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The moment she settled into position, her obsidian eyes flashed in the moonlight. Excitement. Bomani stood between us, arms stretched wide like a gate. When they dropped, we would move. I’d never really fought before, not like this.

I usually avoided conflict. Not because I thought I couldn’t hold my own, but because I believed most fights weren’t worth having. If talking didn’t work, I simply walked away. People didn’t have power over you if you refused to give them your attention. That calm philosophy suddenly felt like a terrible disadvantage. Because Arianna looked ready. This would be the first fight that actually mattered. And I was going to make it count. Even if I didn’t win, landing one good hit would be enough revenge for the way she’d pinned me earlier.

My eyes stayed fixed on Bomani’s massive arms, waiting for them to slam against his thighs. He glanced between us once. Then his arms dropped like hammers. And he bolted out of the ring.

For a fraction of a second, time slowed. Arianna exploded from her crouch.

The air filled with the sharp mix of her citrus scent and Bomani’s lingering musk as she crossed the midpoint between us. My body tensed as she lunged. Her eyes locked with mine, burning with excitement. The wind caught her hair, streaming behind her like a dark wave.

Without thinking, I charged forward to meet her. My boots pounded through the snow, my body moving faster than it should have been able to. My heart hammered in my chest as adrenaline surged through my veins.

When we collided, Arianna struck first.

She slammed me into the snow, legs locking around my waist as she mounted me. Before I could even blink, a mahogany-colored fist smashed into my face. Once. Twice. Each blow drove my head deeper into the frozen ground. Blood burst across my lip and down the sides of my nose as she kept swinging.

She didn’t stop.

And she definitely didn’t hit like a human. For my first real fight, I had somehow ended up in the ring with someone who fought like a young Muhammad Ali. I had set myself up to fail, and she knew it.

Pain exploded across my cheekbone. My ears rang like a bell tower, and the snow beneath my head felt more like stone every time she slammed me against it. My vision began to blur at the edges as her knuckles crashed into the side of my temple without mercy. Just as my consciousness started slipping into darkness, a voice thundered through the chaos.

“Are you going to let her defeat you, boy? Get up.” Bomani’s voice cracked through the storm like a whip. The command vibrated through my skull, sharp and unyielding. And somehow, it kept me from surrendering to the darkness trying to pull me under.

Every blow left my skull ringing.

But I couldn’t just let her take the win. Bomani and Arianna had made that clear. Mid-strike, I shielded my face and caught her fist with my right hand. I grabbed her forearm, twisted, and slammed her into the snow beside me.

“That’s what you get,” I celebrated—too early. While she recovered, I scrambled to my feet.

It didn’t last long.

Arianna bounced up almost instantly. Before I could find my footing, she spun through the air and drove her heel into my back. The breath left my body as I stumbled forward, crashing face-first into the snow. She rushed in, ready to straddle me again.

Rolling onto my back, I kicked upward. My boots slammed into her gut and sent her flying backward. I pushed myself up and moved toward her. Arianna crouched on all fours, breathing hard. For a moment, I almost gave her time to recover. Almost. Something deeper inside me whispered the opposite.

Don’t stop.

My foot swung forward and drove into her stomach. She rolled onto her back, eyes blazing as they locked onto mine. There was something in her gaze, something cold and deadly, that sent anxiety racing through my veins.

My body reacted before my mind could stop it. That was the first time I ran from her. She looked furious. And I had just made the oldest mistake in any fight. Never turn your back. She closed the distance in seconds.

Her body launched onto my back, arms and legs locking around me. One hand grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked my head backward. Then she moved. Her legs unhooked, her body dropped, and suddenly I was being pulled with her. My head snapped up as the rest of my body followed. One arm slid under my shoulder. The other still held my hair. She spun us. Then she let go. I flew. Thirty feet through the air before slamming into the snow.

When my body hit the ground, embarrassment burned hotter than the pain. To think I had actually believed I could take her. Every inch of my body rang with agony as I lay there for a moment, accepting the truth. I hadn’t just lost. I had been obliterated. The crunch of boots rushed toward me through the snow.

I was just about to shout that I needed a moment when Bomani’s voice thundered across the clearing. “TRUCE.” I probably owed him my life for that. At the very least, he’d saved me from blacking out. And I was grateful for it.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hurting. My lips were swelling. Blood trickled slowly from my mouth. Copper filled my tongue. When I finally pushed myself upright, I limped over to them. Arianna didn’t even look ruffled. Just slightly winded, like the fight had barely pushed her off balance.

We went over everything I had done wrong. They gave notes. Lots of them.

Then we did it again.

And again.

And again.

I got better. But she kept winning. I kept losing. And I kept getting back up. That felt like the most honest thing about me so far.