Page 90 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

“There’s no time for this,” Ga’tera huffed.

“Kitan, help me get these assholes inside. We’ll make it seem like you took them out when they accidentally opened the door after working me over.

” It was strange to hear him finally use my name—and to hear him swear; he’d been such an uptight fellow all this time.

So I did as he asked, hurriedly stripping the final soldiers of any weapons and dumping them inside, where we locked them up.

Behind me, I was tensely aware of Chloe; she’d drifted closer to Dyantos, where he stood just on the edge of the nearest pool of light.

They were talking softly, heads bent close together.

Like that, I could see a bit of the old Dyantos again—the one from when I was a teen, and he would talk gently to the children he met.

The old priest who would pat me on the head when I’d done well, sneak me a ration of food when they were punishing me with starvation.

The one person in this entire forsaken monastery I’d be happy to see, whose kindness I’d soaked up like a sponge.

Until I realized how much of a prisoner he was, how he had less of that kindness to give to me as I grew older. For a while, I resented him too because he seemed freer than the rest of us, yet he didn’t leave.

Chloe reached up to hug the old man, asking him to come with us, but he sadly shook his head.

He had a chance now—why wouldn’t he take it?

I didn’t understand and turned my back, pointing Chloe down the hallway in the direction we needed to go.

“Come on, we should hurry; someone could find us at any moment.” A sense of anger stirred in my gut at what felt like betrayal, even if it seemed irrational.

With my hand on her back, I started to propel us forward, only to pause when Dyantos softly called out my name.

“I can’t go. Someone has to look out for the little ones, Kitan.

” I froze, turning to look at Dyantos over my shoulder.

“What good does it do if no one on the outside knows what we go through in here?” I demanded harshly.

He scoffed. “You didn’t come forward with your story either when you ran, did you, boy?

” I bristled, fighting a wave of guilt that threatened to consume me at the accusation.

He was right, I hadn’t done anything except run as far and hard as I could.

I had not given a single moment of thought to any of the true shifters left behind, not until I got here.

Chloe bristled. “He was fifteen! He was a kid! What could he have done—except get caught again?” Warmth filled my chest at her instant defense, after she’d looked so cozy and friendly with the old male only moments ago. I could always count on my Chloe having my back.

“We can’t make a change; we need the families for that,” Dyantos said then, his voice going soft.

“And mine is dead—they can’t break the contract for me.

” My whole body went through a shiver when I realized the impact of his words.

That was the way out—the true way. Except he didn’t have that.

Pivoting, I turned and briefly clasped the old priest in my arms. “I understand.”

When I let go of him, his filmy eyes were shiny with tears.

I couldn’t stand that look, fearing it might be the last I’d ever see from him.

Turning, I eyed Ga’tera, seeing him in a very different light now.

“Take good care of him!” I hissed. Then I raised my fist and punched him in the jaw, hard enough to make him stagger backward and collapse against the now-closed door.

“Kitan!” Chloe yelped in shock, latching onto my arm as if meaning to physically restrain me from doing it again. Ga’tera let his body slide down the panel and sank onto the floor, groaning as he clutched at his face.

“Damn it, a warning would have been nice,” he snarled between clenched teeth. “Now go! There’s a grate east of the south gate that has a malfunctioning lock. Your best bet.”

I took Chloe under my arm and pulled her with me, urging her to keep to the shadows.

I heard how Dyantos spoke softly to Ga’tera for a moment before his soft tread faded in the other direction.

“Why did you do that?” Chloe whispered, aware that, now that we were on the move, she needed to be quiet.

Figuring she referred to me punching the Officer, I shrugged and sent her a smirk. “He asked me to, didn’t you hear him?”

There was a soft, scoffing sound and then a slight smile.

***

Chloe

My heart was pounding in my throat. Somehow, that moment outside the chambers that had been our prison had not felt quite this tense.

We’d sensed the urgency to get moving, to avoid discovery—a risk that increased with each moment we lingered there.

Yet, we hadn’t been alone, and that had made it feel like we were safer too, somehow.

I was so relieved to find out that Ga’tera hadn’t been the stuck-up asshole I’d pegged him for when we met.

He had come through for us, letting us out and handing the implant over to me.

He’d gone above and beyond when he warned us that I needed to ensure I always had it on me, or they’d take it back from us.

Focusing on Kitan’s back in front of me, we hurried through hallway after hallway, each one as empty as the last. That surprised me, as the ritual earlier that day had been attended by so many people.

Maybe, from the exorbitant way they’d responded at the end, they had celebrated afterward and were now sleeping off their hangovers.

Soon we crossed out of the building and into the vast gardens that surrounded the monastery.

The scent of some kind of sweet flower was thick in the air, making the chilly night feel warmer somehow, the air heavy.

As we scurried between hedges trimmed neatly, we passed the shifting statues that dotted the garden, spots for quiet contemplation.

I flinched each time a statue moved, convinced it was a real person, and we were about to be spotted.

By the time we reached the edges of the garden, I realized that not all the things I had thought were statues were statues after all.

Sometimes, Kitan would slow our pace and make us creep around one until I realized they were the shifted bodies of some of the priests—ones who had chosen to sleep outside or, possibly, ones who were too drunk to make it to their rooms.

On the edges of the garden, we paused to survey our options. I could see the walls that cradled the monastery spreading out around us to either side, towers piercing the sky at intervals. Shadowy shapes moved across the tops, soldiers patrolling.

In the distance, I also spotted the small landing pad and the shuttle we’d arrived in.

My instincts told me to run to it, to get on it, and fly off.

However, four guards were standing around it, and it sat on the pad, surrounded by an exposed stretch of sand.

They would see us coming; there was just no way to sneak up on the thing.

The gates that opened up in the massive walls also seemed foolhardy to approach.

Everything was bare, so the guards standing around them couldn’t be ambushed.

There was no stealthy way to approach them, not to mention the heavy artillery installed on the walls themselves.

This wasn’t just a monastery; its walls were protected as though it were a fortress.

I didn’t know how to determine south, where Ga’tera had suggested we go; maybe Kitan didn’t know either.

He was standing still for so long where we crouched behind a hedge that it was making me nervous.

I felt exposed, and my legs were starting to cramp up.

A disconcerting headache had started again in the back of my skull.

It had been several weeks since my last hookup to a nav-console.

I feared it was that absence that was now making my head hurt.

Another glance at the shuttle warned me that going there was not an option. A patrol of six guards had crossed the huge courtyard that edged the walls and surrounded the garden, and they were headed straight for the shuttle. No, those odds were even worse now.

“Chloe,” Kitan whispered, his hand coming to rest beneath the weight of my improvised backpack on my lower back. “I’m going to have to shift. I need you to gather my clothes, and then climb on my back. We’re going to be moving fast in a moment.”

His eyes were solemn and worried. Leaning up, I pressed my lips to his.

“I trust you, Kitan. We can do this.” If we could get our hands on a com, would we be able to call for help from the gladiators on the Vagabond?

Or was Kitan unwilling to risk them? More likely, they had left, like Kitan had asked them to do.

So far, no one had had a com on them, and I suspected they were prohibited inside the monastery walls.

My soft kiss turned into a longer one when Kitan returned the favor.

“I love you, mate,” he murmured. My whole body shivered in response to the statement.

Love. That was such a perfect word to describe how I felt about Kitan; I loved him.

It wasn’t just trust and caring—I loved him, and the wonderful male that he was, he loved me back.

“Yes,” I husked, leaning up to whisper against his throat, just below his ear. “I love you, Kitan. We’re going to fly again together; I have no doubt.”