Coral

Every single part of me hurts. I didn't think it was possible for hair to be painful, but it is. Somewhere in the dimly lit space around me, I hear a groan.

"Jade?"

There's no response, and I sit up, wishing I hadn't as a rank smell hits my nostrils and my stomach heaves.

"Oh god, don't throw up. You'll set me off," Jade says, her voice croaky.

"Where are we?" I groan.

I put my hand to my ringing head, trying to work out if I've been hit.

There's no sign of any trauma. And finally my brain flashes to life. The wall collapsing, the creatures coming through.

"The stingers." I gasp out loud.

Jade makes a retching sound. "Told you you'd set me off," she says, voice hollow. "We've been fucking abducted again."

"By spiders." I groan.

My stomach is super sensitive from whatever they stung us with, and I shudder at the memory. Exactly how poisonous it is remains to be seen, but presumably the aliens who have taken us want us alive…or we wouldn't be.

Ice forms in my veins. What has happened to Drasus and the others? Was this an advance party? Have they taken the Sarkarnii as well?

"Breathe, Coral." Jade has her arm around my shoulders. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you."

"I'm not scared," I say, although I am, very much, scared. "But what about everyone else?"

Jade looks around our small room. There's no furniture, nothing but a hole in the floor which is presumably for waste, given the disgusting smell which is emanating from it. I can't even see a door.

"I'm hoping they're not anywhere similar," she says. "This place is the pits, and I'm going to leave a very strongly worded online review."

Jade stands and bangs on the wall. "I want to speak to the manager," she yells.

The noise makes my head ring and my stomach flip once more, but I don't want to be stuck in here either. I need to find Drasus, the other Sarkarnii, and humans. If they're prisoners too…

"Hey!" I yell, slamming my hand on the warm metal. "Let us out!"

We hammer on the wall for ages until we're both panting and I'm more nauseous than before.

"I'm so sorry, Jade, I'm going to have to throw up," I gasp, only just making it to the stinking hole.

At least I get most of my vomit in it, but the smell has me retching for far longer than necessary. When I fall back, the door is open and one of the spider aliens is standing there.

Behind it, Jade squirms in the grasp of another, her eyes white and terrified.

I have nowhere to go as it reaches out a set of clicking jaws. I want to fight but having been sick, I'm as weak as a kitten, and I also don't want to touch the spider.

I hate spiders.

The jaws clamp around my wrist, and I'm dragged out into a corridor no more pleasant than the cell we were being held in. Jade whimpers, and the noise seems to annoy the one holding her because she gets a shake for her trouble.

"Stop it, you're going to hurt her!" I hear myself say.

"The flesh is not to be damaged," my spider clicks out. The words translate but it seems the clicks are such that they remain part of the sentence structure.

Despite what the spider says, they are not gentle as we're pulled and pushed through the tubelike passages until finally a door opens, and we're both shoved inside.

There are more spiders, and I'm virtually paralyzed from fear and loathing. The stench in this place is even worse. I have to cover my mouth and nose. I see Jade has done the same.

We're clearly on a space ship—there's a large window and the stars outside are pinpricks in blackness. Here I can feel a hum under my feet which I presume is how it feels to have a rocket engine operating somewhere nearby.

Then it steps out of the dark. Maybe seven feet tall, at least the same height as Draco, this alien is a snot green, his skin has a sickly sheen, and the armor he wears is dull and looks moldy in places. A broad head sits on a thick neck, and he has a face filled with tusks and what look like warts. I'm almost certain I'm going to throw up again at the smell of him, or perhaps because he looks like an ancient cheese.

If I didn't dislike the spiders as much as I do, he would make my skin crawl.

"Is this all there was?" the alien grumbles. "Two females? I was led to believe there were more."

"We only found two in the place where we could gain access. The rest of the females were not human. You stated you wanted human," a spider with a red streak over its mandibles clicks.

"I wanted the Sarkarnii's humans," the foul green alien says. "If we are to get them to comply, to be the indentured mercenaries, we need their mates."

My heart falls into my boots. We're leverage, that's why Jade and I have been taken.

"One of them is mated to a Sarkarnii," the spider says.

"Which one?"

A long, barbed leg extends towards me. This time, I do fight against the grasp of the spider's jaws, twisting my wrist raw.

"The Sarkarnii will not come for us, for me," I yell. "They don't respond to bullies like you."

The green alien chokes out a laugh.

"Are you sure this one is mated? Doesn't she know the Sarkarnii will go to the ends of the universe for their fated ones?"

"She is mated. There is evidence of Sarkarnii spill in her internal parts."

"The fuck!" Jade shouts. "If you've fucking probed me, I will find the universe's biggest vacuum cleaner and hoover you to hell."

"If you don't need the noisy one, we have a buyer," the spider with the red streak says, as if buying and selling other sentient beings is their normal trade.

"I don't. I'll take the mated one." The green alien leers at me. "My Lord will be pleased."

"No!" I twist again. "Jade!"

But it's too late. She's being dragged out the door and I'm being pulled towards the green alien.

I'm going to be bait for the Sarkarnii. And if there's one thing I know, Drasus will come for me.

Right into a trap which is going to be far worse than the Kirakos.