Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
“My name’s not Cinderella.”
“Isn’t it? That’s what we all call you.”
Maybe there’s something in the saurian air that makes you braver. Maybe it’s some kind of chemical compound. I don’t know what it is, because I would never have talked back to Raine in the past.
“It’s not my name,” I repeat. “My name is Allie.”
“No, it isn’t,” Raine laughs. “Allie Katt is what Sullivan called you when you came aboard. It was never your name. Don’t you remember where we found you?”
I stare at her as a memory hole opens up inside me.
I don’t remember.
But I suddenly remember that I don’t remember. That’s worse. So much worse.
And then I start to actually remember.
Wrath
Something in my mate’s face changes. I see horror in her. A deep existential sort of realization. The kind of terror that makes me want to protect her. But there’s no external threat, because it is coming from inside her. I know when someone is broken. Most of those who find their way to me are.
I think I am about to get the answer to the question I asked her when I first had her disrobed in front of me, when I first explored her body. I think I am about to discover the hard edge I sensed but could not see.
“Don’t worry. Don’t worry,” I murmur to her.
“I don’t remember.”
“Remembering is not easy and often overrated. We forget most of our lives, if not all of them. Just be here with me now. Don’t worry about what you’ve forgotten.”
“We need to get to a secure location, and we need to do it fast. That lunatic on the ship will open fire again at any moment.”
I pick my mate up, and we all travel to Thorn’s secure location.
6 OLD FRIENDS
Ido not mind accompanying Thorn. Some might call this an arrest, but I am not really arrestable. I have been in and out of his cells and such over the years. He can’t hold me and he doesn’t really want to. I perform a function in this city and we both know it. Removing me would lead to an almost boundless chaos. He needs me.
All Thorn has ever been able to do is attempt to curtail my rising power. Make sure that I do not unseat him. That is his worst nightmare and the nightmare of many. For the poor, downtrodden freaks of society to be in charge — they can imagine vividly what would happen then, and they don’t want it to come to pass.
There’s a fine line to be walked here, and he and I have been walking it for many years.
Once we are all safely ensconced in yet another underground secret location, which I am told is shielded so Lettie will not be able to get a lock on whatever tracking device happens to be installed in my mate, things really start to get interesting. It is comfortable and well-furnished, of course. There are a great many chairs and low lights and soft carpets. Thorn always did like his furniture. He likes anything that denotes status and finery.
More interestingly, the room also contains his mate.
The true captain of the ship is present, a pretty, effervescent woman with curling hair and a reckless grin. I can see how she led her crew, and I can also see how she got into a great deal of trouble doing it.
“Sullivan!” Allie cries out upon seeing her. The two of them hug tightly, the way old friends do. I notice, though, a slight condescension on the part of Sullivan. It is all in the micro-expressions. My mate looks thrilled and relieved to see her old captain. Sullivan, on the other hand, looks like she is being reunited with an old pet. Raine keeps her distance from both of them at first, but it is clear she likes a fight, and it is equally clear that she is not finished with what she started out at the bomb site.
Thorn, Avel, and I, do not have as much to contribute to this discussion as one might think. We are here to try to decide what to do about the woman who has the ship now, and the three women we have here are the key. Thorn and Avel actually excuse themselves at one point, to go have a discussion as to how to turn these events in their favor, I am sure. I elect to stay with the human women.
This room is rife with politics I do not quite understand, and I do not like that. I need to understand the delicate social strings that hold these women together in a web.
“I’m the only one here with a functioning brain,” Raine finally snaps.
“What are you talking about?” Allie walks right into her verbal trap, metaphorically speaking. “Sullivan and I can think.”
Raine doesn’t address her response to Allie. Instead, she talks to me.