The sun hadn't even breached the horizon when I limped back to The Pit.
The world was gray and silent, draped in a heavy mist that clung to the trees like wet ghosts. My body screamed with every step. My ankle throbbed, my lip was swollen where Vexa had hit me, and my muscles felt like they had been replaced with lead.
But I showed up.
Kaelen was already there.
He stood in the center of the muddy ring, perfectly still, like a statue carved from obsidian and bronze. He was shirtless again—the cold seemed to mean nothing to him—and his skin was slick with the damp morning air. The scars on his back twisted in the pale light, a roadmap of pain that I was only beginning to understand.
He didn't turn around as I approached.
"You're late," he said. His voice was a l
