Piper Cross, an undercover spy, must relive her past as a child gladiator in order to bring the underground arena to justice.
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Growing up gladiator is brutal. The cells are cramped...
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The battle mages escorted us from the pocket dimension through a back door in the coliseum reserved exclusively for servants. Assuring us that it wasn't uncommon for Rupert to go missing for days, even weeks at a time, the three battle mages each grabbed a fistful of Isaac's cloak under the guise of escorting us somewhere official. In reality, he was true one that towed us all forward, through the shimmering veil and into a better future —
— which took the shape of an abandoned filing room, lit by a feeble ray of sunlight that persevered through the dust-choked shutters of a yellowing window.
The moment we crossed into the Mother Dimension, my phone began to ring. The battle mages automatically shied from the noise, pushing Isaac and I shoulder to shoulder in the cramped space. My phone screen tinted their pale and drawn faces with sickly green.
Bjorn was calling. For the eighth time. I answered immediately, plugging my second ear. "What is it?"
"Piper Masika Cross," Bjorn gushed, without regard for privacy. "You're so brilliant I could kiss you!"
Isaac's back stiffened against mine, and I felt unusually self-conscious all of a sudden. I hadn't heard my middle name in a long time, but of course Bjorn would know it. He would have gone through all of my records, had probably even found my birth certificate in the national database. He was always one step ahead, playing every single one of us like pawns in a game of chess.
"I could gut you like a fish," I hissed into the phone, drawing a panicked glance from the youngest battle mage.
"Not you," I said, covering the bottom of the phone. "You guys go ahead. I have to take this."
Their attention was a heat lamp, searing my skin. My cheeks burned furiously as Isaac ushered the new recruits out of the closet, his violet eyes skirting over mine as he shut the door softly. I'd only picked up the phone because I thought it was an emergency, and now I was inadvertently icing him out, after he'd gone through a confronting experience, no less.
This wasn't how I wanted things to go.
"I was under the distinct impression that Rupert was after me," I whispered.
"The world doesn't revolve around you, babe," he said dryly, doubling down on that damned familiarity. "But I'll make it feel like it does, if you keep up the good work."
Why did he keep flirting with me at the most inopportune times? Isaac could surely hear him, if I could still make out the quiet squeak of their boots on the tiles. This wasn't a City Pack issue phone with low volume.
I retreated to the furthest corner of the closet, crouching low. It was easy to pretend the shelves were skeletal aspens crowding around me, sheltering me from view. Hard to believe there was a time when sitting here, in a confined space like this, would trigger a flashback so severe I'd wake up with my teeth through my tongue. "I take it Rupert was your sire, then?"
