“Kaiser is an idiot!”
“I agree.” Jaeger’s solemn expression stops me. “This is madness. He should not fight. It’s not good for him, even if he does survive.” Jaeger shakes his head. “I offered to take his place in the ring, and he threatened to chop off both my legs. To save me, he said.”
That’s so beautiful, I could cry. “That’s so like him.”
“He would do it, too. He loves to sacrifice himself for the people he loves. I could kill him, but he’s my brother. What can I do?” He shrugs. Then, to my surprise, he opens the door.
I rush into the living room. The TV is still playing raw footage of old fights, and the crutches are leaning against the couch.
Kaiser is gone.
“He’ll go into hiding and start training. You’ll see him before the fight.”
“We have to stop this.”
“I don’t know how.” Jaeger’s head hangs down. Elodie comes to his side, and he clamps an arm around her, bowing his head and breathing in the scent of her hair.
“I’m sorry, Bella,” Elodie says. Tears are rolling down her cheeks, too.
“This isn’t happening,” I say. Despair is leaking out with every tear, but my mind is flitting around from possibility to possibility. There are so many ways out of this. So many poisons.
Kaiser isn’t going to die.
He’s mine.
“We have to find another way,” I say to Jaeger and Elodie. “You have to help me.”
Jaeger shakes his head, looking hopeless. Elodie puts a hand on his chest, and he covers it with his own.
“What can we do?” she asks in a steady voice.
A plan pops into my head. I have to think through all the consequences, but if I’m right, they’ll only fall on me. “I know what to do.”
40
Bella
The night of the fight, Jaeger escorts me and Elodie into the dark underbelly of New Rome, down an elevator in Club Empire, and into a long tunnel that smells like the subway. I’m blindfolded, breathing the wretched air. Jaeger leads me to the fight space, and I hear the distant buzz of voices. The closer we get to the fight, the louder the voices become.
When he removes my blindfold, I blink, even in the dim light. We’re in a vast space crowded with all sorts of people. Men in suits, smoking cigars. Bikers in leather jackets with neck tattoos and black helmets hiding their faces. Muscle men with no necks. People with sun-worn skin and unwashed clothes, their big smiles showing their black and missing teeth. Yuppies stumbling around, a drink in either hand. Too-skinny teens selling all sorts of goods—soda, peanuts, packets of white powder—to anyone who has cash to pay them. The noise—and the smell—is overwhelming.
In the center, on a sort of stage, is a roped-off ring surrounded by blinding lights. This is where they’ll hold the fight.
I look around, holding my breath, waiting for a glimpse of Kaiser. I haven’t seen him since our fight in the living room. He’s stayed away for over a week, working with Atticus to heal enough to be ready to fight. He’s called a few times, but all I did was shout at him until tears ran down my face.
He left me. The big, beautiful idiot. He thinks he’s saving me. Freeing me.
But without him, I can’t be free. Look what happened to my dad when he lost my mom. He hasn’t really been living. He’s in prison.
I’m going to fix this, and then I will make sure Kaiser never leaves me again.
“There he is,” Jaeger says, pointing across the room. Kaiser is behind a group of men in skull masks. The blond hair on his head has grown into stubble and glints in the low light.
Across the room are the Vesuvios. They’re all in green and gold, with pentacles hanging on oversized chains around their necks. Some of them are in golden masks with horns like a bull. The Bulls. That’s their house mascot at Unitas University.
The Giant is there in a bull mask, towering over the rest.
“This is a terrible idea,” Jaeger growls. “Kaiser will never forgive me if anything happens to you.”
