Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
Skye
Iflexed my fingers, the warmth from the Vandar’s hand making my flesh tingle.
Kolt, I reminded myself. I shouldn’t think of him as ‘the Vandar’ anymore, even though it was a tough habit to break.
Then again, I’d been thinking of the aliens who took Jasmine as ‘those fucking Vandar,’ so it could have been worse.
“My plan for escape?” I swiped the back of my hand across my sweaty brow and blew out a breath that was far too warm for comfort. Under Kolt’s searching gaze, I suddenly felt even warmer.
The cell had only a small, high window for ventilation, but since the only air seeping in from it was from outside, it didn’t help with the uncomfortable heat. Living on an ice planet had made me very adaptable to cold but woefully unprepared for hot weather.
I turned and took the few meager steps to the metal bench to buy myself some time.
I hadn’t been lying when I’d told him I was planning an escape, but I might have oversold my progress on said plan.
Sitting on the hard metal bolted to the stone wall, I stretched my legs in front of me and leaned back.
Kolt rocked back on the heels of his boots and then gestured with one hand toward his feet. “I am no longer disturbing your escape planning by walking.”
“Right,” I said, remembering that I had complained that his pacing had been disturbing my thoughts.
Again, that had been true. He had been disturbing me.
Unfortunately, my thoughts had progressed little past the recurring one that I had to get the fuck out before I went crazy being trapped in a cell with an irritating Vandar.
But I wouldn’t tell him that. Not after we’d made friends, or at least allies.
“I haven’t come up with a fully realized plan,” I said. “I was still analyzing our situation and our potential advantages.”
“So, you have no plan?”
I shifted on the uncomfortable bench, as another trickle of sweat snaked down my spine and beneath the waistband of my pants. “It’s a work in progress.”
I gripped the metal and my fingers bumped across something carved into the front of the bench. Leaning down, I spotted an etched symbol. It was not a symbol I recognized—a circle crossed with two even lines—but it had to mean something.
When I glanced up, Kolt was staring at me, his gaze as penetrating as the heat of the stone cell.
I tugged at the neckline of my top. “It’s hard to think with you staring at me like that.” I breathed a sigh. The truth was, it was hard to think in such heat. How did people live like this?
“So, you have no plan?” he repeated.
I groaned. “A good plan takes time to formulate. We can’t just try to overpower the guards and make a run for it.”
“Why not? That sounds like a solid start of a plan.”
I looked at him standing with his hands on his waist. Even though his bare chest glistened with sweat, he didn’t seem half as uncomfortable as me.
To be fair, he was only wearing a battle kilt, which wasn’t more than layered strips of leather that reached mid-thigh, and boots.
But everything he had on was leather, which famously doesn’t breathe.
“Aren’t you hot?” I asked, ignoring his comment about a slapdash escape.
“I am accustomed to cooler temperatures,” he admitted, “but there is little point in complaining about something we cannot control. It will only make us feel hotter.”
I hated that he was right. The more I focused on the heat, the more it softened my bones and prickled my skin. Infuriating Vandar.
“Fine.” I took a slow breath. “In your plan of overpowering the guards and making a run for it, how do we disarm them if they have weapons trained on us like they did when they brought us here. Even if we get past the ones down here and anyone else who might be armed in the building, what do we do once we’re out in the city?
This is clearly Zagrath-controlled territory, which means guards and patrols. ”
Kolt grunted and spun on one heel, resuming his pacing, although at a slower speed. “Zagrath control also means resistors. There is no place the Zagrath take over that is fully accepting of total control. There are always those who resist.” He turned to me. “As you well know.”
Despite my determination not to focus on the heat, it was impossible to ignore the flush of my cheeks. How much did this Vandar battle chief know about the resistance on Lexxona? How much did he know about other resistance movements?
Rumors had swirled for ages that the Vandar themselves had been resistance fighters against imperial rule, but there were just as many rumors that they were violent mercenaries.
Admittedly, the dark tales of the Vandar had been spread by imperial supporters, so I’d always believed that those were exaggerations told to paint the freedom fighters in a bad light.
Then the Vandar had come to Lexxona and taken my best friend.
I crossed one leg over the other and leaned forward. “You think a resistance movement would take us in? You don’t think they would suspect a ploy by the Empire?”
He scoffed at this. “No Vandar would ever conspire with the Zagrath.”
“Maybe not, but tell me why you think you’re any different.”
This stopped him in his tracks. He whirled on me, dark eyes flashing. “You dare compare the Vandar to…” his lip curled in disgust, “to the vile Zagrath?”
I refused to back down, even though the battle chief looked particularly menacing with his hands in tight fists and every muscle quivering with tension. I also refused to let him think he was intimidating.
I shrugged as if we were still discussing the weather.
“You came to Lexxona and took my best friend by force. Sure, you had some lame excuse about a war bride lottery being insurance for our treaty, but it was still kidnapping.” I leaned forward and forced myself to smile sweetly.
“Don’t tell me the Vandar can’t find women without stealing them. ”
His eyes narrowed into slits. “Your friend was treated like a Raisa. She did nothing she did not choose.” He turned from me, his hands uncoiling.
“But you are correct that the war bride lottery was a ruse. Raas Wrexxon took your friend because the Empire targeted her. She was going to be taken by the Zagrath and executed for all your rebel activities.”
My skin went cold, the beads of sweat now chilling me as they slid cool trails down my skin. “What?”
He pivoted to face me again, and there was no fury in his gaze.
“Your rebel group was not as secret as you believed. The Zagrath knew about your sabotage. Your friend’s name was at the top of their list. That is why the Raas took her.
That is why he staged the lottery and rigged it.
And that is why we returned to Lexxona to save you. You were also on the list.”
My throat had gone from dry to parched, and I could only open and close my mouth. I’d been on an imperial hit list? The Zagrath knew about us?
I shook my head woodenly. “Impossible. We were…”
“Careful?” Kolt’s words were not unkind or mocking, which almost made it worse. “As clever as you are, there was someone who knew, someone who saw. Someone betrayed you.”
My mind raced. “Then I wasn’t the only one the Zagrath would come after. The others—”
“Were taken by other Vandar to safety. They were on their way to a Vandar transport while I was tasked with finding you.”
That did nothing to calm my pattering heart. “But if they ambushed us, who’s to say they didn’t do the same to the others?”
Kolt’s jaw tightened, a muscle pulsing. “If that were the case, they would be with us. We are the only ones they took.”
I allowed myself a breath as I sagged back against the stone wall. As much as I hated being held captive by the Zagrath, at least the others were safe. Probably.
Then a thought hit me with enough force to make my breath stutter. “If I was on a Zagrath target list, why am I still alive? Why did they capture me instead of killing me? And why bother to take you? Why not kill us both on Lexxona and leave our bodies as a warning?”
His gaze dropped to the floor, and a chill shuddered my body.
“They want something from us,” I whispered. “Something more important than a warning to a tiny outpost.”
Kolt’s head snapped up, his gaze fierce. “They will not get it.”
My heart leaped in my chest at his defiance. Looking away quickly as my pulse trilled, I attempted to steady my heartbeat.
Don’t you dare fall for this cocky Vandar, Skye.
Before I could remind him how well his first rescue attempt had gone, the door at the end of the corridor scraped open.