Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Kolt
When I woke, it was still dark. For a moment, I didn’t remember where I was or why I was engulfed in such complete blackness. Then I felt the warm body I was curled around and felt the steady, gentle breathing.
Skye.
The female sleeping next to me was Skye, and she was human.
I knew that much. Something deep in my soul told me I should be wary of humans, but I had no clue why since she’d been trustworthy and brave.
I also remembered that we were hiding in a secret room in a theatre on an alien planet.
I knew that we’d escaped from a Zagrath prison and that I was recovering from a self-inflicted wound, but memories before that remained hazy.
Recollections of waking up to programmed ambient blue lighting teased the back of my brain, but when I tried to hold the image or remember more detail, it slipped from my grasp like sand sifting through fingers.
The one thing I felt sure of was that I rarely woke up next to a human female—or any female.
I felt sure that I slept alone in a bed that was considerably bigger and in a room much colder.
I shifted my body, reaching for my bandaged leg. The cloth wrapping it was dry, and the skin didn’t burn like it had the day before. Skye’s makeshift treatment must have worked because my head didn’t pound and pain didn’t lance my leg.
The slow breathing hitched, and the woman jerked awake, her movements anything but gentle.
“What the frostbitten hell?” She thrashed and then rolled onto the floor with a thud. “Son of a thaw-soft—”
“Are you okay?” I asked, sitting up and moving to the edge of the bed she’d just vacated.
“Yes.” She sighed. “I wasn’t supposed to stay in bed all night.”
“You weren’t?”
There was rustling in the dark as she presumably got to her feet. “I planned to move to the floor once you fell asleep, but then you threw your arm over me and pinned me down.”
I remembered none of this, which wasn’t a surprise. “Apologies. I must have been—”
“It’s fine. You were asleep.” She clicked on the light. “And then I fell asleep before I could figure a way to extract myself without waking you.”
I shielded my eyes from the glaring light emanating from the bald bulb, blinking until I’d adjusted to the change. “Was it so bad?”
She ran a hand through her tousled red curls. “Was what so bad?”
“Sharing the bed. I told you there was room enough for both of us.”
She slid me a side-eye glance. “It was fine. Probably more comfortable than the floor, so thank you for sharing.”
I couldn’t help grinning at her. She’d seen me unclothed, tended to my wound, kissed me passionately more than once, and now shared a bed with me, yet she remained distant. Were all human females like this? If I knew the answer, I didn’t remember.
“You are welcome. It was the least I could do after you took care of me.”
She twisted her back and neck as she stood, as if working out kinks she’d acquired during the night. “You don’t have to keep thanking me. You’re the one who took one for the team and gashed your own leg. Taking care of your cut was the least I could do.”
I opted not to argue with her, even though I found I enjoyed the verbal sparring.
“You look a lot better,” Skye said as she eyed me. “Cleaning the cut and staunching the bleeding made a big difference. I was worried for a while yesterday.”
Strangely, the thought of her worrying about me made warmth pulse in my chest. “I feel much better.” I stood, glad that no waves of dizziness rocked me. It didn’t even hurt to put some weight on my leg.
“The faster you heal, the better.” Skye swept her gaze around the room. “We can’t stay here forever.”
“The longer we stay here, the greater the chance of the Vandar taking the bait and flying into danger.”
She bit her bottom lip. “It wouldn’t be smart to move during daylight hours, which I assume it is or will be soon. We’ll still have to wait until nightfall or risk being spotted by Imperial guards.”
I nodded, trying to ignore my rumbling stomach. Now that I was feeling better, I was ravenous. My body had burned through our evening meal, and who knew when Athena would arrive with more food.
“We should not leave without knowing where to go next,” I said. “We ran down so many streets that I’m not sure where in the city we are right now.”
“The theatre could be right next to the prison for all we know, although somehow I don’t think it is.”
I thought about that, latent knowledge of alien cities swimming up from the depths of my memories. “I doubt it is near government buildings. What we really need to know is how to get from here to the nearest shipyard.”
Skye blinked at me. “Shipyard?”
“If we plan to escape this planet, we’ll need a spaceship to do it.”
She rubbed the heel of one hand over her forehead.
“How are we going to hijack a spaceship without being stopped? This is a planet controlled by the Empire. They seem to have an even tighter hold here than they did on Lexxona. I can’t imagine we could fly away without being stopped, especially since the soldiers are on the lookout for escaped prisoners who will try to leave. ”
Everything she said was true, but none of it bothered me. Somehow, I knew I could fly any kind of ship. I also knew that I was good at subterfuge. We didn’t need to hijack a ship to leave the planet.
“Who said we would hijack a ship?” I asked. “What we need to do is find a ship leaving and stow aboard. Once on board, we can get an encrypted message to my people.”
She stared at me before a laugh burbled from her chest. “Oh, is that all? You make it sound so easy.”
“It is easier than commandeering a ship. Besides, were you or were you not a resistance fighter on your planet?”
“I was,” she spluttered, “but we never stowed aboard a ship or sent encrypted messages. My specialty was more along the lines of sabotage.”
“That might be helpful, but it would be more helpful if you had battle training or were skilled with a blaster.”
She folded her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. “There weren’t any big, tough warriors on Lexxona to teach me. Are you offering?”
Before I shot back that there was not enough time to teach her how to be a Vandar warrior, I stopped.
We could not leave until dark fell anyway, and the more I allowed my leg to heal, the faster I would be able to move when we went.
I might not have time to make Skye as lethal as a Vandar, but I could teach her enough to make her a threat.
“I am.”
Her brows popped up. “Here? You want to teach me to fight and shoot a blaster in here?”
I paused, listening for sounds outside our hiding place. I heard none. “Not here. Out there.”