“That bad, huh?” Gen says.
Juls, or Juliana, I cannot remember which name she prefers, raises her eyebrows but says nothing.
Gen narrows her eyes at her, and Ni-Kee clears her throat.
“We’re not all lucky like you,” she finally spits out, realizing she’s caught everyone’s attention.
In the ring, Abby grunts, sweat slicking her face.
“Most of us have hardly seen our husbands,” she adds, the word full of derision. “Bex tries, but you saw it. Only Michelle seems to be able to communicate with hers, and that’s still awkward as fuck.” Her eyes widen. “No offense.”
“We’re past that,” Ni-Kee says, and Gen snorts a laugh. “We’ll figure it out. We will.”
“Yeah, well, I have it figured out. I’m going to be a Warlord, then no one can sell me off ever again.” Juls wipes her hands off on her pants, then storms away, joining Abby in the ring.
“Well, this is pretty fucked,” Gen remarks, squeezing my hands.
“It’ll work out,” Ni-Kee tells her, but her face is pinched with worry.
“It will, my heart,” Draz adds, smiling gently at her. “They will come around. Kanuz and I will have a talk with the Warlords when they’ve returned here for your trials. Come now, let us return to training. I have a reputation to uphold, after all.”
“Oh, do you, now?” Ni-Kee says, and there’s a challenge in her eyes.
“Are you ready, my flower?” I ask Gen. “If you like, we can go back to our temporary myza. I have a few training activities in mind that might be more fun.”
“Oh yeah? Lemme guess,” she purses her lips, “advanced sword work?”
I frown at her. “No. I meant sex. I was talking about sex.”
She throws her head back, laughing. “I know. That was the joke. You know what? Nevermind. Yours was funnier.” She turns, walking back to the training ring. “Come on, we have work to do. We’ll practice the horizontal mambo later.”
“I do not know this mambo.”
“We can do it vertically, too, I guess.” She winks at me, her hair and skin glistening in the sun, and we take our positions across from each other.
There is nowhere I’d rather be than across from my small beauty, with the promise of a fight followed by pleasure.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
GEN
At the Trials: One week later
“This fucking sucks,” Abby yells, barely dodging one of the boulders raining down in the arena. She slides through a pit of muck on the floor, a swinging energy axe nicking the top of her ponytail.
“Goddamnit, I just grew my hair out.”
Juls extends her hand, and Abby pulls herself up to stand next to Niki and me, huddled against a stone pillar. Several miniscule drones buzz around us, televising our every move to where the gathered crowd of Suevans and our human crew watch.
They’re annoying, but after nearly twenty-four hours in the arena, I hardly notice them.
It’s fucking intense.
Less so than the temple Kanuz and I were stuck in, but nobody was watching us then. If we fucked up and died horribly, there wouldn’t be anyone to jeer at us. Except the zeloth, I guess, but the tentacle monster didn’t look up to telling many tall tales.
“Focus, Gen. How many do you see?”
I exhale, peeking out from the stone column, managing to scrape it across my cheek. We’re in the last stage of the Trials, and so far, all four of us have done all right for ourselves. I was worried about Abby making it through the boulder field, but she did it.
“Five.” An energy projectile whizzes by my face, and I duck just in time. It explodes off a column behind us, sending up smoke and paint.
According to Kanuz and Draz, nothing in here is truly deadly, but I’m not sure I believe him. Deadly to a Suevan and deadly to a human are not exactly measured the same, in my experience.
“Five?” Juls repeats, blanching. “But there are only four of us.”
“Gen has the weapon she picked up off the Suevan we dispatched earlier,” Niki says calmly, nodding at me. “Gen takes point. Gen, pick off as many as you can. Juls, you go second. Run for the exit, don’t get bogged down in a fight.”
Juls, to her credit, doesn’t argue. She’s hanging in there, but she twisted her ankle in one of the climbing courses earlier, and her face is still slightly green.
“Abby, you go third. Try to get Juls out safely if she falls. No one gets left behind. I’ll go last, and I’ll try to sweep anyone out with me who falters. Got it?”
We all nod, our unquestioning faith in Niki’s leadership on full display.
Another projectile crashes at our feet, and Abby coughs, the smoke and sparks exploding outward. This one came from behind us.
“Fuck,” Abby says, scrambling forward. “On our six!”
“Gen, MOVE!” Niki yells.
I do as she says, shouldering my energy rifle. It only has a few pulses left, according to the charger on it. I focus down the sight, ready to take out anyone who moves.
But as soon as I enter the next room, the rifle fucking dies. I click the trigger, annoyance and adrenaline ramping up.
A Suevan, at least three feet taller than me, bounds into my path, his tail slashing through the air behind him.
“Fuck me,” I say, throwing the energy rifle in his face as he lunges for me. Sharp talons slice at the thick leather-like vest protecting my torso, but I evade most of his grip.
“Gun’s out!” I yell. “Gun is out!”
“Fuck,” Juls shouts, running by me as best as her swollen ankle will allow. A second Suevan darts out of the shadows, tackling her to the ground.
“Goddammit,” I yelp.
Then I see it: a sword, dull and unprimed, hanging from one of the walls.
I dive into a roll, earning a slap to the face with the massive Suevan’s tail, then use my momentum to jump up, prying the sword from where it hangs on the wall.
“Fuck RIGHT OFF,” Niki yells, and then there’s a soft grunt as her fist connects with another Suevan’s crotch. Her Suevan goes down hard, and she holds up her fist, where there’s a rock clenched in it.
Good for her.
I prime the energy sword with a few clicks, and it whirs to life, the blade coated in a green haze, meaning it will stun and hurt, but won’t kill.
It’s going to have to be enough.
Juls is screaming on the floor, where a Suevan drags her by her bad foot out of the room. She’s still giving him hell, her face contorted in fury, as she hammers kick after kick to his shin with her good leg.
“Fucking let her go!” I scream, launching myself at him. His gaze darts to me, surprise rocketing across his features as he realizes I am absolutely batshit crazy. “Too late, asshole!”
The sword smashes against his face, and his eyes roll back in his head as he goes down.
“Ah, fuck, thank you,” Juls breathes.
“Stay down,” I scream at her, way too amped up on adrenaline now to modulate anything about me at all.
Juls nods, her eyes wide, and I turn back to the chaos in the room. Niki’s surrounded by three Suevans, who circle her, trying to find an opening.
But Abby?
Abby is white as a sheet, staring at the oversized Suevan who nearly snatched me when my gun died.