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"Good Light," Damaris breathes beside me. "What? Why didn't he tell me?"

Adrian climbs into the ring first, grinning like he's performing for the entire room. He points toward one of the betting tables, earning a roar from the crowd before spreading his arms wide like he already owns the place, all noise and ego as he plays to the audience like this is some kind of performance.

Then movement catches at the far side of the pit. Ciaran vaults the rail and lands inside the pit while the crowd surges louder around him. A couple of the Caervast students slap his shoulder as he passes, but he barely reacts, rolling his neck and flexing his taped hand before finally looking up, and straight at me.

"Didn't think you'd show, Virel," Adrian calls out with a grin sharp enough to cut. "What happened? Your little scholarship boy finally let you get your hands under his shirt?"

The crowd howls, but Ciaran just grins back like he's been waiting for this all night, cracking his knuckles. "Still running your mouth, I see. Told you to keep my musician out of it."

Adrian laughs, wiping a hand across his mouth. "What can I say? Half the academy's talking about him. You're just the one stupid enough to get possessive."

Another roar tears through the room.

Ciaran finally looks toward the rails, straight at me, then points lazily at Adrian without taking his eyes off mine. "Try not to blink, little mouse. This won't take long."

The bell snaps through the pit. Adrian lunges first, fast and reckless, but Ciaran steps straight into him and drives a fist into his ribs hard enough to fold him sideways. The crack of impact silences the nearest betting tables before the crowd explodes again.

Adrian stumbles back, gasping.

Ciaran laughs. "You talk too much, Voss."

I can't look away. Can't ignore how Ciaran keeps coming at him, forcing Adrian backward across the ring while the crowd loses its mind around us. Another hit slams into Adrian's stomach. Then one across the jaw. Adrian swings back hard enough to make people shout, but Ciaran ducks it easily and drives him straight into the barrier. The wood rattles from the impact.

My stomach twists. I knew he was dangerous—I saw it every time he looked at me, every time he smiled—but this is different. This isn't flirting or teasing or some stupid game in the pool.

This is what Ciaran Virel looks like when he's not holding back.

All I can focus on is the movement of his body, the way muscle shifts beneath the black henley stretched across his back and arms. His skin glistens beneath the lights while dark hair sticks damply to his forehead.

Revulsion hits a beat later. A man is bleeding in front of me, and my eyes are on Ciaran's shoulders anyway.

Adrian spits blood onto the floor of the ring, breathing hard now, and I realize with a sick twist in my stomach that Ciaran is enjoying this.

Good Light, my heartbeat stutters as a strange image flashes through my head. For one horrible second, it feels like I've heard crowds like this before, voices roaring somewhere beyond the edge of my memory while panic keeps climbing higher beneath my skin.

Not here, on Sero, but somewhere older, somewhere buried so deep inside me that the feeling is already slipping away before I can catch hold of it properly again.

It's me running through dark streets while footsteps thunder somewhere behind me, voices shouting for me to stop as my pulse spikes so hard it hurts.

A horn blares somewhere ahead, and a woman's hand slams against my shoulder, shoving me forward.

Run.

The vision disappears as quickly as it came, but my medical band is already flashing angry red against my wrist.

Ciaran catches Adrian with another hit hard enough to snap his head sideways before grabbing the front of his shirt and shoving him back into the rail again.

"This is not a fucking date," Damaris says beside me, staring at the ring in disbelief. "Ro, we need to get out of here."

Lucan chuckles and squeezes Damaris's shoulder, pulling him closer. "Oh, I think this is absolutely a date."

"Shut up," I mutter, but my voice sounds weak even to me.

And yet I can't stop watching him.

Ciaran presses in close enough to say something into Adrian's ear. I can't hear the words over the screaming crowd, but I see Adrian's expression change instantly. The confidence drains out of his face, replaced by something that looks a lot like fear.

Then Ciaran turns his head slightly, his gaze cutting through the crowd until it lands on me again. "Don't look away now."