Page 31 of Alien Prince’s Fake Bride (The Tentacle Throne #1)

I hack at them with wild abandon. The impact of the crystal blade on their natural shell sends jolting vibrations up my arm.

Sparks fly as Bellatriz glances off their armored hides.

But they are agile, unnervingly so, scaling the walls with surprising speed, their multi-jointed limbs finding purchase on invisible crevices.

Their electric rods spit crackling blue energy and their long, thin spears, tipped with something that looks sickeningly organic, lash out.

One grazes my cheek, leaving a searing trail of heat.

“Mareliux!” The unarmed Umbra is pressed up against the wall, in a knot of at least three Vyrpy that tower over her.

I see the terror widen her eyes, the frantic pulse in her neck.

With a mighty effort, I disregard the searing pain in my side where a claw rakes across my armor and hack and push my way through the writhing mass.

The air is thick with their guttural hisses and the metallic tang of their blood.

But there are too many of them, and their coordinated attacks are relentless.

For every one I cut down, two more take its place.

But at least now I can reach Umbra, so I can get her to some semblance of safety.

“Get in!” I roar, my voice raw with fear and urgency as I shove Umbra towards one of the open escape hatches the Vyrpy erupted from.

Her small frame stumbles, then tumbles inside the dark opening.

A Vyrpy tries to dive in after her, its eyes burning with malevolent intent and its elongated limbs scrabbling for purchase on the rim.

A lance of agony sears my thigh from behind — one of their damned spears has found its mark.

I have to stumble back before I can even think about dragging Umbra’s attacker out of there.

I needn’t have worried. A hard, invisible tug slams into me, centered deep in my chest. My ring flares, not just shining, but blazing with a light so intense I have to look away.

The Vyrpy halfway inside the pod comes flying back out as if hurled by a furious ragor .

Its body twists unnaturally in mid-air before slamming against the opposite wall with a wet, sickening thud.

Umbra’s Syntrix , I think to myself.

I instinctively kick the hatch shut. The heavy metal door groans as it seals, severing Umbra from the threat.

I immediately regret it. The emergency red light above the hatch blinks once, twice, then turns a steady, ominous blue while an alarm wails.

A heavy internal metal wall slams down with a resounding clang, and then there’s a tremendous, bone-jarring bang as the pod is ejected into the black void of space with Umbra trapped inside.

The force of the launch sends a shockwave through the deck.

And through my mind. The Gladiux is moving at beyond light speed.

The escape pod was never designed for that kind of stress.

It was only meant to be used well within a solar system while moving at sublight speeds.

I can only imagine the forces tearing at its fragile frame.

I have to get her back. Parrying and thrusting and slashing all the while, my movements fueled by a desperate fury, I throw myself towards another escape pod, the metallic tang of fear and adrenaline coating my tongue.

I ignore the throbbing agony in my leg, scramble inside, and slam the hatch shut.

It gets eerily quiet before the force of the ejection slams me back against the closed hatch with brutal intensity.

I have to fight for every breath. My vision is swimming with black spots.

I can barely believe the insane, reckless thing I just did.

But the image of Umbra, alone and vulnerable in the unforgiving vacuum, burns behind my eyelids. I have to reach her. I have to.

“That was stupid,” Bellatriz says casually, her blade dripping with black Vyrpy blood. “ Do you want me to tell you why? There are many reasons.”

“I think I already know them,” I groan as I start to notice all the pain from the fight.

I break open a first-aid locker and grab all the stuff inside, strewing it on the floor before I sag down and start to deal with my injuries.

“But if you know anything about what might happen now, I’d be happy to hear it. ”

“ I sincerely doubt it will make you happy. Well, this pod is still in one piece,” my sword says.

“ Although I do hear it creaking. Its systems are normal, and its small sensors do detect a planet nearby. The AI in charge will try to change our course to get there, but this thing isn’t a spaceship.

Its engines are feeble, and actually getting close enough to that planet to crashland on it will be a stretch.

There’s a good chance you have doomed both of us.

In a day or so you will die from carbon dioxide poisoning, and I will be locked inside this cylinder for eternity as your skeleton slowly turns to stone.

Granted, I’ll have superbly intelligent company of the highest quality, but there are limits to how many ways I can find to entertain myself.

I estimate that I will exhaust them all in six years. Shall I go on?”

I wince as I clean the wound in my thigh. Vyrpy blades are often dirty. “Not right now, Bellatriz. Can you say something helpful?”

She thinks about it. “ Not right now, Prince.”

I prod the wound. There’s something hard inside it. “Will Umbra fare better than we will?”

“ I sincerely have no idea. We can hope, though. I try not to speak too highly of organics, but if you were to actually marry Umbra, I mean for real, she’d be one of the best princesses the Khavgren Empire has ever seen. That’s my projection, anyway.”

I hiss between my teeth as I pull a nasty piece of Vyrpy blade out of my leg. “I have had that thought myself. But now it seems it won’t matter at all. This could be the end of all three of us.”