A line of Council guards marched forward, their bodies encased in the latest grey security technology, their advanced laser weapons held high.

Beside them, Draeke’s ragtag group of barely dressed men with axes looked awfully ill-equipped. Yellow Eyes cursed low.

She was suddenly thankful Valdus and his men weren’t with her.

Another line of Council soldiers appeared behind the first line. Then another.

Hollisworth was taking no chances.

The sharp prick of the ax edge dug deeper into her neck.

Draeke was taking no chances, either.

“Anyone shoots and she dies.” His big voice boomed through the room.

The sea of soldiers parted.

Hollisworth swept forward between them, his fine alabaster silk robe billowing behind, a perfect accompaniment to the white-blond hair that glowed like a halo atop his head, two shocks of purity against so much bleak grey and crimson red. His too-sharp cheekbones and regal nose leading the way as he moved, as hard and cold and perfect as ever.

Was it any wonder the desperate wanted to believe he was their savior?

She could still remember the first moment she’d seen him. How she’d trembled with gratitude to think that she’d been chosen by such a being to bear his offspring. Those around him had spoken of him like he was a God. One who would bring New Earth back from the edge of destruction and save the deserving. One who’s perfect beauty extended all the way to his interior. It had taken less than a single rotation in his presence for her to glimpse the dark, twisted monster lurking at his core.

“Hello, bride.” Triumph tightened every too-beautiful line of his face. And in his hand, a familiar, twisted birch cane.

Her stomach twisted. His punishment stick.

Unlike Valdus, who’d toiled over a weapon meant to save her, Hollisworth had commissioned a lash reserved specifically to hurt and control her.

Their gazes locked.

She snapped her spine ruler straight. “You look smaller than I remember.”

Fury swept across his face, turning his cheeks beet red and blotchy. A bad combination with his too-white hair.

The unfavorable look on him gave her immense satisfaction.

Even better, Draeke chuckled, his hold loosening a fraction.

Hollisworth’s men, on the other hand, were clearly not amused. Tension crackling in the air as they shifted in their boots, their holds on their weapons tightening.

Poor lackeys. They had no idea how to deal with such flagrant rebellion. No one on New Earth said such things to the Supreme Council and lived.

But this was Dragath25.

And she had some new rules.

“Paler, too, I think.” She struck exactly where she knew it would hurt her vain husband the most. “That’s saying something considering I’ve been stuck down here.”

Rage turned his skin purple.

There was nothing he hated worse than others’ refusal to cower.

Probably why he hated Valdus and his fellow Resistance fighters so much.

“Silence!” The choked word flew from him. Spittle, too. More ugliness leaking out.

“I don’t think so.” Had it always been this easy to subvert his will? All that time, true freedom had been within reach all along.

“You’ll remember your place soon enough.”

She thought of Valdus. Of the stars. Of all he’d shown her. “I know it already.”

Hollisworth flicked a hand in her direction. “Bring her to me.”

“Wait.” Draeke scurried back a step. “You want her? The exchange doesn’t happen until we’re on the surface.”

“No.” Her husband didn’t hesitate. “You give her to me now. Then, we deal.”

His front line of men kept coming.

“No.” Despite his bravado, Draeke’s grip was increasingly slick with sweat. “Tell them to stay where they are or she dies now.”

“Kill her and I can promise you, everything you’ve suffered until now will seem like child’s play.”

“M-master?” Yellow Eyes sounded unsure. One heartbeat from abandoning his post.

This was not how she needed this to go down.

“It’s not up to him.” Taking charge, she wrapped her hands around Draeke’s weapon, pressed it deeper into her own skin. “We go to the surface. Now.”

Whatever happened next, she already felt as if she’d won. As if she were free. And it comforted her to know that no matter what happened, she’d neutralized the trackers and given Valdus and his men a critical tool necessary to escape.

Unlike Draeke and his men, her crew wouldn’t be dogged by the droids and unable to fight back. Instead, they’d be free to unleash all the hell and fury they had inside.

Even if she wasn’t here to see it.

“What are you doing?” Draeke’s surprised jerk sent the weapon deeper into her skin.

She stifled a curse. Warm liquid rolled down her neck to pool in her collarbone.

Hollisworth’s nostrils flared, his gaze locking on the splash of crimson. “Stop.” His order froze his men in place. “You want to negotiate, bride? Fine. We deal here.”

He’d always preferred to be the one to cause her pain.

“Just the three of us on the transport hold,” she demanded. “Now.”

“So anxious to leave with me?” Hollisworth’s taunt ghosted across her skin. With that damn robe wrapped around him, protecting him from both laser strikes and more direct ax hits, the man was obviously cocky, certain he was unreachable.

She held her temper. “Yes, that’s exactly it. I want your little dick inside me again where I can barely feel it.” Okay, maybe she didn’t hold her temper as well as she should have.

Her husband’s face went sheet white. “You’ll pay for that.” He raised his birch. “I’ll flay the skin from your bones, fuck you raw, and then do it all again. I’ll—”

“Promises, promises.” She cut him off. “But first you have to get on the transport hold.” She made a show of raising her neck so the sharp edge of the blade against her jugular was clear. “And make sure I stay alive.”

Seething, her husband turned and marched toward the doors, confident enough in his men’s loyalty and his show of force to present his back to Draeke and his men.

Draeke let out a soft sigh, certain victory was in sight.

Fanned out behind him, his men relaxed as well.

It was the moment she’d been waiting for.

She almost felt sorry for Draeke and his followers. Almost. Until she remembered what they’d done to Pratt. What they’d tried time and again to do to Valdus and his men.

With a roar, she slammed her boot into Draeke’s instep. Throwing her head up and back.

Taken by surprise, the big man didn’t evade. Too certain in his own abilities. Too sure everything was going his way.

Her head hit his chin with a crack. His hold slipped.

Everything swam, but it didn’t matter. She was heading to the ground anyway.

Her palms hit hard rock. Her right hip and thigh followed. Draeke’s ax clattered to the ground just out of reach. Ignoring the pain, she scrambled in the other direction. As far from Draeke and his crew as possible.

A shield no more.

“Kill them.” Informed by her shout, Hollisworth had already swiveled round, his robe wrapped tight around him, his gaze taking in the new scenario at once.

“No.” Draeke scrambled toward her, arms outstretched, but it was too late.

His big body was too easy a target.

The first soldier’s laser strike hit him square in the chest. He stumbled back, but didn’t go down. Instead, he lurched forward again. Another strike. This time to his arm.

His men were already in action, too, their axes sailing forward. The knowledge that this was their only chance glittering in their panicked stares.

The first line of Council soldiers lost one man, an ax buried deep in his chest. His gun crashed to the ground. Another followed close behind.

If that was all there was to the fight, Draeke and his men might have had a chance.

But they didn’t. Not with drones humming to life overhead.

Bending lower to the ground, she scurried backward—out of the cross fire—and waited.

Already the air buzzed with the drone’s familiar clacking and whirring as the blinking metal weapons locked on the inmates’ trackers. Self-destruction mode had begun.

She still had her tracker in her veins as well. But she knew Hollisworth wouldn’t allow hers to be activated. Not when he preferred a more personal revenge.

The others, however, wouldn’t be so lucky.

Draeke’s big body flickered first, turning a sickly orange. Already weakened by the strikes, he dropped to his knees much faster than Valdus had done. A roar of pure rage shook the room.

Yellow Eyes lit up next, the tracker inside him beginning to self-destruct. The rest of his men followed.

Unable to watch, she slammed her eyes shut. It only made the humming louder.

Then, for a heart wrenching moment, silence.

Utter. Absolute. Final.

Followed by a plunk. An oddly muffled sound, for something so decisive and evil.

One after another, the trackers inside Draeke and each of his men exploded, their skin twisting and boiling as a tsunami of fire burned them from the inside out.

It was a horrific way to die.

Thank Janus she’d gotten that thing out of Valdus and his men.

Slowly, subtly, she inched her hand into her pocket and closed it tight around her weapon.

She might be about to die, but she was taking her husband down with her.

Whatever it took to keep Valdus safe.

She was already free. She wanted him to be as well.

Head bowed, she waited.

Counted the sure, entitled steps headed in her direction.

Counted on Hollisworth’s ego and his certainty in his own victory now that Draeke was out of the picture.

Counted on the appeal of her sprawled in the dirt, head bowed, just like she’d been so many times before.

The sure footfalls drew closer.

She didn’t have to look up to know it was her husband. She knew the rhythm of his advance, the hiss of the cane as it cut through the air. She remembered the terror and anticipation of every heartbeat under his thumb.

“You should have known you could never escape me, bride.” He stepped closer. “You’ve been engineered to comply. You will submit. You will suffer. You will pay for every insult and every rotation I searched for you. And, in the end, you will beg me for death while your body grows wet for my cock—and I will watch with pleasure while the heat burns you alive.”

Her head snapped up. “I will never beg you again. Nothing can control me anymore. Especially a nothing like you.”

Stripling raised high, he leaned forward—just as she knew he would.

Weapon ready, she struck out. Determined to slip beneath the robe to the vulnerable flesh beneath.

Only to convulse backward, the weapon slipping from her grasp as her back arched and searing heat blasted through her. Excruciating pain and pleasure. Ripping through every organ. A knife to her clit. Agony worse than she’d ever experienced.

Panting, she curled into a ball. Tried to fight past the haze of raw pain and need.

“Do you like my other new toy?” Hollisworth squatted down beside her, the hem of his perfect robe brushing against her cheek. His hand stretched forward. Even that small touch sending waves of agonizing need rippling across her skin. “It’s even more effective than my favorite punishment stick.”

A small steel cylinder with blinking lights was nestled in his palm.

“You’re not the only one who’s been plotting and scheming, Aryanna.” Malicious pleasure coated every word as he trailed the punishment stick down her spine and over her hip, a menacing, possessive caress. “I’ve been busy, too. Making new items from the very mine your soon-to-be-dead lover and his criminal friends have been sending my way. It’s a controller. My scientists made it to placate me and save their miserable lives after you escaped. It’s a remote of sorts. One that communicates with the nanotechnology imbedded in your brain.”

She fought a paralyzing wave of agony and lust.

“So, what do you think?” His finger flicked a dial. “Do you like it?”

Her muscles snapped straight as white-hot pain shredded every nerve ending. Her body unable to do anything but shudder and rock, her limbs useless. Even when he raised his other hand, the whip striking her back. Her hip. Her ass.

Making her scream.

Until, finally, it was over.

Panting, she lay limp on the ground.

“So beautiful.” Squatting, he placed a single finger under her chin and lifted her face toward him. His thumb trailed across her cheek, his eyes soft, shining with twisted adoration and love. “The finest thing in my collection.”

She tried to snarl. It came out like a whimper.

She struggled to focus her gaze. To locate Valdus’s weapon. To remember all he’d taught her.

But her husband’s triumphant gaze blotted everything. “I missed you, bride. Missed those sounds you make. Missed the way you fight and claw—and eventually submit.”

Her stomach twisted and she gagged.

“I…will…” She swallowed hard. Forced the words out. “never…submit.”

A small flick of his finger. Her body jolted. Writhed with excruciating pain. Flopping this way and that, blackness dotting her vision before it ended as quickly as it had begun and she dropped once more at his feet, her chest shuddering in and out, her breath a painful rasp.

“We’re going to have such fun together.” His voice sharpened. “I promise you, you will break, breeder. You will break and you will beg and you will bow before me. And then, you will die.”

The pain and heat made it hard to think. To move.

But, damn it, the weapon was only an arm’s length away.

She willed her body to action. Stretched her fingertips forward.

Only to watch as Hollisworth kicked it away, the clatter it made as it skipped across the hard ground sounding a lot like the ominous cackle of impending defeat.

“Would you like to apologize for your disobedience now?” His hand hovered over the dial of his controller.

She conjured up Valdus. Thought of their stars.

They might not have had as long as she would have liked, but she was thankful for every moment they’d had. Being taken had turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to her.

She knew, without question, that he would find her again some rotation. In this life or the next. In this universe or the next. Because she was free. She was finally at peace. And, though he hadn’t said it outright, she knew. She was loved.

She sucked down a deep breath. Pushed herself up by the palms of her hands and, shaking her hair back from her face, lifted her head to meet her husband’s sick gaze head-on.

In his stare, she saw pure confidence and the certainty that he’d won.

“The only thing I want to apologize for is that I won’t be here to see you get the horrific ending you so richly deserve. But it’s coming, Hollisworth, and I will smile with pleasure when you’re dead and gone.”

Face white, her husband reared back, his thumb fumbling for the dial, retribution stark on his monstrous face.

This was going to hurt.

“Get the hell away from her!” A familiar deep voice emerged from the shadows.

Swirling round, Hollisworth’s hand slipped from the dial, his attention diverted.

Collapsing back to the ground, her forehead pressed to the hard rock, Ava fought for breath, relief and terror flooding her veins with ice.

Valdus. Her heart fluttered.

He’d come.

But now he was in danger, too.