Onslaught (Rise of the Empire Book 6) Read Free Page B

temple, but he had spoken in her language. She had been teaching him her language, just as he had been teaching her his.
    Anessa tilted her head, then turned around and grabbed the clothes from her bed. She then proceeded to put them on slowly, all the while using all her senses to feel out his reaction. He had great control, but his mastery of the Sha was not perfect. She’d noticed a handful of instances when his control over his mental abilities slipped, just for a moment. Too short of a period for anyone to take advantage of; in fact, too short for most to even notice it. However, she was a Dai Sha, one of the most powerful Sha masters in the Shara Daim. She could take advantage of it, even crippled as she was. The most she could get was a snippet of his emotions, a stray thought here and there.
    She knew that he found her attractive, which had surprised her the first time she’d felt it. Since then, she had paid a bit more attention to his reactions, and had found that he wasn’t unpleasant to look at, only different than what she was used to. But those things mattered little to Shara Daim; they looked for different qualities in mates. And Anessa only involved herself with those who were her equals.
    “What is it that you want to show me?” she asked as she finished dressing.
    “Come and see,” he said.
    Anessa’s face twitched. Her captor seemed reliant on theatrics. That was to be expected, if she had been dealing with any other opponent. However, this Human had never been an ordinary opponent. He had given her information freely that had given her an edge over him; he had, in fact, tricked her into revealing things to him that under ordinary circumstances she would never have done. She gave herself a bit of a pass there; she had been injured, and for the first time since being a scared little child, had found herself restrained and without the access to most of her Sha abilities.
    As they walked out of the room and through the long hallways of whatever construct they were in, Anessa reflected on her situation. She’d been a prisoner for some time. A well-treated prisoner, for sure, but a prisoner all the same. She had given her oath to not try and escape, and she had abided by it because she had been promised that she would be returned to her people. And because she was certain that she couldn’t escape or harm them enough for it to be a worthy death. To die a pointless death was the worst fate a Shara Daim could imagine. But as time passed and she was still imprisoned, she found herself growing more and more impatient. Adrian had assured her that she would be sent to her people in time.
    And even if she wanted to escape, she wouldn’t be able to. She didn’t know where she was, she didn’t know how to operate their technology, and she had no access to the majority of her Sha—she didn’t want to try and remove the device on her own and risk crippling her own abilities. And without it, she doubted that she could get far. She was never allowed outside of her room without Adrian present, and without her Sha, he had the advantage. She was stronger and faster than him, but his fighting capability was superior despite that.
    She had no choice but to trust that he would honor his promise. Four guards followed them with weapons held ready, but Anessa knew that they had no Sha. She had only encountered two who had it, Adrian and the female that she fought with on Tarabat. And she hadn’t seen the female since they had arrived here. Adrian had told her that they had awakened Sha only recently, and that they were not born with it. It was one more bit of evidence that they were not worthy of possessing the knowledge inside the device.
    Adrian was trying to convince her that peace between the Shara Daim and the Empire was possible, but he did not understand. The Shara Daim’s goal was to rule the galaxy; they would not accept an outsider, someone inferior to them, as partners. Yet, as more and more time passed