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Misery.

Helpless, futile misery.

Each second that ticks by, as I’m trapped in my lonely room, brings me closer to my death.

The Bond extended my natural life – but Lord Oblog is going to snip it short.

I toss and turn in bed. I can’t find the solace of sleep. Even being tortured by nightmares of my best friend dying at the hands of that brutal Bullfrog – the nightmares that used to keep me awake at night – would be better than this reality.

Lord Oblog hasn’t said as much, but I might as well be a prisoner on Death Row.

There’s nothing I can do. I’m cut off from my triad, mentally and physically. I can’t plan with them, or share vital information with them. I can’t even embrace the reassurance of their presence in my mind.

I can’t figure a way out. I can’t even let them feel my aura for one last time – to give them my location, so they could launch a last-ditch effort to Orb-Shift in – to try and wade through an entire mothership of Toads and Bullfrogs to reach me.

I flop down on the bed. The bright, artificial lights burn my eyes. My stomach rumbles, and I realize I’ve barely eaten anything since they first put me in here.

I’ve lost.

I went up against a Finger of the Toad King and I lost.

Now, I’ll be waiting here in virtual purgatory – until either my triad convinces some random, Aurelian starship captain to save me…

…or Oblog executes me.

I close my eyes. I just want to sleep forever.

Then, the doors of my chamber open.

Sleep leaves. I sit up, and freeze like a deer.

A Bullfrog steps through the doorway, invading my only safe space on this ship.

And not justanyBullfrog.

My misery instantly evaporates – replaced by fresh terror.

My eyes fixate on that brutal scar across his chest. A scar I put there – when I pulled down on the trigger of that blaster while on-mission with Ling.

I’d aimed for center mass, but the Bullfrog had turned at the last minute – turning a killing blast into a wounding one.

But I’d left this towering, grotesque Bullfrog with a reminder of how I’d bested him – one he is forced to look at each and every day. It’s a reminder that ahuman femalebested him.

The ten-foot tall beast stares at me. Gab’nah has me trapped in the room, blocking the only exit with his crushing bulk – not that I can open it from the inside.

Gab’nah wears only a loin-cloth. His frog legs are tree-trunk thick, covered in ugly warts and dripping with slime. His huge, webbed feet are planted firmly on the ground. The hilt of his Orb-Axe dangles at his waist.

But Gab’nah doesn’t activate his weapon. Instead, he stretches open his huge hands, wriggling his long, slimy fingers, eager to have them wrapped around my throat.

I gulp – and then slip my hand down beneath the covers, struggling to pull out my tiny Orb-Knife.

I’ve seen the blade, and it seems so small compared to this monster. The room feels so tiny as he takes a huge, lumbering step forward, the doors hissing shut behind him.

I gulp. I’m trapped here with this creature – the one I’ve feared, dreaded, and had nightmares of ever since Ling died.

Then, my nightmares deepen. The loin-cloth Gab’nah wearsmoves –tenting outward with his sadistic arousal. He intends to rape me, fuck me to ribbons, then break and torture me; and finally devour me…