien boyfriend would have had it send out an immediate SOS if the shield was activated, but it wasn’t even doing something as simple as make a phone call now, so what if it couldn’t?
“We have to assume no help is coming,” Hattie said softly, as though reading her mind.
Holly nodded, sharing a look that spoke volumes.
It wasn’t their first time being kidnapped by ratchi. Strangely, it was actually easier the second time around.
For one thing, there was no period of disbelief and shock at the sight of aliens for the first time. For another, there was automatically a sense that they knew they were going to fight back. There was not going to be a day or two of just absorbing reality.
Getting in a comfortable position in the light egg was impossible.
It had caught them both, as well as a layer of mud and water that pooled at the bottom.
The muck was unable to escape and was now marinating them as they were dragged roughly through the water.
The rounded, unyielding light shield was definitely not made to sit in.
Holly and Hattie’s legs were tangled together, and they were pushing awkwardly against the sides to keep themselves up.
Luckily, the combot that was perched at the top seemed to automatically orient itself up because otherwise they would probably be spinning around like a hamster in a ball and who knew what damage that might cause?
So, the trip was uncomfortable, but not painful.
The rain had started falling again in earnest, Holly could see it in the occasional, quick glimpses past the surface that they were granted.
She had no idea where they were going or where they were.
She only knew that the forest had to be getting denser because the light was practically non-existent, though she knew that not enough time had passed for it to be night yet.
“So, how are we doing this?” Holly asked, not unwilling to fight.
Hattie grinned. “Not sure. Scarlet came up with the last plan.”
“Yeah.” Holly blew out a long breath before tapping on the light barrier. It made a strange, hollow, but echoing ‘bong’ sound. “We can’t do anything until this is gone.”
“Any idea how long it will last?”
“I didn’t even know it could do that.”
Holly looked around. At the dark green, opaque water that couldn’t enter their bubble, though they were breathing without issue.
The ropes were sizzling against the outside, though they could feel only a gentle warmth from within.
It was a wonder of science and engineering.
Holly couldn’t even imagine what was required to make something like this, but she knew that Romival was more than smart enough to do it.
Even when he wasn’t near, he was protecting her.
They couldn’t feel the water rushing past them, but they could feel the momentum when they finally stopped. They were still under the surface, unable to see anything, their heads were on a swivel as they checked in every direction.
“What now?” Hattie asked, whispering the words like she was afraid of being overheard.
Before Holly could think of a response, their bubble was suddenly jerked upward. They burst through the surface, water splashing everywhere, as they were dragged onto what appeared to be the roots of one of the many, towering trees.
“You must go!” One of the ratchi females was hissing.
“You cannot ask me to leave you behind!” That voice was familiar, Sizuka hissing back.
They turned in their bubble. It only took Holly a moment to find the small vehicle that had been wedged into a wide space in the tree trunk where the roots grew together. It was about the size of a minivan but looked far more complex than a standard hover.
Her and Hattie’s bubble was being shoved in the back while the ratchi argued outside. Sizuka looked absolutely heartbroken, but the two younger females that were facing her were serious, their scaled brows drawn with determination and anger.
“Their Dominani will come. He will kill you all,” Sizuka was saying desperately.
“We know,” the one on the right assured her, head high.
“We don’t care,” the other continued. “Our clavas is dead, along with our males. We won’t recover. We would rather die buying you time to get them away so you can pry them from that bubble and dig your claws into their hearts. Eat them for us. For our males.”
Holly didn’t know if the ratchi could cry, but Sizuka looked like she was about to. But she kept her stiff, reptilian lips, well, stiff as she held her trembling head high. She grunted once, trying for stoic acceptance, before breaking and putting her arms around them both.
“You honor our clavas. Our males. I will eat their hearts and livers and bathe in their blood. For you and them. For the memory of our clavas.”
Holly supposed it was touching. Or would have been if it weren’t about her death. She and Hattie even shared an incredulous look, unsure how to react to their gruesome deaths being spoken of like they were villains at the end of a story.
Which, Holly supposed, from the ratchi side, they were.
Sizuka embraced each of the remaining females, all seven, before she climbed into the not-minivan, into what Holly recognized as the pilot seat.
It wasn’t a hover.
It was a starship.
“They’re taking us off planet!” Hattie gasped, comprehending their situation at the same moment.
Trapped in the very bubble that was protecting them, they could do nothing as the ship sealed with a heart stopping hiss. The seven females still outside had to work together to unwedge it from where they had hidden it.
But the moment they did, Sizuka was powering up the engines, lifting off the ground. She gave the females remaining outside a stone-faced stare before focusing up at the thick canopy that Holly only now realized already had a hole in it.
The hole they had landed through, and the hole they would escape through again.
“For our clavas,” Sizuka said with hard determination, pressing on the controls.
Holly’s belly sank as the ship immediately shot upwards. Faster than a hover, but not so fast that she wasn’t given plenty of time to stare back at the ground. At the ratchi that remained below, watching them take off.
And the hover that jerked to a halt in midair right behind them, Romival’s face clear through the glass dome that covered the top, his mouth open in protest.
Holly reached out for him, knowing it was pointless, but unable to keep herself from trying. Her hand met only the warmth of the barrier he had created for her.