Planet Athion: The Complete Series by Angel Lawson
59
Alex
I jerk awake,panting, and squint in the dark.
“Kai?”
There’s no response. Just darkness and the incessant drip of water down the back wall.
He’s not here.
Every time he leaves the cell I process through a rolling wave of emotions. Worry, anger, stress, fear. Being down in this cell plays with my head—there’s too much time to think about the physical pain I’m feeling. To worry that Kai hasn’t come back. Twice I fall asleep and dream I’m with him, fighting past our guard only to enter the room in time to see Mercy dead at the Master’s hands.
I sit up, willing myself not to sleep again. It’s too easy to lose focus down here. To lose track of time. I do the only thing I can to stay awake. Think about Mercy.
It always starts the same way. We have a big house, room enough for all of us. It’s always a mash-up of Earth and Athion, like my fantasy wants to bring them both together. The five of us live together. Mercy working as a midwife, the men as Custo—all of us on a mission to protect Athion. And always, every time, to my surprise, Mercy has her own round belly, carrying one of our children.
Enslavement has made me sentimental.
I’m dragged from my daydreams when the door groans and scrapes against the hard floor. Kai is shoved through the opening and re-shackled to the bed. I wait quietly if not impatiently until the door is bolted and the guard is gone, and ask, “Where did they take you? Are you okay?”
It’s too dark to see him but his voice carries across the barren room. He tells me about the scene upstairs, the Master’s plan for Mercy and finally, seeing her.
“How does she look?” I ask, trying to process it all.
“Good. A little thin and obviously stressed, but good.” I hear the clink of chains as he shifts on the bed. “It sounds like she’s working with the pregnant women and doing a good job—he was pleased about that.”
“How did she take his idea?” I couldn’t bring myself to say the word Kai had used; that the Master was ready to “lie” with her.
“She didn’t refuse. That’s what I was there for. The threat was implied. If she pushed back, he would hurt me, and you know how she is.”
“Loyal.”
“To a fault.”
I sigh and lean against the cold, stone wall. We both know there’s nothing we can do. Absolutely nothing. We can hardly move off these beds, much less get out of the cell.
“So, tomorrow?” I ask.
“Unless something happens or she convinces him otherwise. Then yes, tomorrow.”
We’d known this has been a possibility since he took her. That he’d claim her fully, not just as a slave but her mind and body as well. I’d just hoped…I’d always had hope since Dimka and Damon are out there somewhere, that maybe they’d get to us. But it’s foolish dream, just like the one in my fantasies. There will be no house. No bright future in Athion. No babies.
The clock has been ticking for weeks now and if what Kai says comes true…
We’re out of time.