Page 156 of Tempting Fate

“Can you get us back to Zyamzh?” Airida asked.

Zyamzh. So close and yet so, so far. I didn’t want to go with any of these people. I wanted my friends to arrive and for things to go according to plan, or for us to have stayed in the caves a little longer, waiting for them to come to us.

“Of course, climb on board.” Redtusk swept his arm to his speeder.

I cast wary eyes between him and the other pair, then to my comm. Nothing. Hurry up, please, I urged my friends, but the air remained still and quiet, not a sound other than the wind in the trees and the squawk of birds.

Redtusk leaned in, speaking in a low, soothing voice. “Those two wouldn’t normally pick a fight with me, but don’t give them any extra time to think about it.”

I shivered.

We approached his speeder slowly, checking all around for a sign of our friends.

Airida squeezed my hand. “We will get back to the village. All will be well.”

“Of course it will. Up you get.” Redtusk pushed between us.

This felt all kinds of wrong, but what choice did we have? Better the arsehole you know.

As I gripped the rails and raised my foot to climb in, I heard a rush of footsteps.

Airida cried out.

Redtusk grabbed my arms, pinning them behind my back.

I struggled, squirming in his grasp, but his hands clamped down on me like a vice.

He leaned in, voice hot and threatening in my ear. “You’re far too trusting. Don’t worry, we’ve sent your friends on a wild ulth chase. They’ll get here far too late to save you.”

Bastard. Had he…? It all fell into place. I’d only started getting those pop-ups on my comm after we’d gone into town that time, and he’d bumped into me. “You cloned my comm, you fucker.”

He chuckled and gripped me tighter.

Airida ducked, dodging the arms reaching for him, darting towards us. “Imani!” His face twisted in a snarl so vicious I barely recognised him. “Get your hands off her. You are a dead kri’ith walking!”

He shout held the clearest polyphony I’d heard from him, containing such layered emotion, the other two kri’ith staggered backwards from the force. A riot of bioluminescence cascaded over his headspines.

Run, baby. Get to safety.

But he wouldn’t leave me, of course he wouldn’t. The mercenaries rushed him again, the man going for his arms, the woman for his legs.

I writhed and twisted in Redtusk’s hold. He was far too strong, but that didn’t stop me scraping my heel down his shin or trying to jab an elbow into his balls.

I saw Airida get a blow in, heard the crack as his knuckles connected with the man’s jaw, then the sounds of fighting got lost in the roar of an engine as a ship darkened the sky and landed among the trees.

“Give up, little nevvet, he’s not getting free, and neither are you,” Redtusk growled in my ear, his stench filling my nose and making me gag.

Airida grappled with the two pairs of strong arms holding him. He fought them every step towards the vessel, but my love wasn’t the fighter they were. He didn’t stand a chance.

The reality of him being captured struck me with so much force, I stopped struggling. Not only was he being taken against his will, he’d be taken from me.

Pain sliced through me, more than I could bear. “Take me too!”

But he disappeared into the belly of the pirate ship, the door closing behind him.

My captor dragged me backwards, protecting us from the heat and wind as the ship took off into the cloudy sky and shrank from view.

Tears streamed down my face. The corsair held me in his iron grip, neither of us moving.