Chapter One

Sutton

Ijolted awake to the groaning creak of metal. My heart slammed against my ribs as I blinked into the gloom. Rusty bars caged me in on all sides - a prison cell no bigger than a dog crate.

Stale air clogged my lungs, reeking of machine oil and something sour that made my stomach churn. I shuddered, the chill of this hellish place seeping into my bones.

How many days had it been? Weeks? I'd lost all sense of time trapped in the underbelly of this alien nightmare. One horror blurred into the next in an endless cycle of fear.

Gritting my teeth, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to picture Ella's face. My best friend back on Earth with her warm eyes and sunshine smile. She'd be frantic by now, demanding answers, refusing to give up until I was safe at home.

If only I could tell her I was still fighting, too. That the alien bastards who took me hadn't broken me yet.

A sharp hiss made me flinch. Air cycled through vents in the ceiling, bitter and acrid. My gaze darted around the cramped space, searching for any change, any clue of what fresh hell awaited me.

Dim lights flickered across the cargo hold, revealing row after row of cages. Hunched figures peered through the bars, aliens of every grotesque shape and size. Twisted horns and leathery wings, spines and scales - a kaleidoscope of nightmares.

One cage over, a reptilian creature thrashed against its bonds, jaws snapping with a hollow clack of fangs. Mottled yellow eyes glared at me before slicking back to reveal thin slits of pure malice.

I shrank into the corner, clutching my knees to my chest. The only human as far as I could see. Just one freak among many in this fucked-up alien circus.

Where were they taking us? Some depraved flesh market to be sold off as exotic prizes? Or maybe the lucky ones got served up as entrées to the highest bidder. My gut twisted at the thought.

No. I couldn't dwell on that. Couldn't let myself slip into the darkness coiled inside, waiting to swallow me whole.

Focus on something else. Anything else.

I traced the graceful curves of an ampersand in my mind, picturing the precise strokes of ink on paper. The Bickham Script I'd been working on before... before everything went to shit.

My own personal brand of meditation. Concentrating on the flow of each letterform, losing myself in the art I loved more than anything. It was my only refuge, my only link to the normal life I'd known just weeks ago.

Somewhere in the distance, a muffled clang echoed like a death knell. The whole craft shuddered and whirred, engines roaring louder. We were moving, picking up speed - but where were they taking us?

A cold weight settled in the pit of my stomach. Maybe this was it. Maybe they'd had enough fun carting me around like a prize heifer and were finally hauling me to the slaughter.

Well, if this was the end, I refused to go out cowering in a corner. My nails dug into my palms as I lifted my chin with as much defiance as I could muster. If these alien freaks wanted to butcher me, they'd have one hell of a fight on their hands.

The craft banked hard, throwing me against the bars. White-hot pain lanced through my shoulder as metal bit into my flesh. I strangled back a scream, tasting copper on my tongue.

All around, aliens wailed and screeched in a deafening chorus of terror. Sparks rained down from overhead as the ship pitched and yawed in a dizzying frenzy.

Then—a deafening boom like the world was caving in. The roar of rending metal drowned out all other sounds as a blinding fireball erupted somewhere up ahead.

I cried out, flinging my arms over my face as searing heat washed over me. Twisted shrapnel ricocheted in every direction, clanging off the bars with bone-jarring force.

The cacophony swelled into a fever pitch, a hurricane of chaos and destruction unlike anything I'd ever known. This was it... this was how I died.

Just a speck of human debris strewn across the galaxy, light years from home.

Over the relentless onslaught of noise, a piercing screech cut through the madness - a new sound ripping across the hold. At first, I couldn't place it, couldn't process anything beyond the panic clawing at my mind.

Then it hit me like a shock of ice water - the unmistakable scream of rending metal as something huge forced its way inside.

I scrambled back as billowing clouds of smoke poured into the hold. Sparks and embers swirled, stinging my eyes.

A massive silhouette loomed in the haze, stalking forward with measured strides. Broad shoulders weighed down by battle-worn armor.

Razor-sharp talons flexed at its sides, glinting like obsidian in the fire glow. Hellish amber eyes bored through the smoke, fixing me with an intensity that stopped my heart in my chest.

Some kind of feline beast, ripped straight from my most primal nightmares. A monster of fangs and fury, untamed power given form.

The massive silhouette paused, those piercing amber eyes fixing on me with an almost palpable intensity. For a long, breathless moment, the beast studied me—really looked at me—as if I were some kind of curiosity it had never encountered before.

Confusion furrowed its brow as it took me in, whiskers twitching. I could practically see the gears turning behind that predatory gaze, trying to make sense of what it was seeing.

A human. Here, in the twisted depths of this alien hellscape.

It made no sense, and we both knew it. Our two worlds could hardly be more disparate—and yet, here we were, staring each other down across a reality—shattering divide.

The beast's mouth worked soundlessly, as if it meant to speak, but thought better of it. Instead, it shook its head in a minute gesture, seeming to collect itself. A muscle ticked along its powerful jaw as that razor-sharp focus returned, homing in on whatever mission had brought it here with such bloody purpose.

Straightening to its full, towering height, the beast turned and prowled away, leaving me gaping after it in stunned disbelief. I watched, dumbstruck, as that hulking form melted into the swirling smoke and chaos, tail twitching behind him.

"Wha- Hey! You can't just...!" My words withered on my tongue as the reality of my situation came crashing back down.

I was still trapped, a sitting duck in this steel cage as the world burned around me. The beast—my would-be rescuer or executioner, I still couldn't tell—had brushed me aside like an afterthought, clearly consumed by some larger purpose.

A harsh cough racked my lungs as more acrid smoke billowed into the hold. I squeezed my eyes shut against the sting, pressing my sleeve to my face in a feeble attempt at filtering the poisonous air.

This was bad. Really, really bad. If I didn't get out of here soon, I was as good as dead.

My gaze skittered across the smoldering ruin of the cargo hold, desperation mounting as the haze thickened. There had to be something, some way to pry open this cage and get myself free. Anything was better than waiting around to choke on my own lungs or get crushed beneath the inevitable collapse.

But no matter where I looked, I saw only twisted metal and scorched bulkheads, the shattered detritus of a ship tearing itself apart from the inside out. The bars trapping me were just as unyielding as ever, sealing me in this steel coffin with no hope of escape.

A fresh tremor rocked the deck, nearly pitching me from my feet. Something groaned in the vessel's guts, a death knell preceding total system failure.

Panic closed in, clawing at my throat as I cast about in wild desperation. This couldn't be how it ended. Not like this, not trapped in this nightmarish labyrinth of violence and ruin. There had to be a way out, some miracle I just wasn't seeing...

The deafening groan of tearing metal made my head whip around. A massive support beam gave way overhead, crashing down in a shower of sparks. My heart seized as the twisted hunk of metal slammed into the decking not ten feet away. This was it—the beginning of the end.

I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the inevitable as the ship's superstructure collapsed in earnest. This was how it would all go dark. Buried alive in the smoldering remains of this alien nightmare.

But as I tensed for oblivion, a small flicker of defiance flickered in my chest. A dying ember, refusing to be snuffed out so easily. I was still that girl. Still human, with all the strength and resilience that made my species such indomitable survivors against all odds. And I would be damned if I let these alien horrors snuff me out like a candle flame in the night.

Glaring at the twisted bars containing me, I clenched my fists and straightened my spine. If this was to be my end, I would meet it head-on, with the full force of my fury blazing in my eyes. One way or another, I would not go quietly into that endless night. Not without a fight.

I was still that girl. Still human, with all the strength and resilience that made my species such indomitable survivors against all odds. And I would be damned if I let these alien horrors snuff me out like a candle flame in the night.