Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Old instincts are starting to rise in me. This is not the first time I have been under attack. It is not the first time my life has been in danger. I know how to handle a situation like this. I stay calm, and I kiss my ass goodbye.
Wrath turns back to Zin, one hand keeping me in place on the bed as he issues calm orders.
“Get out of here. Take everybody and go. I am not going to let any harm come to her. And I will not let any harm come to any of us. Evacuate everybody.”
“What will you do?” Zin asks the question.
“We will go deeper. Don’t worry about me. I have survived worse than this, a little tantrum from a wench who needs to be wrenched from the controls. I cannot believe Shan is allowing this.”
BOOM!
“Shan was always a traitor,” Zin snarls. “I will go, but this will not be the last we speak on this. This human problem is getting…”
BOOM!
“Go NOW!” Wrath says.
“You should go too,” I say from my prone position. “They’re going to hit this place as hard as they can for as long as they can. There’s not going to be anything left once they’re done. Just let them do it. I don’t mind.”
“I mind,” he snarls. “Zin, go now.”
Zin cocks his head in confusion. “You’re going to get yourself killed for a human you just met? What is it with these creatures? Do they release some kind of neurotoxin that makes our species particularly stupid?”
“GO!” Wrath thunders the order as he sweeps me up into his arms and starts running. Not up, not to what feels like safety, but down a winding path that goes deep into the saurian earth. The reverberations of the explosions above start to lessen as the depths of the earth envelop us.
Lettie would have to strike the planet until the cannons overheated and exploded in order to reach us at this depth. It is very quiet down here and rather dark. The light now no longer comes from recessed electrical outlets, but instead seems to be supplied by clusters of bioluminescent bugs.
I am shaking, clinging to Wrath as if my life depends upon him. Our surroundings are quieter now, but the sensation of being in danger persists. The air down here doesn’t move as much as the air above did. I didn’t notice how fresh the air in the upper chambers was until I felt the stillness down here. It’s peaceful. Sort of. But it’s also a little menacing.
I don’t want to let go. Don’t want to be separated from his warmth and strength. Holding onto Wrath is the only thing that can comfort me.
He carries me into an area that looks like it has been equipped as an emergency retreat. There are stacks of preserved food in cans and bottles of water. There is bedding and medical supplies. It’s a bunker, in other words. Probably the safest place I’ve been in a long time.
We were never really safe on the ship. The Mare was always at risk of being fired upon because of whatever terrible thing we’d collectively done. Wrath’s subterranean hideaway is perhaps the first place I’ve been in years that is so terribly solid.
My earlier reflexive bravery is starting to desert me. I’m trembling against him. Every limb is shaking, every breath is ragged. I have never been the sole focus of such a vicious attack. Knowing that I meant nothing whatsoever in that barrage, that it was aimed at me, not with any malice, but with a dark absence of feeling that is so much worse, has shaken my trust in my human crew all the more.
“It’s okay,” Wrath rumbles. “You are safe. We are not so stupid as to allow ourselves to be easily flushed out of our hideout.”
He thinks I’m worried about the bombs. They’re not great, but they’re also far from being the worst part about what has just happened.
“She was trying to kill me. And she put something in me. She used me. Like meat. Like nothing. Like…”
“Shhh,” he rumbles, his voice so deep and so calming. “I know. It’s not fair. It’s very, very cruel. You deserved better.”
I like listening to his voice, and I like beings held, and I like being with him. He’s supposed to be the enemy. That thought keeps returning to my mind, but he’s the nicest anybody has been to me. My feelings toward him are blossoming from reluctant gratitude to a sort of helpless dependence, verging on admiration which in turn is beginning to creep into the territory of love, even with lust having been interrupted in Lettie’s rather rude attack.
Wrath puts me down, leaving me to wrap my arms around myself as he hunts through a chest of supplies, making small sounds of irritation. “We need to start accommodating humans.”