Planet Athion: The Complete Series by Angel Lawson
71
Dimka
Resolved,I head down to the dungeons. They’re still a wreck from when I came through and released the slaves, but there’s a stairway that leads to an empty row of cells.
That’s where we locked away the Master.
A guard stands outside the door and I nod at him to hand me the keys. I take them and say, “You can go.”
He blinks. “I’m on duty for another three hours.”
I stare down at him, he’s three feet shorter than me and half as slight. “I said, you can go.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Athion quickly exits the area. Will he tell a superior? I don’t really care. By the time someone comes down here, I’ll be finished.
He’ll be finished.
I enter the cell and close the door behind me. The room reeks of infection, grime, and bodily fluids. Although we agreed the Master needed to live just long enough to gain the information we needed from him, no one was concerned about his welfare. He’d certainly never been concerned about ours.
“Ah,” he says in a hoarse voice. The wound on his throat scabbed over. It’s a mixed blessing that Mercy didn’t cut his vocal cords. “My little fighter from the Southern Tip. Those were the good old days. You brought me in a wealth of credits.”
Even now, he can’t shut up. Crushing him will feel good.
“I know that you don’t care about the Athion,” I say, walking across the dirty stone floor. “That we’re nothing but possessions to use to make your money, clean up after you, and build your society, but what does it feel like to have the women of Earth choose us as their mates?”
The Master sits against the stone wall, hands and feet bound. “Choice is something the Tradrych don’t care about. There’s only taking. Manipulation. Owning.”
“But you tried twice to own Mercy. You tried to own her sister and failed. Yet Mercy takes me and my Custo brothers into her bed. She spreads her legs, sucks our cocks, makes love out of will, not force.”
I don’t like speaking of Mercy like this, but the Master isn’t a normal being. He’s filth and only understands harsh talk.
“She’s a whore,” the Master says. “I thought she was special, but she’s not. Like the others, she’s just a vessel to provide a place for our eggs.”
I swallow back the rage but he senses it, tilting his head at my weakness.
“You think you’re special, but you’re just another illiterate animal from the Southern Tip, your brothers are nothing but garbage from Earth and Athion. The Custo take the broken. The subversive. No wonder you’re willing to share a woman with other men. You’re not man enough to take care of her by yourself.”
My eye twitches and he continues, “If you think you can over take this system, you’re dumber than I thought. You think I’m the only one running this? You think there aren’t protocols set in place? My birthing rings are far-reaching. My fighting pits spread across the galaxy. Shutting this down is far more than removing me. So much more.”
I take steps forward, fists clenching by my side. “Then it won’t matter if you’re gone.”
He blinks, aware of what his egotistical ramblings have done. He’s made himself ineffective. We no longer need him. He’s just a cog in the wheel—a wheel that may very well spin off course if he’s removed.
“Th—that’s not what I said.” He senses the look in my eye and I smell the fear rolling off his body.
“You kidnapped me. Beat me. Chained me. Enslaved me. That, I could handle.” I reach for him, clasping a hand around his skinny neck. He gasps as his air is cut off. “But when you took the woman I love—that’s when we cross the line of no return.” His face turns blue and his legs kick underneath him. “Say goodbye to whatever god you pray to, Master, because you’ll be sent to the other realms, where the punishments are far worse than what I can come up with.”
I clench tighter and tighter, his airway cutting at the neck. He struggles against me, pulling, fighting, but he’s nothing but evil keeping me from being able to commit to Mercy completely, and starting today, there’s nothing I want more in this world than to tell her that I’m hers.
Forever.