“Not two fucking seconds here and you’re already breaking my rules,” he groaned.
I just shrugged because what could he do? I was a rule breaker.
“Are you fighting?” I pushed. We hadn’t made it into the main room yet. I only had lights and sounds to tell me what was at the end of these tunnels, but I already knew in my heart what I’d find.
And I wanted in.
“I’m not fighting tonight,” Nolan said. “Everyone is anonymous here—you’ll soon see what I mean—and tonight there are six fights. The main event is Fallen Angel versus Demonica.”
“You don’t know who any of them are?”
I found that hard to believe because they all went to these fights together.
Nolan shook his head. “Nope. We all wear black masks, and then when we fight, we wear our persona. I don’t know what ‘persona’ any of my friends are. That’s the rule of this fight club.”
That was perfect. Royals couldn’t be charged with weapon fighting, but I could be. Charged and sentenced to death.
“I want in,” I said in a rush.
Nolan jerked back like I’d hit him.
“What? No! No freaking way. Mattie will kill me if you get hurt.”
I snorted. If only he knew how little he had to worry about me.
“It’s my life, dude,” I said firmly, “and if you don’t help me, I will find someone who will.”
His groan rumbled all the way from his chest, and I definitely heard the words “pain in the ass” leave his mouth.
“Fine, I will show you the way, but you’re too late to sign up for tonight, unless there’s a cancellation.”
Damn. “Okay, but next time I’m in, okay?”
Nolan nodded, but I sensed he wasn’t being entirely truthful there. He was going to do his best to keep me out of this, but I knew the way now. I knew the signs. I just didn’t know how to sign up for fights. Maybe it was done on the night. Or there was some sort of list to get on.
“You’ll need a persona,” he told me, breathing those words out reluctantly.
“I already have one,” I murmured back, and a sense of peace and contentment filled me.
Both of my worlds could come together again. My sanity would benefit from this, and I’d be much more focused in school. There was no downside.
“You’re kind of cocky,” Nolan said as he nudged me to start walking again, heading toward the lights.
“Confident, my friend,” I said distractedly. My mind was already in the room of light and noise.
Nolan made a strange sound, but didn’t speak again. When we stepped out, finally, into the place of my soul, I barely managed to stop the small gasp from emerging.
Holy shit.It was nothing like I’d expected. The room had at one time been a huge cave, hundreds of yards in diameter. Over the years they’d fixed it up, adding some octagons, boxing rings, and a grassed tournament area. How they’d gotten grass to grow down here, I had no idea, but I could already tell it wasn’t fake.
There were also dozens of people in the room, every single one of them clad in dark colors with a black mask over their face.
I could pick out some features, like those who were very tall or broad, but it was next to impossible to really see anything in these masks. They clung, but did not give too much detail.
“Are there other women here?” I whispered into Nolan’s back.
His muscles tensed. “Yes.”
One word and I knew that was all I’d get.
