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“But…” Sandy frowns. “I’ve picked up a few things since arriving here, and from what I’ve gathered, the Alit don’t mate with humans.”

I consider telling them the truth, that I discovered I’m an Alit myself, but I decide against it.

I’m not sure how they’d feel about me if they learned I’m not a born-and-bred Earthling, and it’s too cumbersome to explain the whole history.

Besides, I don’t understand everything myself yet.

Nor do I want to dwell on what happened between Aruan and me, especially the fact that a part of me already misses him.

So I shrug and settle for, “He was wrong.”

I’m not his mate. We did the whole consummation thing and all the hotness that went with the act, and then he told me our mating had failed.

“Wait,” I say as I remember something. “He spoke to you in his language, and you understood him.”

“I’ve picked up a few words.” Sandy hugs her knees to her chest. “I’m a fast learner, and I’ve always had a good ear for languages.”

I sit up straighter and immediately regret the sudden movement when pain lances into my brain. “That means you’ve met some Alit.”

“Only one, and I never formally met him. He always came to see the Phaelix after dark, and he wore a cloak that hid his face. He obviously didn’t want to be seen.

He brought a Phaelix with him who spoke his Alit language and who could interpret for them.

When they’d come, I’d keep quiet and still, trying to become invisible in whatever corner they’d tied me up in for the night.

But the man hasn’t been back for a while now. ”

“What did they talk about?”

“I couldn’t make out all of it.” She rocks back and forth, appearing thoughtful. “They were obviously negotiating because they mentioned debts and payments. The Phaelix said something about slaves. That’s when the man said the Alit only mated with their own kind.”

I think about that. “Do you think the Phaelix wanted to sell him a slave?”

“Maybe.” She pulls her shoulders up to her ears. “Who knows? All I know is that the Alit must be dangerous because the Phaelix were scared of him, and they’re not scared of anything. They acted cocky in front of him, but they were nervous before he came, and they were certainly edgy when he left.”

“Did you get a name?”

“No.” She stops rocking and swats at a huge fly that buzzes past. “How about your guy? I suppose communication wasn’t easy.”

I don’t tell her that Aruan’s brother, Kian, gave me the ability to understand and speak their language. I’m too busy contemplating something I’ve wondered about since the incident when Aruan saved me from the slave traders. “What did he say to you that made you go so quiet?”

“That day on the barge?” Sandy asks with big eyes.

“He told me to leave you alone unless I wanted to end up as ashes, and to go back to where we came from. I assumed he meant Earth.” She snort-laughs.

“After what he did to those slavers, I wasn’t going to argue with the man.

Anyway, from the way he clutched you like a wild dog that had just found his favorite bone, I assumed you knew each other. ”

“Nope,” I say, leaving the explanation at that. “We need to figure out which ones of these lizard dudes make portals. Do you have any idea who they may be?”

Alexa makes a face. “They all look more or less the same, and they don’t have names, at least not any we’re aware of.”

I can see how that’s going to be a problem.

“We’d better catch some sleep while we can,” Sandy, who seems to have taken up a leadership position in the group, says. “They’ll wake us before sunrise to fetch water and cook their breakfast.”

At the word “breakfast,” my stomach grumbles, reminding me it’s empty. Although I’m not sure I’d be able to keep food down. From the way I’m feeling now, I’ll probably be sick if I eat.

The women settle down, huddling together to keep warm.

Karl lies down too. I remain in my spot, set on keeping watch.

When the Phaelix show themselves, I can try to overpower them with some giant jungle critters, but I’d better make sure they let us out of here first. There’s no point in killing them and then dying of starvation in our prison.

Unless I can command a dinosaur to snap the branches in two and break down the wall.

I focus hard on Betty, willing her to come, but as the hours drag on, nothing happens. I have to admit that my concentration is iffy. Did the knock on my head damage my power?

When the sun finally peeks through the branches, the Phaelix descend on ropes from the trees.

In the daylight, I can make out the wooden decks and thatch roofs in the treetops that peek through the leaves.

You wouldn’t notice those well-hidden treehouses unless you looked up and knew what to search for.

While the people stir awake around me, I scout for animal life.

Finally spotting a line of giant hairy ant-like spiders scurrying across the clearing, I perk up.

The arthropods may not be venomous, and I have no idea if they’re dangerous, but if all else fails, I can smother the Phaelix under a mountain of ant-spiders.

I just need one of those dudes to unlock our cage first.

As I hoped, a Phaelix heads straight for our prison, already shouting unintelligible orders from a distance. Karl and the women scurry to their feet. When I stand, my stomach convulses. I double over, retching as spasms rack my body, but only bile comes out.

Sandy walks to the exit when the Phaelix opens the gate.

She says something in his language while pointing at me.

I’m too busy surviving the pain that’s like an axe splitting my cranium to care about the exchange.

All she gets for her effort is a slap across the face that makes her head jerk to the side.

Wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth, she gives the Phaelix a cutting look before walking onto the deck. The rest of the slaves follow. Alexa takes my arm and helps me outside.

Strangely enough, I feel a little better after emptying my already-empty stomach, but my thoughts still don’t have any effect on the spiders.

The last one disappears into the thick undergrowth by the time we reach the clearing.

My knees wobble beneath my weight. If Alexa weren’t supporting me, I would’ve collapsed in a heap on the ground.

A bustling of activity follows as the Phaelix shout orders, and the slaves jump into action.

Karl grabs a broom and sweeps the clearing while Irina piles twigs into Maeva’s trembling arms. Sandy is already building a fire.

Alexa, Eucabeth, and I follow a footpath to a lake.

A few Phaelix guard us, one walking in the front and another at the back.

The bright, violet, tube-shaped worms that wiggle on the ground with gaping jaws and saliva dripping from their fangs make me grateful for my boots, but I worry about the other women who are barefoot.

It quickly becomes clear that the Phaelix are not only with us to make sure we don’t escape but also to keep the creepy-crawlies at bay and prevent them from stinging or eating us.

A few wooden buckets with rope handles hang on the branches of the trees that grow on the shore. Alexa and Eucabeth take them down and wade into the water.

The Phaelix who took the lead points at my boots and puts his face in mine while yelling something. I reel from the stink of his rotten breath.

Haven’t they invented the toothbrush here? Another pang hits me from nowhere when I think about the comfortable cleansing room in Aruan’s palace and the sweet-tasting paste that left my teeth clean and sparkly white.

The Phaelix raises his arm and makes a fist with his hand.

“Okay.” I duck and almost faint from the movement. “Fuck. Ouch. Calm down, dude. I get it. You want me to fetch water.”

He grabs a bucket and shoves it into my arms. I turn the bucket upside down, sit down on my improvised stool to remove my boots, and make a humongous effort not to keel over when I get up again.

He stands over me, watching me with narrowed eyes as I roll Aruan’s pants up to my knees before taking the bucket and padding into the water.

Fuck. It’s freezing cold. The muddy sand pushes between my toes. Something slimy brushes against my calf. I yelp and jump to the side, only to almost pass out again.

“Stay in front of me so they can’t see you’re not working,” Alexa says through the side of her mouth. “I’ll fill your bucket.”

Fill my bucket? What she means becomes clear when I look at Eucabeth.

She’s not scooping up water but digging with sticks in the sand.

Every now and then, she throws down her stick and dunks her arms up to the elbows into the water before pulling out one of those giant sperm tadpoles that Betty had caught.

It takes both Alexa and Eucabeth to lift the tadpole out of the water.

One holds it around the middle and the other grabs its tail, preventing it from lashing out or biting them.

When the buckets are full, we drag them out of the water onto the shore. I’m dismayed to find my boots gone. Our guards must’ve confiscated them. Damn. I really liked those boots.

The buckets are too heavy for even two of us to carry, so the Phaelix take the buckets while we gather firewood on the way back.

When we return, the clearing is swept, and a huge cauldron of water is boiling over the fire. The Phaelix dump the buckets on the ground and shout more demands.

Moving closer to Sandy, I ask, “What are they saying?”

“They’re planning on feeding us,” she says with a concerned expression.

“That’s good, right?”

“Not necessarily,” she whispers. “They never do anything without a good reason. They’ve got something up their sleeves.”

“Why do they starve you?” I ask, suddenly furious, which also doesn’t help to diminish the pulsing pain in my skull.