Chapter 19
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
Maxtalen’s screams sounded like a wounded animal’s as he wrenched back.
I hadn’t had time to bite down enough to sever his tongue, but dark blood ran down his chin as it did mine.
His eyes went wild and I only had a moment to brace before his fist came crashing down.
I jumped up enough to dodge the hit at my temple, but pain exploded across my mouth, my blood mixing with his into a strange brown.
Here was the reminder I’d needed. I’d grown too complacent with those on the ship, forgetting what I’d learned far too young: no one could be trusted in this universe. Everyone wanted something and Maxtalen hadn’t wanted my friendship. He’d wanted to possess me like a trophy on a shelf.
I could only blame myself because I should have known better than to walk into this room and sit on that chair. But I’d gone too deep within myself, so deep I’d forgotten everything and everyone in this galaxy were monsters.
Including myself. And I’d make sure he knew that before this was over.
He cursed, but the words were garbled. I reeled from his blow, fingers splayed wide across the desk.
Hands curled around my waist and I didn’t fight the instinct this time as I threw my elbow back, connecting with his face in a satisfying crunch.
Maxtalen wouldn’t have anticipated I would fight back—not with how pleasure yeskas were viewed.
But what the pampered members of the Federation didn’t know was that deep down in our bones we were all survivors, hardened past the point of any recognition.
We might as well have been those cursed beings from the Outer Rim, abandoned by the Federation and left to fight over the scraps.
My satisfaction at his wail of agony was short lived as his fingers dug into my shoulders and my face hit the counter with a slam.
Empty cups and plates fell to the ground, shattering around us.
I bucked, pushing on the desk with all my strength as I thrust my head back.
I caught the edge of his jaw and he stumbled away, allowing me enough space to stand.
The room spun and blood slipped down my face from a gash in my hairline.
I blinked to clear my vision, ducked as Maxtalen came crashing forward, but the space was small, barely more than a closet.
Though I dodged his initial grab and ran toward the control panel for the door, he gripped me around the hips and threw me into the shelf.
Searing pain rippled across my side as the jagged edge of a pipe tore through my back.
I screamed. The whole left side of my body flashed with crackling heat, adrenaline pulsed through the crooks of my arms, but I was frozen in place.
A satisfied grin pulled at his cheeks, though it was warped by his mangled nose.
“I have been waiting…almost a full cycle…for this,” he wheezed, closing the distance between us and pressing himself against me.
A cry tore through my lips, louder than I’d ever heard it, as if I was screaming for someone but I didn’t know who.
White light blazed against my lids and pain tore through my shoulder until I wasn’t sure I could stand it.
My blood roared in my ears, my knees turned weak, and I was still screaming even though my vision hazed.
My wail cut off with a gurgle. There were hands on me, drawing me closer, sickening breath mingled with blood on my face.
Muttering about everything I’d feared most.
A hiss.
A groan.
I pushed, scratching until wetness coated my hands, until I fell to the floor, splashing into a mix of our blood.
Nearby, Maxtalen sobbed, the sound disgusting in its fragility.
But I could only gasp for air, rolling onto my back to stare up at the ceiling.
A tremor racked through my limbs, the halo orb shimmered, and my toes grew cold in my boots.
Someone else entered the room, their rough whispers slicing through the wheeze in my chest. Bone cracked, followed by a whimpered plea.
“You piece of salpah, you’re dead, do you hear me?”
Strange…I knew that word.
I tried to roll to my side—I had to get up and hide. But a warm hand touched the skin of my arm, right below my second yeska brand, and I groaned. Someone shushed me, another calloused hand pushing back the hair plastered on my forehead, wiping the blood from my eyes.
“We need to move her,” that same voice from before panted, now a little closer than they had been. Standing over me, Crux looked down with dark eyes, his black vein-like marks spiderwebbing across his face. But the longer I looked the more I realized they weren’t markings at all.
They were scars.
The person behind me, the one touching me, shook their head though I couldn’t see it. He didn’t want them to move me yet.
“Get Rhiaon. One of her lungs is punctured and her neck is fractured. We can’t move her.” The hand on my arm squeezed while the other pressed against my forehead like it was grounding me to this body.
Crux swore, turned in a rage and kicked something in the corner that gave a soft groan before storming from the room at a run.
I tried to roll to my knees but the male behind me hummed again at the sound of my whimper and a thumb stroked at my temple. The tingling cold in my toes was now in my fingertips.
“Stay still for me, j’ska mahsi.”
There wasn’t enough air. I needed to tell him something was wrong with the environmental system. But when I raised a hand to my chest, trying to tap against my lungs, calloused fingers wrapped around mine.
“I know, I know. I’m going to fix it, I promise.”
He was going to fix the environmental unit? But then I remembered what he’d said before about a punctured lung. Had that been me? Maker, how could anyone survive that?
Maybe this death would be preferable to all the others.
Because as I blinked away the blood in my eyes and the edges of my vision shimmered, I realized it was Captain Ruciyah kneeling beside me in a pool of blood.
The top half of his face not covered by his respirator was…
confusing. His silver eyes shimmered, a furrow carved deep between his brows, and I could have sworn there was something like grief there, swirling beneath his irises.
I opened my mouth to say something, but he shushed me again. “The first time you actually want to speak to me and it’s when you’re fucking dying.”
There it was. He was furious. And I couldn’t decide who he was angry at: Maxtalen or me.
I tried to speak again and tell him we were losing air into space, but my lungs wouldn’t expand and a strange gasping sound filled my ears.
Each breath was another strike of electricity through my bones until the cold trickled up my arms and legs, leaving pins and needles in its wake.
“It’s okay, you’re okay. Everything will be fine.” The words were strangled and I tried to understand the expression on his face before he turned to the door and the twins appeared, arms full of medical devices.
The lights flickered overhead and I wondered if maybe the ship was failing. No one else seemed to notice, even as we were plunged into darkness and nothing hurt anymore.