FightingSanity Read Free

can’t allow that. She is a danger to herself and others.”
    Fifty meters outside the gate, I have a shuttle. It counts as a consulate and carries immunity from seizure. I will remain here for precisely twelve hours. If you can get to the ship, you will be free.
    I understand. What is the penalty if I leave now? She cocked her head and waited for his reply.
    Go.

    Chapter Three
    Four years of repressed energy turned the wall into tiny bits as she slammed an invisible fist through the window. With her indoor slippers, she ran through the hole in the building and tried to find the shuttle as the Instructor had described it.
    The first green gas bomb went off and she shielded her body with a four-foot bubble while a second and third exploded within an arm’s reach of her. Erinii deflected the weapons trained on her and kept going, snapping the gate in two as she approached.
    She heard the shouts and ran as quickly as she could, her cardio was the only part of her exercise regimen that she had been unable to maintain. Her skin burned and her pulse raced, but she managed to make it to the silvery ship that opened at her arrival.
    A skimmer cut her off, blocking her from gaining sanctuary. The administrator was in the skimmer with the instructor.
    The moment that the Citadel representative was out of the skimmer, she shoved the transport device aside while clutching the administrator in a fist of power, lifting him fifteen feet off the ground.
    She faced the instructor and asked him, “Was your question genuine?”
    He stood with his foot on the step of his shuttle. “It was.” He extended his pale hand to her and she took the few steps necessary to close the distance.
    He was completely unfazed by her grip on the administrator. The moment that she took his hand, he pulled her inside and pressed a number of keys on the door pad to seal the hatch.
    “You might want to release the administrator, Erinii. You don’t want to hold him during launch and we need to be going right now .” His voice rose on the last two words and the ship shuddered under their feet.
    She lurched and he wrapped her in his arms, holding her tight as the ship lifted off the surface and made for the sky.
    “You have a pilot?”
    “Sort of. Let’s get you into a seat and then we can discuss whatever you wish.”
    He helped her walk along the rocking deck and fight the heavy pressure of gravity.
    She fell into the seat with a groan and buckled the harness with her mind. He sat next to her and wrapped his hands around the controls, pulling them out of the atmosphere and dodging the weapon’s fire that was coming from the surface.
    “They seem to object to your departure, Erinii.”
    She yawned. “They don’t want me, but they don’t want anyone else to have me. It is a story written in the ages.”
    He chuckled. “You still don’t believe that this is real, do you?”
    She blinked and grinned. “If this was real, you would not be nearly as pretty as you are.”
    The laugh that he barked out made her smile. It was a good hallucination to have. His neck was corded with muscle, his robes teased as to what would be underneath and his hair begged to be touched.
    Absently, she touched her hair and scowled at the matted red mass that was knotted into a wad on her head. It was at that moment that a trickle of hope went through her. If her hair was this messed up, she might have touched reality. All of her fantasies had held elaborate coifs that were held in place with tiaras or veils.
    The knots that she was wearing must have made her look as insane as she had been only one week ago.
    She watched the mountains that surrounded the city of her birth grow smaller and smaller as they entered the cloud layer. The Citadel representative was quite the pilot. He pulled them out of the territory of Bassinor and into free and open space.
    The moment that they were free of Bassinor space, an escort of larger, sleeker ships surrounded them. Without any words being