The Apollo by Grace Ward

Author:Grace Ward [Grace Ward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grace Ward
Published: 2023-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter twenty-two

The women who'd taken Matteo were high-ranking Shaheeni guards or soldiers, who had not taken much time for niceties. After a few loop-de-loops, the woman piloting the glider gently landed on what appeared to be an even more lavish ship than The Apollo.

It was somewhat hard to tell, though, because in every direction the light hit the ship, a glare was reflected back into Matteo’s eyes, and he had to look away. He’d heard rumors of the excellent camouflage of the Shaheeni warships but had never imagined that they were perfectly invisible, even to their own crew.

The women walked him swiftly across the deck and led him down a spiral staircase to a prison cell. He wasn’t surprised. It’s not like he assumed the women kidnapped him to take him to a bed and breakfast. But as they slammed the iron door to his cell and tossed a loaf of stale bread, Matteo realized he’d entirely forgotten to devise an escape plan.

In his old life, saving children from their captors in Veronii, Matteo had grown good at finding the weak spots of a jail cell and escaping quickly. But none of those prisons had been in the sky. Besides, he had no idea why the women had snatched him up from the crows’ nest so rudely. He was suspicious that it had something to do with Avira. Perhaps this was phase one of Artemis’ plan to turn her over to her father. Avira would be far easier to give back to Gavriel without Matteo there to protect her.

Even now, he could feel the cool metal of Avira’s mother’s pendant resting against his leg. He’d kept it safely tied to his belt so it could be with him at all times, in case Avira caught him in a lie and he had to explain himself. Wearing the necklace around his neck was far too obvious, so he’d secured it safely to his belt buckle.

Matteo heard footsteps on the spiral stairway above him. They didn’t sound like the guard women this time, far too light and rapid. They almost sounded like the footsteps of a child. Matteo impulsively reached his waistline for a dagger, but he was unarmed. He hadn’t carried a weapon in his time on The Apollo. He had no way of protecting himself, so he silently prayed to Aurora that he wouldn’t have to.

“Awww, are you praying?” A shrill voice called out to him mockingly. He didn’t respond. He was still trying to understand who this adversary was.

“Please, Goddess,” the voice continued. “Don’t let the child kill me. It would be so humiliating.”

The dark room obscured the figure, but he could make out that she was small yet muscular. Perhaps a teenager?

Before he had time to think more, the mystery girl planted a foot squarely on the bars of his cell, letting out a thunderous ringing.

“Your little girlfriend says hello, by the way,” she taunted.

“Who are you?” said Matteo.

“Hey. I’m the one asking the questions here.”

After a moment

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