Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
Neither Max nor Andre had returned after meeting with Damien.
I anxiously paced beside a window in the flat, waiting for the echo of footsteps from the stairwell to announce their arrival.
Before I could sneak away and find the address from Damien’s card, I wanted to know what they discussed, hoping feebly there had been a truce to their feud and a sweetener to the bad blood between them.
But they didn’t come home.
Elli joined me at dawn, taking one of the rooms down the hall for herself. “They’re still not back?”
I shook my head. “Do you think something happened?”
She leaned against the doorframe leading into the small kitchen area, where nothing was appropriately stocked.
I’d barely managed to make a pour-over coffee.
“You need to eat something. We both do. Let’s go grab a quick bite, and then we’ll go take a look for Max and Andre. I have a feeling about where they are.”
“Ronny’s?” I asked, wincing.
She laughed. “No. Well… Maybe Andre. Max wouldn’t let his guard down that easily with Damien after him.
” She went to an old clock standing in the corner of the main room, a looming tower of dark mahogany and dust. The hands were stuck at a random hour, the brass pendulum still.
At first glance, it was a broken clock, tired and quiet like much of the flat.
But then Elli opened the glass of the clock’s face, turning the hands to a particular time.
The clock clicked, then opened wide to reveal a cabinet. Inside was a store of weapons.
“Besides”—she looked over her shoulder as she took out a pair of handguns—“he’s got you now.”
“I wish you’d stop with all that. There’s nothing romantic between us.”
“Try not to sound so disappointed, Killer.”
“I’ve kissed Damien more than I have Max,” I spat. “You’d be disappointed, too.”
She shoved a revolver into her waistband, covering it with a coat. “You’re right. You should probably fix that.”
I took the weapon she offered me, tucking it into my trousers as she had. The shift in my life, from blood and bone to gowns and gloves to tailored coats and handguns, had been swift and seamless. The person I had been was gone. But if it saved my mother, I’d become whoever it took.
Downstairs, the Final Wager was wakening with activity. The second floor was busy, prepping the tables for the evening, counting money, readying the chips and cards. The pub on the base floor was already serving early patrons, spilling the first drops of bourbon on the polished bar.
We caught a carriage to help us cross town, where traffic got busy. Hiding my face without the dice was tricky but not impossible when we took more conspicuous routes. Elli knew the right drivers to pay off, making sure they never looked my way.
She brought us to the edge of a deserted part of town, a warehouse district that didn’t seem to see much use anymore.
“Before science and engineers,” she explained as we walked, “this place was where business thrived. Salt houses, textile factories, artisan workshops, everything made for the city and beyond was done here. Then the machines were built, killing manual labor. The Academy used bloodlines to keep up with the demands of trade. Business dried up, and people moved on.” She lowered her voice to say, “But the bones are still here.”
A potholed road ventured through the warehouses, which stood in varying states of decay, windows and doors barred shut. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s here, Elli. Why do you think we’ll find Max and Andre here?”
“Because the biggest fighting ring in the city is here. An arena, hidden in a slaughterhouse. Before the gambling halls and the dens and the brothels, it was the biggest Cursed operation in the city.”
“A slaughterhouse?”
Elli shrugged. “When the Cursed were first formed, most people in the city thought us little more than animals, Nina. Fights were a profitable business for everyone involved. The Academy didn’t want people with stolen bloodlines to earn money by reputable means, but they encouraged these blood sports.
The entire thing was organized to pit different bloodlines against each other and test their limits by giving blood from different Archetypes to the fighters.
Kept things interesting for the people in the stands.
Not so much for the ones who were trying to survive.
Then they turned to other operations to survive and were demonized for it. ”
The slaughterhouse came into view at the end of a dead-end street.
It was a huge circular structure made from brick.
Arched entrances were blocked by both iron gates and solid wood doors.
The arches were held up by beveled columns, trimmed with ornamental finishes.
The entire building was capped by a dome to give it a grandeur belonging to a different era.
A few men were working on taking down the boards that covered one gateway, cleaning up the place like it was about to reopen.
“Max here?” Elli called out.
One of the men stopped his work, bowing his head in greeting. “Yes, ma’am. Since curfew broke this morning.”
“I take it things are moving forward.”
He nodded again. “As far as I know, Miss Elli.”
She glanced over her shoulder at me, but I ignored the inquiry in her eyes, pushing toward the entrance.
I walked into a foyer that was just as grand as the exterior.
The floor was a polished black stone. A small pendant light dangled on a chain from the ceiling, glowing inside the boarded building.
Beyond it was the main arena, an open space with stalls lining the perimeter.
Metal bars hung between iron columns, where slaughtered beasts had once hung for sale.
The roof was a latticework of iron and glass, pouring in enough light to illuminate every inch of the dusty market.
Inside, the cleanup was continuing, with men and women setting up pub tables with creamy linens, shining the place up for an event.
There was a buffer zone for a market area, a walkway around tiered theater seating that descended underground, leading to a circular floor where two fighters sparred beyond a half wall surrounding a dusty floor.
Just the men we were looking for.
I descended the steps first, not waiting for Elli to finish her conversation with the guard outside. Max turned his head to find me as soon as I entered the arena, taking a hit from Andre while he was distracted.
Andre winced and looked to see what had distracted him. “Oh, sorry, Max.”
Max shook off the hit, mouthing a curse. His shirt clung to his chest, soaked with sweat like they’d been at it for hours. Andre, meanwhile, had stripped out of everything besides his pants, letting lean muscles gleam in the sunlight filtering down from above.
I kept my eyes only on Max as he partially unwrapped his wrists and fists and met me at the bottom of the stairs, leading to the floor of the Pit.
“How’d you find us?”
I motioned behind me, where Elli had finally appeared on the main floor, correcting the placement of seating or the colors of the tablecloths. He nodded, apparently having figured as much. “I assume Ell explained everything.”
“She did. I understand the stakes quite well now, no thanks to you.”
He stared at me, as if he was waiting for some hint of how I felt. “Nina, I would have told you about the more deadly details, but we don’t have long to train. And without the dice—”
“I’m not upset about that.”
He used the bottom of his shirt to wipe his face, giving me a glimpse of his waistline, the indents of his hips, the carved swirls of his abdominals. I swallowed away a dry feeling in my throat and forced my attention back to his flushed face.
“But you are upset,” he said.
“I think you’re making a mistake, working on your jabs when you should be trying to get the rest of your dice back. I wish you wouldn’t take this risk without them.”
Max towered over me, even as I stood on a platform. “There’s no time. The fight is tomorrow, Nina. I have to focus on killing him with what I have now.”
“Killing him? And what of my mother?” I asked. “You’ll kill the last link I have to her?”
He began to rewrap the cloth around his hands.
“He’s not going to come out with the information willingly.
If anything, we should get rid of him first, then squeeze his underlings to uncover his connection to the buyer.
” His voice fell softer, remaining between us.
“I haven’t forgotten about your mother, Nina. ”
He was still wrapping his fists, but I stopped him with a touch to his arm, pulling his hand between us. I took the cloth from his fingers and tightly arranged the wrap to stabilize his wrists better. “You’re sure you can beat him?”
I felt his gaze on my face as I worked.
He scoffed. “I’m offended you’d ask such a thing. Do you know how hard it’s been, keeping you alive the last few days? If I can do that…”
A smile fought its way across my cheeks, but I shrugged, letting go of one wrap and beckoning for the other. “I’ve never seen you in a fight like this. Can you use bloodlines?”
He nodded once. “But no weapons. We can use whatever bloodlines we drink from, just like in the old days. And at the risk of sounding full of myself, I know I’m better than Damien.”
“Max, I think we should try that last combination again. Your footwork is a little tight—” Andre started to ramble but was interrupted by a whistle above. Elli beckoned him with a sharp wave of her hand. “Oh… never mind. I’m just going to…” He cleared his throat. “. . . find somewhere else to be.”
Neither Max nor I looked at him as he disappeared up the steps. Finished with wrapping his fists properly, I slipped off my coat casually and tossed it over a chair. “Well, don’t let me keep you from training. I’m just here to watch.”
“Why don’t you join me?”
A thrill rolled through my bones. “Join you? In the ring?”