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So, it was only fair that he got a glimpse of her past since she had seen his.
Talon fought the need to get up and ram his fist through the closest wall. He felt incandescent with a rage he feared would never burn out. When she had connected to him, he’d been completely unprepared for the images that had flooded his mind. He’d seen her memories with startling clarity, making him feel like he’d been there with her.
By the gods, he truly wished he had been so he could have destroyed everyone who had ever dared to harm her.
After fighting in the war with the Zyphir, Secret’s father had been one of the first ambassadors appointed to represent her race. She had been born on their ship, and for the first sixteen years of her life, she had lived amongst the stars with her father, mother, older brother, and two uncles.
They had been happy, blissfully so…until it had all ended in tragedy.
Not much had been known about Tartarus at that point, so when they had been attacked by a Tarin vessel, it had come as a complete shock. No one had even realized the Tarin had been capable of space travel, which had allowed them to conceal a lot of their criminal activity. Most of Secret’s family had been killed, except for her and her mother.
They had been taken back to Tartarus as captive slaves.
All of the details weren’t clear, but he got the gist of what had happened. The slavers had initially planned on selling both her and her mother, but they had ended up keeping Secret. When the males had tried to separate them, they had fought back. Her mother had managed to take out several of the males before she was slain, while Secret had killed a few and badly injured another.
In return, Kadir Siv, the slaver in charge, had hacked off one of her wings.
A D’Aire’s wings were extremely strong, more like armor or scales than made of feathers. Removing one took a great deal of effort. When hers had been cut off of her, the agony she’d suffered had been immeasurable. It had felt like it had taken hours, days even. But nothing could have been worse than the devastating pain of losing her mother.
Her entire family was gone…leaving her completely alone.
Despite being damaged, Kadir hadn’t gotten rid of Secret. She’d thought he’d kept her around because she could no longer be sold at a high price. Talon could see for himself that it had been for a very different reason. He could tell by the way Kadir looked at her that he was obsessed with her.
As further punishment, Secret had been forced to become a gladiator of sorts where she’d had to fight against countless opponents. Some of the fights in the pits had ended in horrible beatings, while others had been the cause of the various scars on her body. Then, there were the battles that had ended in death.
She had survived, but at great cost.
Not many people could have endured the physical, sexual, mental, and emotional abuse Secret had, but she had a diamond core that refused to break. Her strength of will alone would have kept her going, but she had also made a promise to herself and her family to exact revenge on all who had wronged them.
Talon made note of every face he saw in her memories. He wanted to burn their images into his brain to ensure he would never forget them. His heart bled for her, and his soul cried out for a share of the retribution she so desperately wanted. He vowed that he would help make sure all of her enemies would come to a painful end, even if they had to hunt them across the universe.
But there was one death he desired more than any other.
Kadir Siv was the mastermind behind the new slave network on Beta Station 4. For that alone, he deserved to die. However, Talon promised he would personally pay that sadistic fuck back for every moment of pain Secret had suffered at his hands.
“How much did you see?”
He hadn’t seen it all, but it had been enough.
“I saw how difficult your life was, and how it has made you into the fierce fighter you are today,” he said softly. “The Dragon Warriors rescued you?”
“Amari and Eden Nazira did. They had liberated the slave camp I was being held at while they had been on Tartarus visiting friends. The camp had been a network of caves hidden deep in the mountain, so the other Tarin warriors who had been fighting the slavers hadn’t discovered it. Amari and Eden had been flying around in dragon form and caught a glimpse of smoke coming from one of the vents. When they had shown up, it was one of the best moments of my life. Watching them destroy everything had been fucking glorious.”
“I bet.”
“Unfortunately, several of the slavers had left for another raid, so they weren’t on planet when the Dragon Warriors had arrived.”
“How did you get the name Secret?”
“After we were rescued, I was…they called it shock. It wasn’t. Not really. I was in survival mode, which meant don’t trust anyone. Don’t share anything personal.”
“That’s understandable.”
“When we were taken directly to Exodus, I didn’t want to talk to anyone. Since I refused to answer when they asked me who I was, they said it was okay if I wanted to keep it a secret. It just stuck after that. Yumi and a few of the other Tarin females who were in the camp with me know my real name, but they refuse to use it out of respect for my wishes.”
“Why don’t you use it now that you’re free?”
Sighing, she glanced out the wide window as if she were searching for something in the inky darkness. “I don’t deserve to, not yet. I was named for one of my mother and father’s favorite human words. Only after all the slavers who killed my family are dead and gone will I use my real name…Justice V’Lys.”
