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Our boss stood in his office with a knowing look, and I knew I could trust a plan to emerge between the three of us to save her without sacrificing the other.
“Draven,” I said, coming into the room and seeing concern catch his face. “We have a situation.”
“Yes, I heard that Serena was kidnapped.” Anger rose in his expression. “Any idea who took my star?”
I dropped my chin at him to let him know she was mine, if she was anyone’s. I’d made the mistake of trying to be low-key about her before. I wouldn’t make it again.
“A fighter named Laxon. He’s got a fight club outside the Narrows. Tonight’s Fanaith is his goon. And that’s not all.”
Sakkar showed Draven the note left in her wake.
“He wants me to throw the championship.”
“That won’t happen.” Draven had a lot riding on the night’s exhibition. He was expecting a casino packed with the elite of Thodos III, a showcase to have the station talking until next year.
“Unless you’ve got a better idea. He promised to hurt her.”
“That won’t happen, either.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. I saw the wheels working already. “So tonight’s Fanaith is his man, huh?”
“Yes. A fighter named Dathaf.”
“And what do we know about him?” He looked more serious than ever.
“What do you have in mind?” I crossed his office to face him, gripping my knuckles with the feeling that what he had up his sleeve was going to hurt somebody.
“Well, I was thinking about our Fanaith friend down in the holding cell.”
“Jalik! Jalik! Jalik!” I heard the cry from beyond my dressing room. It was almost time.
I covered my head with my pageant hood, my name displayed in gold letters across my shoulders. The thump of feet in stadium seats belted out a rhythm that, on any other fight night, would have had me raring to go.
But this wasn’t just any fight.
“Jalik, it’s time,” Draven said, ushering me to the fighter’s entrance. Smoke rose in a haze with the roar of the crowd from beyond. But I stayed dark under my hood, dark with my thoughts.
Fuck, Laxon had me in a tight spot. As a fighter, he must’ve known that throwing the fight was a brutal enough task. But to involve her, Serena, that was a blow below the belt.
I found myself wondering as I crawled into the ring if I had the kind of strength to do what it took when it really mattered. And it mattered a whole hell of a lot. I had always taken a certain pride in my job, apart from my friends in the Vinduthi mafia.
I was their watchdog, their protector. But I had something that truly needed my protection, and although the strength I needed at the moment was formerly a weakness I had trained myself against, I had no choice. Serena was relying on me, and if losing the fight was the only way to save her, then it was the choice I would make every time.
“Gentlebeings and Sentients,” the announcer yelled into the hanging microphone over our heads. “In tonight’s replacement fight, we give you Black Star’s own, Jalik!”
The crowd pelted out its usual show of appreciation with lights flickering from percomms around the stadium.
“We also have our last-minute replacement, a total unknown, Erznet.” The faces in the crowd didn’t know what to make of the terrified Fanaith shivering in the red boxer shorts Ryrik made him put on just before the match. They were obviously disappointed not to see the right blood match Draven had planned between me and Dathaf.
But I was a professional. I’d make sure they got to see plenty of blood.
“Oh!” The crowd winced as my fist made contact with Erznet’s face yet again.
“Another neat blow by Jalik,” the commentator said. A moment later, Erznet’s eyes uncrossed just long enough for me to pelt him in his blubbery amphibious body and send him hurling back across the floor. Ten rounds in and he was holding up better than any of us thought.
“One. Two. Three—” His tail flipped and flopped on the floor.
“Oh, and he’s back up. The total unknown who stepped in after Dathaf’s surprising arrest this afternoon in the lower decks.”
“Yes, it caught us all by surprise. The news that boxing’s up-and-coming champ, Dathaf Heruut, a Fanaith fighter, was caught up in today’s juice bust in the Promenade. Station security got a local tip about a ring of smugglers of the illicit fighting drug. While it’s unclear how deeply involved Dathaf was, it’s clear he won’t be fighting here tonight.”
