The Colosseum

Calm Before the Storm

Ten

The place was a mess. Between Josephine getting her eye stabbed, Kova peeling out in a car, and Deveraux's message of a showing in the morning, nobody was able to calm down. After the episode of Josephine getting carted to the nurse, followed by her tantalizing screeches, most of us gathered in the cafeteria to gnash on late night snacks, waiting for Deveraux's show instead of sleeping. We're all too riled up for rest, now.

At my table, Ajax has the audacity to slide next to me, bruises dotting his tanned body from our last encounter. "Crazy night, huh?" he grunts between heaping servings of banana bread. "Almost as crazy as that asshat king coming down from the throne to pick her up in the arena." Furrowing my brows, I look at him. I was the only one who followed Josephine out, and was the only one who saw the tinted car speed off. "Rumors...you know how they work."

I take a sip of water, but the presence of Ajax makes the refreshing taste sharp and vile. "What do you want?" I snap.

"You close with Kova?" he leers, not beating around the bush.

Narrowing my eyes at his sudden question, I look around me. I notice that everyone is grouped together in high school-like cliques, talking heatedly but quietly, throwing glances my way. Though they're separated into sects, snippets of their words tell me that their conversations are all the same subject: Kova is crazy, Kova is ruthless, and Kova needs to go. It's going to be like the betrayal of Caesar, and Ajax is asking if I'm planning on being Brutus.

Right before tonight's match, I was trying to get close to Kova. For a moment, I thought she was someone who could help me lower my walls at least for a bit, before it came to the end. But then, she was pushed into the corner of the arena. Like a caged animal gone without food for days, she turned on everyone in that sand faster than I could blink. And with the ferocity she did it with, I was startled at her tenacity and brutality. I don't think she even realized how soaked with blood she was, and since it was due to her thirst for revenge against Josephine that it went unnoticed, I realized that there was a side to Kova I never knew about; a side as dark as the one my brother basks in.

"Not particularly," I answer Ajax. "Why?"

"Just curious if you're joining in or not," he ominously discloses, knowing very well that I'd want to know what he's talking about.

As much as I hate speaking to the bastard, I need to know what's happening. "Joining what?"

"Anti-Kova campaign." Ajax throws back his drink and scrunches his face up. Releasing a sigh, I know by the smell of his breath that he's drinking straight-up vodka. They don't give it out at the cafeteria, so it must have been a gift from a fan. "Nobody likes foul play beneath the arena."

I scoff. "Kova does." My left eye twitches, remembering when a knife was driven through its center, oozing blood and juices, sight flickering in and out of focus until it went completely black. Poisoning someone in the Colosseum isn't unheard of, but stripping someone of a sense is another issue altogether. I get that Josephine ruined Kova's knee, but with time, I'm sure it would've healed. But to fix an eye? That takes billions of dollars and top-notch professionals, and Josephine doesn't have that kind of support.

"All these groups," Ajax motions to the clusters in the café. "They're all planning something. Suggest you join one of them, or join Kova on the hitlist."

"Ha!" I bark, amused that Ajax is looking out for me. "Why do you care?"

"It's be a shame if you died before I could kill you," he growls, expression contorting into one of malice. Hazel eyes glimmer with devious thoughts that I'm sure are all but unpredictable. Ajax is so underhanded that if he tried to take my eye like Kova did to Josephine today, I wouldn't be surprised.