Chapter 26

Dante dropped down from the vent shaft and into a cold, dimly lit room. It smelled dank, as if it were underground, and judging by how far they’d gone down the shaft, that made sense. As far as Dante was concerned, even a dungeon-like room was still a significant improvement from the vents. A Lorr warrior his size wasn’t usually at home in confined spaces, and as his family well knew, ventilation ducts were a particular hardship for them.

“Give me your hand,” he called quietly back up the shaft, reaching up to help Tinsley down behind him.

Using his hand for stability, she dropped soundlessly down to the floor and looked around her.

“Looks like the basement,” she whispered into the quiet, but it became quickly apparent that whispering wasn’t necessary. No one else was there.

“Then we work our way up,” he said, scanning the place for any information that might be useful.

The logs they’d found on the pirate ship had mentioned holding cells, and he figured they couldn’t be far. Underground was the most secure place to hold prisoners, and he had to assume the Jorvlens knew that. He’d heard of other Jorvlen facilities that were built in this way. In fact, his own sister-in-law, Layla, had once been held in such a place.

This room, though, was clearly just a maintenance room. As Dante’s eyes adjusted to the dark, they alighted upon a door.

“There,” he said, pointing at the panel.

He strode over, Tinsley right behind him, and pulled the door open ever so slightly. It led toward a wide empty hallway, and Dante stepped out, peering around for any signs of life. He saw none, though, and as he and Tinsley made their way along the hall, they began opening other doors.

Dante found a few empty rooms, what looked like a small kitchen, and then a communal shower block. The floor was still wet, and Dante felt a shiver run up his spine. He didn’t know what it was at first, but something felt wrong. When he opened the next door, he understood why.

It was a small room, but the entire space was filled with clothes. At first, Dante didn’t get what he was looking at. But when Tinsley came up beside him, she gasped.

“Oh my god,” she uttered, staring at the clothes.

Then he made sense of the mess of fabrics. They were all women’s clothes. And they were all in different sizes and styles. Some, he noted with disgust, had been cut or ripped off, thrown in here as refuse—a byproduct of the pirates’ business.

Dante shuddered again, and he felt Tinsley’s warm hand come to rest gently on his arm.

“We’ll find her,” she whispered, and Dante nodded.

They had to.

“Let’s keep looking,” he told her, meeting her gaze for just a moment. It contained multitudes.

She nodded, and the two left the room of clothes behind, making their way to the next door. This one opened up into another hallway—small and cramped this time—and Dante stopped in his tracks at what he saw once he stepped inside.

The hall was lined on one side with holding cells. Peering into the first one, Dante saw a woman.

She was stretched across a bed, her thin dress hitched up to her thighs. At first he thought she hadn’t seen them enter, and he took a step toward the cell’s bars, hoping to get her attention. She looked like a Noxxan woman, though he couldn’t see her face to be sure.

“Hello?” he called softly, trying not to startle her, but she made no indication of having heard him.

Dante looked back at Tinsley behind him, and he saw the horror in her eyes. She wasn’t looking at the Noxxan woman, though. She was staring beyond him into the other cells ahead. As Dante raised his head, he understood the look in Tinsley’s eyes.

Every cell held a woman, and all of them appeared to be sleeping, but it didn’t seem like normal sleep.

Dante gave one last glance to the Noxxan woman before stepping forward to the next cell, and the next, and the next. And finally, he understood what was wrong. They weren’t sleeping. They were drugged.

It made Dante sick to his stomach, but his mind was still focused on one thing—finding Maraliza. Each new cell was a new chance to find her, but as he made his way down the hall, his heart began to beat faster. There were Noxxan women, human women, Xoyosan women—women, it seemed, from every corner of the star system. Except Lorr.

Not a single Lorr was among them, and Dante didn’t know if he should feel relieved or terrified at that fact. The thought of seeing Maraliza drugged and unconscious, holed up in a dank jail cell, was more than he could bear.

But if she isn’t here…

Dante didn’t let his mind wander into worst case scenarios. The fact was, he and Tinsley were on a mission, and he wouldn’t stop until he found his sister. He only hoped it wasn’t too late to save her when they did.

“She’s not here,” he said, turning back to Tinsley, trying to swallow the pain in his voice.

“Then we keep looking,” Tinsley replied.

Dante nodded and was about to leave the hallway when he hesitated. There were still so many victims here, and he didn’t know how to help them all. He knew he couldn’t rescue them, but he couldn’t leave with a clean conscience, either.

Tinsley answered the question for him.

“We need to go,” she said. “We can’t help them from in here. Only by shutting the whole operation down. But that means getting out of here.”

Dante’s heart ached at the thought of leaving them, but he knew Tinsley was right. They couldn’t very well sneak dozens of unconscious women out of a fortified facility. They’d need a lot more help.

He nodded. Together, he and Tinsley left the hallway. Casting a glance over his shoulder as he shut the door behind him, Dante vowed to help them as soon as he could.

For now, though, they still had to find his sister, and he couldn’t help but feel frustrated that they’d wound up at something of a dead end. Not only that, but now they had to find their way out of the facility again without getting caught and figure out how to find another thread to follow.

It was becoming disheartening, especially with what they’d just seen, but Dante knew they couldn’t give up. Maraliza needed him.

Tinsley must have sensed his distress again because she slipped her hand into his and squeezed. It was a simple gesture but a powerful one. Dante couldn’t help but feel a little lighter, a little more hopeful, a little more energized as they made their way back toward the vent shaft.

They were going to get out of there alive. They were going to figure out where his sister was. And they were going to rescue her. There were no alternative options, and he knew Tinsley felt the same. It was about the only thing giving him hope now that he’d realized Maraliza likely wasn’t on that tiny little planet after all.

“She’s out there somewhere,” he muttered to himself.

“And we’re going to find her,” Tinsley finished for him, squeezing his hand again.

Dante squeezed back.