Page 19 of Meteor Storm

I clenched my jaw at the implication. It wasn’t that I wanted Penny. It was that Pek-Tol had the gall to use her against me like some kind of tool.

“And the valerian nobles you met today have been so kind to provide me with some of that wonderful tea,” he said, drawing my nerves even tighter. “I think it might inspire you to do as I say.”

A wide grin formed on his lips. He was looking me in the eyes, his confidence forged by the fact that I was wearing a collar and two of his armed men were standing by, but those walls were thin. When he found me, I was dead.

He did not know who I was. Not really.

He would know very soon, I decided.

9: Penny

I was laying on my cot staring up at the ceiling. It was moss covered stone like the inside of a cave. The air was a little humid, but it was sort of like being in the tropics, which I’d always loved. I assumed they took note of what Earth looked like and doctored a cell for me to match. Although, Earth wasn’t exactly a sprawling landscape of green anymore, which meant their records were out of date. There was a mild sense of peace being in a room made to look like my once lush planet.

I noticed a trio of shadows passing my cell and craned my head to see who was walking by. I spotted two spike-headed guards and between them walked Thilar wearing nothing but a thin wrap of fabric around his hips and metal wrist cuffs that matched mine.

Down his back, he was covered in an array of those faint, scripture-like markings. Now that he was moving under a different kind of light, I could see that every way he shifted made them present a slightly different color like the inside of an abalone shell. But, as pretty as they were, it was the long, vertical scar running down his left shoulder that really caught my eye. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought the man had been cut in half and welded back together.

I sat up, a little defensive, after the guards closed Thilar back into his cell and walked back past mine. I sank into the shadows to avoid attracting attention and then my eyes were immediately back on Thilar’s enclosure. I could see him. Not well since I was two rooms down, but I still had a mediocre view. He was changing. How he could be in such a cold environment without clothes was beyond me, but he didn’t seem to be in any hurry. He lingered for a bit in view, and I imagined he was washing himself. I could see his hip and a hint of his taut backside. Heat flamed through my cheeks and I quickly looked away until I heard him shaking out a pair of pants to slide into.

For a moment, I found myself wondering where he’d gone. Some of the worst thoughts came to mind and I took a deep breath to center myself. I knew we were both there against our will. It would stand to reason that he was forced to do things he didn’t want to, just like I was forced into the game.

When Thilar was finally dressed, he sat back on his bed and leaned against the cold metal wall behind him, closing his eyes.

I wanted to say something, but even if I did, he wouldn’t understand me.

Why was I drawn to him at all? My focus should have been on getting off that port. Instead, I was fixating on the man who…

I didn’t want to say it. I felt my stomach tighten at the thought, but really, Thilar hadn’t been the one to take my will from me. It was the one on the other side of the glass. The one who seemed to take pleasure in hurting us so that we’d cooperate and give him a show. The creep with the remote.

My eyes wandered the floor of my cell, which was covered in something resembling grass, but the color was off. It was a darker green than I was used to. Almost black. It felt the same, though.

Thilar had his head back against the wall and one arm perched on his raised knee. His eyes shifted toward me and I tensed.

I slid back on my cot so I was sitting against the wall in the same manner that he was, my head rested on the glass. If I could say sorry, I would have, because I saw something in him then. A need to get out. A desperate reluctance that mirrored my own. I wasn’t even sure how long he’d been there. Likely much longer than me.

I wanted out, too.

Unable to communicate, we both sat there, aware of each other’s presence, but not engaging. I lost myself in thoughts for what seemed like hours, knowing that he was watching me the whole time. It was oddly comforting.

Deep down, I knew none of it made sense. He was the last person I should have been drawn to and yet there I was, in a situation I’d never been in and feeling impulses I’d never felt.

I heard a voice nearby and caught a glimpse of Thilar’s eyes roaming. Then he answered back to something in an obviously different, alien language. I realized it was the valerian woman’s voice. Her cell must have been adjacent to mine because Thilar was looking right into the one beside me. The two exchanged a few casual words and then the woman snorted.

“What are you saying?” I asked softly.

“There are games soon,” the valerian said. “You are a little curse, human.”

“What?”

“It is because of you that Pek-Tol creates events so close together. Everyone wants to see human. They want to see monrian, too. And more than that, everyone wants to see human get fucked by monrian.”

I swallowed hard, finding it hard to catch a good breath.

“Fucked, huh? That’s an oddly specific word for you to know.”

“Humans use that word a lot, yes?”

“I suppose.”