“He will be fine,” Vlad says. A cold shiver rushes down my spine. Do they already know? Have they already—
The clurichaun pushes drinks in front of both of us and I realise Vlad already ordered. He turns me away from the bartender, who is now staring at me with much more curiosity in their gaze, and looks out over the room.
A cheer goes up through the doorway. There are vampires and wolves in here, but mostly fae, so perhaps we do not stand out that much at all.
“Drink,” Vlad murmurs. “We are here for a nice time.”
I arch a brow at him, but I know he can still hear how quickly my heart is going. “We are?”
He snorts and takes a sip of his own drink. When he aims a curious glance at the doorway, the bartender sidles up to us again. “Here to gamble or to fight?”
Vlad wrinkles his nose. “What do you think?”
The clurichaun’s lips twitch, showing just a flash of sharp teeth. I don’t think they suspect who we are, which is no small relief. Of course my near panic attack probably helped with that.I roll my eyes at myself internally and take a heavy gulp of my drink.
“Well, there’s the wolf up next,” the bartender says. “One of them. He’s only a babe, but he hasn’t done badly in his last three fights.”
“Oh?” Vlad angles his body in and the clurichaun mirrors him, leaning against the top of the bar.
“He doesn’t shift, but he’s an agile fighter. Took down a selkie his first time, then two banshees and a dryad.”
I frown, peering through the crowd in the next room. It sounds like the new contender is entering what I can now see is a tall cage. From this angle, I can’t see either fighter, though I’m unwilling to leave Vlad behind to go take a look.
“And who takes the bets?”
“The twins,” the bartender says. “Well, their men. You’ll have to go through, see if you can get in to bet on the first round.”
Vlad drains his drink and grins, but only with his mouth. “Thank you for the help.”
I leave half of my own drink behind as I trail him into the next room.
“Plan?” I mutter.
“Twins,” he says just as quietly back. The crowd is packed in, all kinds of fae mixed with wolves and vampires and I think the odd human, and from the sounds they’re making, the fight has already begun.
I don’t look at that. I’m scanning the room just like Vlad is, searching for these twins—the high fae we’re likely after. They won’t be in the cage. They’re running the show.
Just as I spot the shadowed booth they have to be hiding in—why else would two trolls be flanking its sides—Vlad swears and grabs my arm. “Oh, hell.”
“What?”
He’s staring into the cage, and when I follow his gaze, my heart sinks. We both recognise the wolf fighting in there. Quinn. The wolf who killed a vampire. The wolf who, very recently, narrowly avoided a challenge with another vampire over that same murder.
The wolf who the bartender is apparently right about because Quinn is fighting a troll, and he is more than holding his own.
Chapter Two
Quinn
Allmyfocusison the fae standing across from me in the ring. The crowd clamours, already loud, some daring to get up close and rattle the walls of the cage itself.
The fae opposite me, a troll, I think, squares his shoulders and flexes his arms. He’s big. Bigger than me. But I’ve watched the other trolls fight; they’re slow and often clumsy. I can do this.
Tonight marks my fourth round of fights, one step closer to coming here with no conditions at all. It also marks the first time I’m not absolutely terrified to be here—no one’s seen me coming or going from our pack house, and though Sam must feel me pass through the wards each time, he hasn’t asked what I’m doing.
The troll shifts his weight from one foot to the other and the crowd’s excitement intensifies as we begin to circle each other. I don’t look out at the faces. It doesn’t help.
Bryn told me that after my first fight. I won the first round against a selkie, who also seemed to be here for the first time, but then I faced off against a troll and lost. Badly. They pack a hell of a punch.
