Ka'Cit's Haven (Riv’s Sanctuary #3)

He’d figure it out later.

Right now, the most important part of his plan was closing that lower sector down.

He’d do that first and think about the rest later.

8

Nia sat in the cell seething.

It must have been at least half an hour since she’d been placed in the cell—or longer. She didn’t really know.

Time moved differently in dire circumstances.

Her gaze was still on the door, but it hadn’t opened since they’d put her in and apart from the two aliens standing guard inside, no one else had entered the room.

She was still gripping on to the bars of the cell. She hadn’t moved, and neither had they.

“What do you think Herza will sell it as?” The henchman’s question seemed to echo in the small room.

“Don’t know. Felt soft when I held it. Soft and small.”

Nia watched them. They were speaking about her, she knew.

“Maybe a pleasure pet?”

The other one grunted.

“Unfair,” he finally said.

“Why?”

“We never get those things.”

“Of course not, idiot. They’re expensive.”

A moment of silence.

“Ever been close to a pleasure pet?”

The henchmen looked at each other before turning their heads back her way.

“No. You?”

“No.”

As if they had some unsaid agreement, they both stepped forward.

Facing them now, Nia realized that she could see underneath their hoods.

Their skin was dark and filled with cracks like lava underneath scorched rock and their eyes were dark too.

She shuddered a little and moved farther within the cage.

Her foot hurt—there was still that pebble inside her shoe—but she didn’t have time to take it out. Instead, she scrambled farther backward and away from the advancing aliens.

“Looks soft…” one said.

“Yes. I just said it was.”