Their voices aren’t pitying. They’re not whispering tragedy behind their hands anymore.
I walked into the ring and rewrote my name.
Jace walks ahead, one hand shoved in his pocket, the other still close to me, not touching, but near enough that I could grab it if I stumbled.
I don’t. Not after his claim.
I kinda want to fight again, though, just because of that. I’m not an object to be claimed.
Noah lingers just behind me, his jacket now draped over my shoulders. I didn’t ask. He didn’t offer. He just did it, and I let him.
Tex walks on my other side, jaw tight, quiet. But there’s a tension rolling off him that isn’t anger, it’s pride. Fierce, silent pride.
And Luca?
He’s already halfway up the steps, yelling to the guy who runs the board. “Run me my money, baby! I told you she’d wreck her!”
I blink. “You actually bet on me?”
Luca grins over his shoulder. “Please. I saw that fire in your eyes the second you tied up your hair. Best odds I’ve had in weeks.”
“You’re the worst,” I mutter.
“I’m the richest,” he corrects, tossing a wink back at me.
“Feel like we should be concerned about your gambling tendencies,” I mumble. Noah laughs.
Outside, the night air is sharp and clean — too cold for the sheer bralette I’m still wearing, but I barely feel it. Everything’s tingling. My blood’s still running hot. We drive back to campus and electricity thrums through me.
The gravel crunches under our boots as we walk across the path back toward the dorms. The lights from Blackmoore’s towers glow through the trees, pale gold and stately.
It should feel like returning to a cage. But it doesn’t. Not with them walking beside me.
Not with my knuckles split and my pulse still singing.
Not after tonight.
Luca nudges me with his elbow. “So. When are we forming an underground tag team?”
“You’d slow me down,” I say.
He gasps. “Unbelievable.”
“I’d pay to watch that,” Noah says.
“I’d pay to refuse to watch it,” Tex mutters.
Jace hasn’t said anything since. He’s walking just ahead, calm as ever. But when I glance up at him, I catch it — the flicker of a smile at the corner of his mouth.
It’s small. But it’s real. My heart stops for a moment.
We reach the dorms. They stop with me at the door like it’s instinct.
“Shift schedule still stands,” Jace says. “One of us is in your room every night.”
Tex looks at me. “You want it to be me tonight?”
Jace shifts, a smirk on his lips.
