My gaze ping-pongs between Birch and Fox, and I have no clue who to be cheering for. Neither prospect seems appealing. Maybe they’ll fight and kill each other, then the others will let me and Luke go.
Fox waits him out, and just when I think this is going to go on forever, Birch caves.
“Fine.”
I see the other FB shoot him looks varying from shocked to pissed off, but none of them say anything.
“Put them back in the van,” Fox orders, not even bothering to look at me or Luke. It’s like we’ve ceased to matter. “We’ll take it from here.”
We’re shoved back inside with about as much care as they dragged us out. The doors slam shut, plunging us into darkness, and it suddenly hits me how truly fucked I am. “Luke?” I whisper, aware that shifters are outside and can maybe hear us.
“Yeah?”
“I’m scared.”
He sighs, and I feel him shuffle to my side so that his thigh brushes mine. It’s nice, comforting, and I’ll take every little scrap I can get right now. “Me too.”
I want Lynx.
I want him in a way I don’t really understand, and I know it’s probably because I’m a shifter now or well on my way to being one, but that doesn’t change the bone deep yearning to have him by my side.
I want him to bite me, I think. To replace the teeth marks Birch left on me, because no matter what that fucker says, I amnothis.
I’m not fucking anyone’s.
Maybe Lynx’s?
I don’t know, if I’m honest. But I’d like the chance to find out.
“Do you know where they’re taking us?” I ask, not sure I want to know the answer.
“Yeah.” His head makes a dull thud as it hits the side of the van. “Maybe not the exact place, but seen one fight ring, you’ve pretty much seen them all.”
Fight ring.
Nico told me what happened to him, but he didn’t go into details. I can’t decide whether that’s a good thing or not. Maybe I’d be freaking out more right now if I knew exactly what was waiting for us. “Have you...?” I swallow past the lump in my throat. I need to know, no matter how much I might not want to. “Have you fought in one before?”
“Yeah,” he says, voice soft, weary.
The pain has started to tail off, I realise with a jolt. My blood no longer feels like acid flowing round my body, but I almost wish it did, because that would mean a bit of me was still human. I push that thought away. I can have a breakdown later. If I’m lucky.
Who knows where they’re taking us now. Could be hours or minutes away and I need to make the most of having Luke with me.
“Do people die in the ring?” Please say no. Please laugh like it’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard.
He does neither. He just sighs again, the weight of it almost suffocating. “Yeah,” he says eventually, sounding like the word is being dragged out of him. “They do.”
Jesus.
I can’t stop myself from asking, “Have you . . . ?”
“No.”
Silence stretches between us, the only sounds the hum of the engine as we’re driven who the fuck knows where. I don’t even know who’s doing the driving because the front’s blocked off from us entirely.
“They decide who fights,” Luke says, head leaning against mine. “And how far it can go.”
“What do you— Oh.” I feel sick. The pain of the change replaced by a growing dread of what’s waiting for me if Lynx and the others don’t find me in time. And how can they? I didn’t hear the roar of bikes following us when we left, and I haven’t heard any evidence of them since. If they’d managed to follow us, wouldn’t they have done something by now?
