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“The Toad Captain,” he breathes. “He something so vile… so utterly evil…”

Aelon turns to me, and his face is different to how I’ve ever seen it before. The arrogance is gone. There’s just pain, instead.

“I know slavery is legal in the Toad system. I knew there were human women on board, and that there was nothing we could do about it… But this is different.”

Aelon leans closer.

“As disgusting as it is, I might have been able to stomach a Toad keeping concubines – human slaves those disgusting creatures treat like their whores. Their ships are like floating swamps, and those poor women have to live knee-deep in filth and fetid wetness… But this wasdifferent.”

He looks up at me.

“The Toad Captain had human women bound on tables and he was… he was… he was hurting them.”

He can’t bear to describe exactly what the Toad was doing. I don’t think I could bear to hear it. I shudder, feeling his disgust flowing through the Bond.

“I was alone on his ship,” Aelon shivers. “There was nothing I could do on my own – but Ishouldhave tried.” He shakes his head. “I thought… I thought my General would believe me – but he’s one of the bastards who look down on humans as weaker than us. When I got back to our ship, I reported what I’d seen higher up the chain of command, and Itoldthem we needed to strike, andfast. We were in Toad territory, but that didn’t matter – we needed to help those women...”

Aelon’s arm is twitching from the tension.

“What happened then?”

The bottle shatters in his hand as Aelon crushes it. Blood and juice mixes, dripping to the floor. He snarls: “The General told me we weren’t going to start a war with the Toads for the sake of a fewwhores.His exact fucking words. So, I went in alone. I piloted my Reaver in, and my General turned the tractor beam on me and stopped me before I could attack – right up until the Toads left the sector. One other triad came with me. The triad I executed.”

Aelon laughs bitterly.

“When they were gone, he summoned me to his ship. The General looked me in the eye and told me I was lucky he didn’t use missiles to blow my Reaver out of space – or execute me for disobeying a direct order.”

Aelon is panting now. He stands and paces the room, his handsome face twisted in a mask of fury and vengeance.

“I… I told those women I’d save them. I told them I’d be back. Sixteen women, Tasha.Sixteen…”

His arms bulge as his muscles tense. The violence is building in him, threatening to explode.

“When my hundred years were done, I tracked that Toad ship down. I did to each of that captain’s crew what he’d done to those women.”

He smiles now, a smile that’s more disturbing than his anger. He’s remembering torturing and killing those Toads.

I suddenly feel like I’m going to throw up.

“Toads die poorly,” Aelon snorts. “Now, the thing that gives me the most pleasure is baiting Toads into tryingme. I like to use their greed and hubris against them.”

Aelon turns to me and growls: “You thought I didn’t know that those Toad ships were going to come back for me? You think I can’t read those slimy bastards like a Gods damned book?”

Then, he looks at me differently.

“Why did you want to know about this, Tasha?” His eyes refocus. “Is that what you wanted? To pull up the past in me?”

I had no idea what lurked in his past. Now I’ve seen his pain, and it frightens me. He’s a broken man.

“I… I just wanted to understand you.”

I wish I could fix him. I know that’s a stupid thing we tell ourselves – that we can change a man.

Aelon snorts bitterly.

“So, now you know me, Tasha. You know me better than anyone else other than my own triad.” His smile turns menacing. “But now, I’m far more powerful than ever before.” He lifts one arm, stretching his bicep to show how much bigger and more pronounced its become even overnight – presumably as an effect of the Bond. “You feel it as well, don’t you, Tasha?” He isn’t asking. HeknowsI’ve changed through the Bond.

I nod. “My body is stronger. I have better balance. Everything feels morereal.”