“You could’ve left some for us,” Thorin grumbled.
Saff grinned at her friends. She felt too good with all this energy crackling through her veins. She felt alive and in charge.
This was what she loved about the arena. Here, on the sand, she was a champion, and her old life was just dust beneath her feet.
She glanced over at Blaine, but he was staring down at the closest Thraxian, lying prone on the sand. Blaine crouched beside the alien. “Where are the women?”
The alien looked up and made a gurgling sound.
Blaine reached out and hit the alien hard with his fist. “Where are they?”
The rival gladiator tossed his head back and started laughing—an ugly, wet sound.
Blaine hit him again, and again.
Saff saw the feral intensity on Blaine’s face. All control was gone and there was a wildness in his features that was borne in the nightmares of the fight rings.
Raiden stepped forward, reaching out to grab Blaine’s shoulder. But the human turned around, and bared his teeth at the gladiator.
“Wait!” Saff knelt beside Blaine. “Blaine?”
“I need to find them,” he ground out. He raised his fist again.
“Don’t kill him.” Saff leaned in closer. “You can’t kill him here. It isn’t the way of the arena…and you’ve left the fight rings behind, remember?”
Blaine’s fist stayed there, suspended in midair.
“Let me talk to him.” Saff curled her hand around Blaine’s and gently pushed it down. Then she looked down at the beaten Thraxian.
He relaxed and sneered at her. She whipped her hand out and grabbed the alien’s chin. She jerked his head up, reaching out with her senses.
Oh, he was afraid. Of Blaine. “I’ll let him loose on you.” She kept her voice low. “After the drugs, the fighting, the torture, everything he’s been through…you’ll deserve what he does to you.”
The Thraxian turned his head and spat orange blood onto the sand. “Drak you.”
Blaine burst forward with an inhuman growl, slamming his fist into the side of the alien’s head.
Now Saff saw the alien’s eyes widen just a fraction. She gripped his chin harder. “Tell us where the women are.”
“Is he your guard dog?” the Thraxian spat.
She jerked his head at an unnatural angle. The alien let out a pained yelp. “I don’t need him in order to hurt you.” She leaned closer. “He’s just more motivated than me. But not by much.”
Blaine made another sound, and pressed a knee to the Thraxian’s chest, putting enough pressure on him to make the alien wheeze.
“The women?” Saff asked again.
“Not here,” the Thraxian croaked out. “We don’t have them.”
Blaine made another terrifying sound and leaned forward. The Thraxian’s eyes turned panicked.
“Where?” Blaine roared.
“The Srinar have them. The Srinar took them.” The man’s orange gaze turned wild. “I don’t know all the information. They…they were taken to the desert. They were going to cross the Barren Sands.”
Crudspawn. Saff cursed. “How?” The Barren Sands were an unforgiving place.
“The…Corsair Caravan, I think.”
She kicked the Thraxian away. Blaine stood beside her, his chest heaving. She felt so much emotion radiating off him, and wasn’t sure he even knew where he was. She turned to him, pressing her hands against his sweat-slicked skin.
“Blaine?” No response. She smoothed her hands over his chest. “Come back to me, Earth man.”
He leaned closer to her, burying his face into her braids. She heard him breathe deep, and knew he was trying to scent her. It was probably for the best he couldn’t smell, since she was covered in sweat and blood.
She stroked his arm, her fingers tracing the interesting tattoos on his strong bicep. “We’ll get them back, Blaine. That’s a promise.”
Brown eyes locked with hers. Deep within them, she saw that he wanted to believe, but he’d had his hopes beaten and broken before.
Her hand tightened on him. “I always keep my promises.”
***
Blaine followed the other gladiators through the back streets of Kor Magna. The suns were rising, and he felt the prickle of heat on the back of his neck. His sword was safe at his side, and inside, the need to find the women was like a drumbeat.
They had to find them before they were sold off, or hurt, or worse.
He glanced up and saw Saff was watching him steadily.
“So this caravan is well known?” he asked.
She nodded. “It’s used by anyone traveling out of Kor Magna and into the desert.” She glanced toward the horizon. “It’s dangerous out there. The Corsair Caravan is well armed, and well stocked. They offer good protection, and they know the water sources through the desert.”