The footsteps grew louder and louder in volume, until a crowd of men and women finally appeared, cresting over one of the hills. They tripped and raced in his direction.
The monsters Jecis had mentioned.
Solo had traveled the world, had seen terrible races, but never anything like this. The creatures were humanoid, with sagging, paper-thin skin that smelled of rot. Worms slithered along their scalps, and their eyes were dark and soulless—if they had eyes, that is. Some were blind, their sockets empty. But one thing every creature had in common, he realized as they converged on the cage: a hunger for prey. Moaning, snapping their too-sharp teeth, they reached through the bars in a desperate bid to grab him.
Moving quickly, Solo slid Vika and the supplies to the center. Then, for the first time since his capture, he put his claws and teeth to good use. He slashed, and limbs fell. Blood sprayed. He bit, and had to spit out fingers. A foul taste coated his tongue.
Adrenaline surged through him, burning, blistering, causing the drugs in the cuffs to activate. His motions slowed, but he managed to remain on his feet. Either he was developing an immunity or his determination was too great to be denied.
For hours he continued to fight, his arms bruised from banging against the bars so many times, his shins cut and bleeding, but his opponents continued to drop like stones in an ocean, so the pain was worth it. And yet, the moment he felled one of the creatures, two more stepped up to the plate. How long would he be forced to do this without any visible results?
The battle raged so long two suns began to rise in the burnt-orange, smoke-filled sky. He renewed his efforts, attacking with more fervor, desperate to protect the woman who had been placed in his care. Only, he next swiped and bit at air. The monsters were backing away from him, hissing as though their skin was too sensitive to tolerate more than the barest hint of light. They dragged their fallen with them, leaving only blood behind.
Solo stood in place for the longest while, waiting, panting, but the monsters never returned.
What were those things?
There was no need to rack his brain about what they’d wanted. He knew. Him and Vika, a smorgasbord of delicious.
Vika.
His muscles and bones protested as he rushed to her side. There were specks of fresh blood on her cheeks, but none belonged to her. She still slept, completely unaware of the turmoil around her, with no new injuries, and relief speared him.
He used the bottle of enzyme spray to clean her, then himself, then the cage. He didn’t want her to wake up and see a single hint of devastation—or fear him any more than necessary. He wouldn’t play her father’s game. All the while, he kept track of the seconds ticking by, needing to know how much time would lapse between the light and the dark, the peace and the chaos, just in case the monsters returned.
He paced, swatting at the insects brave enough to try and bite him.
He watched the hills.
One hour passed, two, three . . . eight, nine. He woke Vika every sixty minutes to check her vitals, and she always told him that her head hurt and she wanted to sleep. He always let her.
At the tenth hour, the suns began to descend. Within minutes, footsteps could be heard shuffling in the distance. Moans and groans arose. The monsters once again crested the hill. Only, they were now hungrier and far more determined to dine, chomping their teeth with more force, trying to slink through the bars to reach him.
Rather than fight them, he tested the parameters of the cage by stretching out beside Vika and using his body to shield her. Jecis had hoped they would still be able to reach him, but Jecis had hoped in vain. And Solo liked this much better.
Perhaps this land wasn’t so bad, after all.
• • •
For what seemed the most painful of eternities, Vika drifted from consciousness to unconsciousness, vaguely aware that someone was carefully tending to her needs. But that couldn’t be right. No one had ever carefully tended her needs.
Oh, her father always appointed someone to bathe and bandage her after a beating, but usually that someone was Audra, who would only sit in her trailer, paw through her treasures, or torment her with the spiders.
Was she imagining this?
No. No, she couldn’t be. The sandalwood scent she’d added to Solo’s enzyme spray mixed with the unique fragrance of peat smoke he emitted, penetrating the stupor around her mind. Solo must be with her. That would certainly explain why she kept imagining that she was talking to him. Well, she wasn’t imagining, she realized.
They were together, and the knowledge relieved her—but it also confused her. How were they together? She needed to wake up, find out.
Sleep, X whispered. I’m doing what I can to enhance the medicine your father gave you, and I’ll do better work without any interference from you, thank you very much.
She . . . remembered that he’d tried to help her inside the tent, with Matas. Yes. That’s right. Matas had hit her, and—she wasn’t sure what had happened after that. She only knew she had failed to listen to X and she had suffered. She wouldn’t make the same mistake.
“I will. Thank you,” she said, and drifted off.
• • •
An eternity later . . . or perhaps mere minutes . . . the darkness faded from Vika’s mind and a fantastical dream took shape around her. She stood inside a shaded courtyard, jewel-toned flowers blooming in every direction, interspaced between towering white columns. On her right was a tall, muscled man she’d never before seen. He had dark hair and eyes the color of the purest ocean. His skin was a deep, rich shade of bronze, flecked with shimmers of gold. He wore a bright white robe and held a double-edged sword.
On her left was another robe-wearing male, and though he, too, was tall and muscled, he lacked the first male’s beauty. Pale, tangled hair shagged around a face with hollowed cheekbones and chapped lips. His skin was chalk white, and his eyes so light a green they would have reminded her of diamonds set inside polished jade if they had possessed any kind of sparkle. Instead, they were dull, lifeless. He was without a weapon.
Heart slamming against her ribs, she backed away from both. “Am I dead?”
Both males faced her.
“You’re here,” the dark-haired one said, motioning to the garden, “and you see me.” There was a layer of surprise in his tone. “Not even my charge has come here, and no one but him has ever before seen me.”
“That means you can see me, too, can’t you, pretty girl?” said the blond, grinning a siren’s grin despite his ragged appearance. “Let’s make out to celebrate.” He reached for her.