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Erznet wobbled back to face me, giving me a weak smile. I thought it funny and singled another blow across his chin while I threw my fist back for another. I figured it was his bid for mercy, but with Serena at his boss’s mercy, it was a favor I wouldn’t give.
“Oh!” The crowd crowed as my fist sent him flying back to the ropes. Draven somehow found a win-win.
The crowd got what they wanted. The high rollers would get a chance to win or lose money as expected. But while the unexpected inclusion of Erznet in Dathaf’s place had everyone a little puzzled, it didn’t stop the show altogether.
Draven pulled a few strings with station police to make sure Laxon’s goon wouldn’t stand in the ring with me, but the note the fucker left didn’t say anything about a replacement fighter.
“Yikes, Erznet the Unknown takes another belt to the breadbasket.”
“I don’t know who this guy is, but he’s taken a hell of a beating.”
Erznet wobbled back to his corner for a moment, looking to his ‘coach,’ Ryrik, to save him. Ryrik promptly turned him on the heel and footed him back in my direction where a deep blow sent him to the ground.
“One. Two.” the referee counted. As his voice trailed on, I thought about the genius of our plan. It was pretty basic. We figured Laxon wouldn’t pull a move like kidnapping unless he bet pretty heavily on the fight. With Dathaf out of the way, all bets were off. But there was still a way that the night’s fight could give me some clue about how to get to Serena.
“Seven. Eight…”
And, of course, there was more than one way to throw a fight.
“He’s made a recovery folks! Erznet the Unknown is back on his feet.”
Erznet went beady-eyed as he looked at me and spit on the crowd.
It was my cue.
Erznet looked scared shitless as I took off running to face him and opened him in his middle over and over as if he was a punching bag. I didn’t hold back. This wasn’t part of the show.
“The crowd can’t believe it. Jalik has lost his temper and is unleashing on Erznet! This guy doesn’t stand a chance.”
“He punched the ref in the nose. Ref won’t take that lying down.”
“Disqualified!” The ref raised his hand and threw it down in one swift motion. “Jalik is out of order. This fighter is disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct.”
The room shifted in panic, with every face unsure of what to make of what they just saw. Jalik the Great just lost his cool and handed the fight to Erznet.
The ref grabbed Erznet’s hand from the middle of the ring and threw it up in the air. He looked filled with glee, apparently pleased with his payment for being the night’s punching dummy.
I sweated bullets from the floor of the ring, giving the audience what they came to see. An unhinged fighter. Little did they know how hot my blood raged beneath my skin now that the fight was over.
I dispersed into the crowd, grabbing my hood and throwing it over myself. Sakkar joined me at my side.
“Watch the feed,” I told him as he headed to his surveillance desk to watch from the camera room. “I’ll be in the betting lounge blind spot where no one will see me. You’re my eagle eyes, Sakkar. Let me know if anyone in the room acts funny.”
He dropped his head in a meaningful glance while I disappeared ahead of the crowd.
Reporters would come looking for the great fighter, Jalik, but they wouldn’t find him.
I knew where I could hide in the betting lounge unseen, where I could watch the betting machines and see which one of these freak Fanaiths had taken her.
She was my girl. It was time to get her back.
SERENA
Waiting, I came to find, was almost just as excruciating as any other kind of torture.
Waiting to hear if Jalik did as he was told. Waiting to see if he didn’t. Waiting to see what these people would do to me then. Or, if they just got bored and decided to do whatever they wanted to me anyway.
Every time one of them so much as walked in my general direction, I’d hold my breath. To my relief though, they only ever taunted me.
