Skylar pulled back and studied my face for the lie. She wouldn’t find one because there wasn’t one. I was telling the absolute truth. Given the choice between a threeso with two of the most beautiful won I’d ever touched and maintaining the trust of a partner who could bench-press my entire romantic life and not break a sweat, I chose survival.
Barely.
God, barely.
"You’re turning down a double blowjob for professional integrity," Skylar said flatly.
"I’m turning down a double blowjob because my combat partner has a spear and no patience for bullshit."
Skylar’s violet eyes narrowed. She glanced past my shoulder at Isabelle, who stood with the particular stillness of soone who had absolutely heard every word and was deciding whether to be disgusted or impressed. Then Skylar looked back at .
"Fair enough." She rose on her toes and kissed the corner of my jaw. Quick. Almost chaste if you ignored the way her tongue flicked against the bruise Julian left there. "But the offer doesn’t expire, Stray Dog. You just have to earn it the hard way."
She walked back to Natalia, who watched the entire exchange with the controlled stillness of a cat watching a mouse decide whether to enter the trap voluntarily. Natalia looked at . Looked at Skylar. So wordless communication passed between them that I wasn’t privy to and probably wouldn’t survive if I was.
Natalia mouthed two words.
"After. We. Win."
Not "if you win" or "regardless of outco." After WE win. She was already counting the match as her victory. Because Natalia Kuzmina did not entertain the concept of losing, even against the man whose soul was literally bonded to hers at the cosmic level.
I loved that woman more than I loved breathing, and she was about to try to freeze solid in front of twenty million viewers.
This was my life. This was the life the System gave . This was the consequence of choosing Impossible Mode and building a harem of beautiful, dangerous won who were all bonded to at the soul and also completely willing to beat the shit out of for sport.
I turned to Isabelle.
She looked at the way a mother superior looks at a particularly unrepentant sinner.
"Are you done negotiating with your concubines?"
"They’re not concubines."
"Then what are they?"
"Soul-bonded, Rank-Ten Covenant partners with complentary combat specializations and a shared tendency toward violence."
"So concubines who can kill you."
"Isabelle."
"I heard everything."
"I know."
"You turned them down."
"I did."
A beat. Isabelle’s wine-red eyes held sothing I hadn’t seen there before. Not warmth exactly. Isabelle didn’t do warmth. But sothing adjacent. Recognition, maybe. The quiet acknowledgnt of soone watching a person make a difficult choice and selecting the correct option despite every instinct screaming otherwise.
"Good," she said simply. Then she picked up her spear. "Now let’s go beat your girlfriend."
Natalia and Skylar filed out of the staging area toward their own tunnel entrance. As Skylar passed through the doorway, she looked back over her shoulder, one last glance that carried the weight of every promise she’d just made. Her lips curved into sothing that wasn’t quite a smile and wasn’t quite a threat.
"See you on the platform, lover boy."
And then she was gone, dissolving into the shadows of the corridor like smoke from one of her clove cigarettes.
I stood there for three full seconds, processing the fact that I had just voluntarily turned down what would have been the most spectacular sexual experience of my entire current life because a woman with a spear and royal standards was watching.
Nel’s voice slithered through my consciousness.
"For the record, the Audience is deeply divided on whether that was the noblest or stupidest decision you’ve ever made."
Shut up, Nel.
"Apollo is laughing. Actually laughing. He says you’re the only mortal he’s ever sponsored who turned down sex to maintain a professional partnership."
I said shut up.
"Nike approves, though. She sent a thumbs-up emoji. I didn’t know gods used emojis."
I grabbed my bat from where it leaned against the wall and slung it over my shoulder. The Dragon Witch’s Ring pulsed warm against my finger. My ribs throbbed at seventy percent, which Emi insisted wasn’t enough and which I insisted was plenty.
Isabelle fell into step beside . Her spear’s tip glowed faint green, the Fujin energy coiling around it like a living thing.
"For what it’s worth," she said, as we approached the tunnel mouth and the crowd’s roar grew from a distant rumble into a wall of sound that pressed against my skull, "you made the right choice."
"I know."
"Not because of my spear."
"Partially because of your spear."
The ghost of a smile crossed Isabelle’s face. It lasted less than a second, there and gone like heat lightning on a sumr night.
"Perhaps ten percent because of my spear."
"I’ll take ten percent."
We walked into the light. Twenty thousand voices hamred against us from all directions, a physical pressure that made my eardrums ache. The platform waited ahead, volcanic rock still bearing scorch marks and ice residue from the previous matches. Maximus Hype’s amplified voice bood through the speakers, painting the narrative in broad, sensational strokes.
On the far side of the platform, Natalia erged from her tunnel. Purple hair streaming. White streaks glowing. The Cryo-Lich Ring blazing blue on her finger. Cel’s gloves covered her hands, and the air around her dropped in temperature so sharply that I could see my breath form in front of my face from thirty feet away.
Skylar materialized from the shadows beside her. Hood up. Knives out. Violet eyes burning with the focused malice of soone who had just been told no and intended to make regret it through the dium of controlled violence.
My girlfriend and my... other situation.
Here to kick my ass.
On live television.
In front of everyone I’d ever t, fought, or seduced.
I grinned so hard my split lip reopened.
Professor Hanae walked to the center of the platform. She looked at Natalia. Looked at . Looked at the still-visible damage from every previous match that had occurred on this surface today. She sighed with the specific weariness of a woman whose repair budget had been obliterated hours ago.
"Standard rules. Non-lethal force. No Aspect attacks to the head or spine. Match ends when both mbers of one team are incapacitated or yield." She paused. "I am begging all four of you. Please. My arena."
Natalia’s eyes found mine across the platform. Purple eting dark. Cold eting heat. The Covenant bond between us humd like a plucked guitar string, resonant and alive, transmitting everything she wouldn’t say out loud.
I love you. I’m going to freeze you. Those are not contradictory statents.
Skylar twirled a knife between her fingers. The blade caught the sunlight and threw it back as a blinding point of white.
Isabelle raised her spear. Green wind howled.
Professor Hanae raised her hand.
Dropped it.
"Begin."
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