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She stared at me like I was crazy. “I thought you hated the fighting pits?”
“I do.”
“Then what are we doing here?”
“Just because I hate them doesn’t mean we can’t use them.”
“What if you die?” she said. “I’ll be stuck on this planet with no way of getting home!”
“Don’t be silly,” I said. “You’re coming with me.”
I’d never seen her speechless before. Her mouth fell open and she just stared at me. She stared for a long time.
“You’re crazy!” she said. “I can’t fight! I lost in a fight with Nancy Nedry and she only had one arm!”
“You don’t need to fight,” I said. “But you can give me a hand. Two people maximum per entry. It means we can take in twice as many weapons. We’ll need them to defeat the three challenges.”
She gaped in horror. “I’m a weapon stand?”
“You’ll be helping me. I won this competition years ago. The prize money was enough to set me free. I can do it again.”
“How?” Alice said, still panicking.
“The prize money is huge,” I said. “Enough to buy a small ship. Nothing fancy, but enough to get us off this planet. I know where my crew will go. The one place they’ve been trying to get me to pillage this whole time.”
“How can you be so sure?” Alice said. “The galaxy is a huge place. They could have gone anywhere.”
I kissed her on the forehead. “Trust me. You’ll realize why they chose it when we get there.”
“Next!”
It was our turn. But Alice didn’t look convinced.
“I need you to believe we can do this,” I said. “If you’re really against it, we won’t do it. But I’m telling you, this is our best shot.”
Alice ran a nervous hand through her dirty hair and let out a deep breath. “Okay. But don’t expect me to bond with you in front of thousands of people. I don’t care how hurt you get.”
I chuckled and kissed her again. “I don’t need you to bond with me to feel stronger. I only need you by my side.”
“That’s not what you said in the captain’s quarters…”
“Next!” the creature at the table barked.
He was a lizard with sinister yellow eyes and sharp teeth. He tapped his claws on the table, his head balanced on his chin. His tail turned around a table leg.
“Name?” he said, bored already.
“Zaydor,” I said, spurting the first name that came to mind.
“How many in your team?”
“Two.” I brought Alice around. “She’s the other one.”
The lizard looked her over and his long tongue licked his thick lips. “And what’s this morsel’s name?”
“Al—”
“Alzore,” I said. We didn’t need to be using our real names. Not when there might be Enforcers in the crowd.
