Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“We can’t go in there!” Celia moaned. “We’ll get torn to pieces!”
“Look, I trusted you about the fucking spider web, lelka—now you have to trust me about this,” Fierce growled, still looking straight ahead. “It’s not fully destabilized yet—we just have to hit it when it’s bright!”
“But…but…” Celia began. Then Hold took her hand in his and squeezed it tightly.
“Trust, my lady,” he said earnestly. “Fierce is the best pilot I’ve ever known. And I believe the Goddess has her hand on us. Trust!”
Celia opened her mouth to say she couldn’t trust but just then the ship dove nose-first into the blinking, flickering wormhole and was swallowed up completely.
46
CEILA
The ride through the wormhole wasn’t as rough as it had been during their last trip—but it wasn’t smooth sailing either. The three of them were thrown around and Celia could see the muscles on Fierce’s long arms bunching up as he fought to keep control of the ship.
But sooner than she would have believed possible, they were shooting out the other side. And then they were whizzing past familiar landmarks—Mars appeared in the side of the viewscreen and was gone almost before she could register it.
“We’re home! We made it!” Hold exclaimed.
“Yeah, we fucking made it.” Fierce gave an audible sigh of relief and loosened his death grip on the steering yoke. “Well, lelka?” He said, looking over at Celia who was sitting between him and Hold. “What do you say to that?”
“I say I think I’m going to be sick!”
Fumbling with her harness, Celia finally freed herself and rushed to the back of the ship. She barely made it into the bathroom—or fresher, as the Kindred called it—before she was violently ill.
Luckily, she made it to the toilet in time and didn’t make a big mess. But her stomach felt tender and bloated afterwards as she hung over the bowl, breathing hard.
“My Lady? Are you all right?”
Celia looked up to see Hold standing in the doorway. The Light Twin was holding a cup of water and a towel out to her and he had an anxious look on his face.
“I…I’m fine, I think. Thank you.” Celia closed the lid and flushed, then accepted the glass of water and the towel gratefully. “Excuse me—I’m just going to wash out my mouth,” she said to Hold.
“I’ll wait.” The Light Twin nodded. When Celia finished and came out of the fresher, he put an arm around her waist. “Are you well, my lady?” He asked frowning. Leaning forward he sniffed the side of her neck. “Your scent smells…off somehow.”
“I think I’m okay—all those ‘evasive maneuvers’ back there just made me sick to my stomach,” Celia said. She patted her belly, which still felt extremely tender. What was wrong with her? She was beginning to feel a little like the way she felt on her period, but it wasn’t time for her period yet—not for another few weeks at least.
“Let’s go have a seat,” Hold told her. “I’m sure you’ll feel better once we get back to the Mother Ship.”
“I hope you’re right.” Celia made a face. “I’m really not feeling like myself at all.”
They buckled back in beside Fierce, who cast her a sidelong glance.
“Okay, lelka?”
“I’m fine,” Celia told him. “I think your fancy flying back before the wormhole made me sick.”
“Sorry about that,” he growled. “But better an upset stomach than the three of us digesting in the Mother Tree’s stomach—or whatever that big fucking room is where they take her victims.”
“Please, don’t talk about it!” Celia put a hand to her head. She was still sad for Sess’ely and her brothers. If only they had gotten to them a few minutes sooner!
But then, she wasn’t sure they could have saved the unicorn girl and her kin even if they had gotten there sooner. They had been extremely outnumbered—the odds were they would have just wound up right beside them being swallowed alive by the murderous, hungry tree.
Her thoughts were cut off when she looked up at the viewscreen. Glimmering in the darkness of space like an enormous pearl was the huge shape of the Mother Ship.
“Mother Ship, please come in!” Hold said, pressing a button. “Damn it—it’s not working!” he added.
“That’s because you’re trying the long range communications. Try the short range,” Fierce said.
Hold pressed another button and tried again.
“Mother Ship, this is long range shuttle registered to Twin Kindred Holds Tightly and Fights Fiercely. Please come in, we are returning from an interstellar mission.”
There was silence for a moment and then a male voice said,
“Heard and understood. Wait just a moment—I have standing orders to inform Commander Sylvan the minute you get back.”
There was another long moment of silence, during which Celia had time to register that her harness felt uncomfortably tight. She loosened it some and shifted around, trying to get comfortable. She really felt off for some reason, though she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what was wrong.