Page 206 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Luka

That lie was the hardest one I’d ever told.

To look at Noa as I had and complete this nasty charade for the hated female hanging from my arm—all because my mother was standing across the room, making sure I fulfilled our deal.

As the woman I loved crumpled inside, as she believed me better than Koratalin did, I felt it burn through me.

The pain ricocheting inside me, hers and my own.

Hurt that she’d believe the lie more readily than the truth; hurting for her, that she’d been so betrayed in the past that this was all she knew.

I stumbled from the shock, already weakened by experiencing that round of pain from Noa’s pain collar right along with her.

My emotional shields were weak in the face of the huge crowd of terrible people surrounding me.

Fluid dripped from my nose, and I raised my hand in surprise, touching the steady drip falling from my face.

Lifting my fingers, I saw the red blood that stained them and studied it in surprise.

That was new; I’d never bled before from emotional whiplash like this.

Koratalin’s red eyes landed on my fingers. She spotted the blood and screamed in shock. The crowd around us responded in kind, thinking I’d been injured by someone, that there’d been an attack.

I didn’t protest when I was ushered out of the ballroom by a contingent of guards, or when a doctor was summoned to treat me.

Koratalin clung to me the entire time, making my skin crawl with the wrongness of it.

This female was as beautiful as she was viperous.

I’d been introduced to her father before, and I knew he was one of Drameil’s peers.

Worse, I’d seen Drameil holding court on one end of the ballroom with the male, he was here right now.

With my bloodied hand, I reached for Koratalin’s glove-clad fingers, satisfied when she yanked them back out of reach with a disgusted look.

“Oh, darling, you know how blood makes me queasy,” she lied with little effort.

Gliding away from me at last, as I’d hoped she would, she struck a seductive pose as she implored the healer to take good care of me.

I saw how her eyes lingered on the two guards just inside the door to this little sitting room, saw how their eyes lingered on her backside as she strutted out.

I shoved the healer’s hands away from me as soon as she was gone and got to my feet.

“I know what happened. I’m fine, just need to clean up,” I told the older male.

He wasn’t Aderian, of course—no Aderian doctor would condone what was going on in this house.

He was a Xurtal, as was Koratalin’s father, hence her green skin.

He narrowed his eyes my way but didn’t say anything as I headed for the hidden restroom and barred the door behind me.

Alone for a moment, I took a few deep breaths and worked on strengthening my barriers so I could face the crowd again.

I had no choice about that, but with Koratalin gone for the moment, maybe I could find Noa again and make things right between us—assure her that I was just acting, that I loved her.

I was convinced that the moment she believed that, in her love for me and mine for her, the bond would finally cement itself.

At the sink, I washed the blood off my face and checked that my clothing had come away unscathed.

I didn’t care about a little blood, but I knew my mother would use even the tiniest of flaws—of mistakes I made—to take it out on Noa, to keep me in line.

I was clean except for a few drops, but a little cold water took care of it.

I made sure that my shirt was properly closed too, everything straightened and neat, just as was expected of me.

A sound alerted me to a presence just as I was about to leave the tiny room.

I tilted my head, trying to pinpoint what I was hearing.

Did it come from above me? From the ceiling?

Yeah, there it was, a little scuffling noise.

I’d shut my empathic senses so tightly that it took me a second to realize who was there.

“Pato?” I whispered, eyeing the door to make sure it was still tightly shut.

I climbed onto the counter and reached up to pry the vent open, happy to spot the bright tuft of white fur and the little black face.

Pato leaped out of the vent with zero hesitation, climbing onto my shoulder with a practiced move.

He’d been coming and going from my gilded cage for the past two weeks, popping in to check on me but disappearing before the guards could take issue.

I had the feeling he’d been doing the same to Noa, but she’d been sedated all that time and wouldn’t have known.

“What have you got there, buddy?” I asked him, hoping he’d found something useful again.

He’d been instrumental in at least two of my escape attempts that first week, bringing me tools or keys to work with that he’d managed to steal.

On Jihari, both Noa and I hadn’t been sure if it was luck or smarts that caused him to bring us useful things.

Now, I was convinced that he somehow knew what to bring.

In one hand, he held out a slender metal wand.

It looked almost like a pen, but I knew instantly what it was—a key.

Not just any key, but a key to unlock a pain collar.

This was the master key, the one that just needed to be pressed to the maglock; it would instantly unlock the whole thing.

Didn’t take any kind of skill to use. How had he found this?

This wasn’t something my mother would just have lying around. She’d have it in a safe in her office.

“Good boy,” I said, scratching him beneath his little chin.

With this, I could free Noa. Once the pain collar was off, we could possibly escape again.

I tucked the wand into the sash that tied my tunic closed, checked in the mirror that my hair was still neat, no blood was visible, and, most of all, my contraband couldn’t be spotted. Then I left the restroom.

I wanted to find Noa immediately, but the banquet was starting, and my escort was forcing me to the table.

I had to sit next to Koratalin at my mother’s right-hand side, as if I were one of her trusted people.

Across from me sat Koratalin’s father, a red-skinned Xurtal male, with his golden glyphs glowing brightly along his arms. His yellow eyes were mean, a snarl curling his lips as he watched me sit down, the look lingering on Pato, who was still sitting on my shoulder, casually surveying the room.

Tiam, Koratalin’s father, didn’t much care for me, but I knew he was a powerful businessman with a good foothold in the Aderian system.

My mother had worked closely with him for the past ten years; that’s why this marriage between his daughter and me was so important to her.

I couldn’t stand the guy because he always came across as cruel and disinterested in everything but earning more money.

Then Drameil sat down in the seat next to Tiam, smiling a needle-toothed smile my mother’s way.

His visage made my skin crawl, knew he’d owned me, that he’d more than once flicked the switch on my own pain collar, all at my mother’s behest. I couldn’t believe I was sitting here across from him at this table, staring into his hated face.

Thoughts of my friends aboard the Vagabond crossed my mind then.

If Thorin were here, he’d have leaped across the table and tried to kill the bastard on sight.

I wanted to do it too. My fists were balled beneath the table, my body going tense with the urge to attack.

With the bond with Noa strengthening my body, I was almost tempted to try.

But it wasn’t me who’d pay the price, it was my female, my mate. I couldn’t do that.

So I sat in silence, fuming angrily as I tried to figure out what I could do to get us out of here.

I watched as Drameil charmingly talked with the others at the table, laughing with a creepy, hoarse sound.

The vertical slits in his cheeks exposed his teeth when he ate or talked.

My mother was friends with this monster, and Tiam was probably a Crimelord just like Drameil.

I was sitting in the presence of at least two of them, and if my mother really was one too, maybe even three.

From the corner of my eye, I watched as the food was carried out by girls dressed just like Noa.

I searched for her, hoping she’d come close enough for me to slip her the key to her collar.

But while I spotted her farther down the table, she never once looked my way, and with my shields battened down tightly, I couldn’t sense her from this far away.

As the second course was laid out, and then the third, the food on my plate was barely touched.

Everything tasted like the ashes from Jihari.

If Noa didn’t trust me, how could I free her?

It was a spike in my mother’s emotions that alerted me to a change.

Anticipation warmed her, exciting her as the third course was set out in front of us.

Though her face remained calm and impassive as she played the gracious hostess to her vile guests.

Something was about to happen, something big.

*

Noa

I darted into the kitchen, pressing my back against the nearest wall, and panted through my pain.

The physical aches from the pain collar were already fading, but the sense of betrayal was still fresh.

I had believed in him, trusted him, given myself to him, and this was what I got in return?

Discarded again when it was time to follow society’s demands, I was never going to be the right girl for Luka.

Of course he’d end up marrying that pretty, polished fiancée, just like his mother wanted.

Was his sad backstory a lie to gain my sympathies?

Was the escape from Jihari just a daring adventure to spice up his life?