Planet Athion: The Complete Series by Angel Lawson

Chapter 56

8 Days Later…

“Watch your step,”the guard tells me as he leads me down the corridor. Weeks on a ship, it feels weird to walk on solid ground. I overheard the guards saying we’ve landed on Tradrych, right in the major city of Cryron. They say it’s beautiful, but I wouldn’t know. Once the ship landed, I was sent underground—to the birthing rings.

I spent the last two days in quarantine—the conditions better than the auction ship but no more freedom. I’m still a slave. Once released from isolation, I’m given food. A small room. Clothing. I speak to no one, although there are others on my hall, until today. Today I’m told it’s time to start what I came here for.

Midwifery.

I’m both curious and terrified of seeing the actual birthing rooms. I feel a call to help these women and their babies, but I’m afraid of what seeing it will do to me. How it will change me. The defiance I held back on the auction ship has faded—something left me when they separated me from Kai and Alex. We’d worked so hard to get back to one another once. Their bruised and bloody faces made it impossible for me to have hope.

Their screams that first night down the hall from my cell.

I never saw or heard from them again.

Now, the guard comes to a stop and I run into him, mind wandering and not paying attention. He shoves me back and I hit the wall.

“Sorry,” I say, rubbing my elbow.

He knocks on the metal door and it opens with a soft whoosh.

The room in front of me is unexpected; an office, filled with artifacts from Earth. A large desk made of rich, dark wood. A grandfather clock and a thick, woven oriental rug. A figure stands behind the desk, back to me. There’s a window facing out, I can’t tell if the view is of the city or something else.

“As you requested, Master.”

The door shuts behind the guard. I’m left alone with the man that owns me.

“Mercy Ladd,” he says in a surprisingly soft voice. “We finally meet.” I don’t know what I expected. An actual monster? He turns to face me and I know immediately that something’s off.

I feel like I know him.

He’s a ridiculously attractive man—almost too perfect—complete with the large build and sharp features the Tradrych use to manipulate women on Earth. I frown, trying to figure out the riddle in front of me.

His eyebrow raises at my obvious confusion. “Not what you expected?"

“I thought I’d find a monster. They come in all shapes and sizes.”

He smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “I wanted to welcome you personally into the fold. You were a hard girl to keep track of.”

“Maybe if you’d asked before kidnapping me, things would have gone easier.”

“Eh,” he wrinkles his nose, “not my style.”

“Terrorizing and slavery is more your thing, right?”

“I prefer the term 'opportunistic'.”

I sigh, feeling a headache coming on. “Well, I’m here. Are you going to put me to work?”

“I am.” He circles the desk until he’s standing in front of me. “I wanted to make sure you understood a few things before you started.”

“I’m listening.” I don’t care, but sure, I’m listening.

“Good.” His voice shifts and a chill runs along my spine. “From this moment forward your life, your welfare, and your survival depend on pleasing me.” I try not to cower, but my heart pounds in fear. “You’re here to do a job, not start some kind of revolution. If I hear a word about you causing problems or not performing as expected, the consequences will be dire.”

I speak without thinking. “What? Do you plan on taking away everyone I love? Dragging me from my future? My autonomy?”

“No, Ms. Ladd,” he says, clamping his hand around my wrist and dragging me around the desk to the window. He pushes me so my nose is pressed against it. “Every infraction. Every defiance. Any refusal to do what you’re asked to do…it will result in their punishment.”

I press my hand against the glass and fight back a sob. The window isn’t a view of the city or even of the Master’s beloved birthing ring. No, it’s so much worse. It’s a direct overlook into two cells. Kai in one. Alex in the other. Bright lights flash in their faces. Chains bind them to the wall. Dark bruises and cuts cover their bodies.

“Why?” I ask, feeling nauseous.

“I’ve had my eye on you for a long time, Mercy Ladd, long before you got on that ship leaving Earth. You’re here to do my bidding. Protect the women in childbirth and ultimately, give me a child of my own.”

His words crash into me, sending ripples of fear and terror into my chest.

He’s not done. “Nothing—no one—is going to take you away from me, and anyone that tries? Will face my wrath.”

I fight the tremble in my hands as I look up at him and absorb his threat. Before I left Earth? Who is this man?

I study his face. His manners. Familiar, but nothing concrete. He watches me watch him as he sits on the surface of his desk, a growing smirk on his face. My eyes catch the glint of a gold frame—then the image of a beautiful red-haired woman comes into focus.

The Master isn’t just any Tradrych.

He’s the one that impregnated my sister.