Vargus didn't just notice the change in Tatiana; he felt it like a cold draft in a warm room. The heavy, crystalline boredom that had defined her all afternoon suddenly cracked, replaced by a sharp, predatory curiosity.She wasn't looking at the vineyard deeds anymore. She wasn't looking at the Darjeeling. She was looking at the boy in the cage with an intensity she had never once granted Vargus.Stunned, Vargus watched as she stepped even closer to the rusted bars. The hem of her crimson dress dragged through the grime of the intake floor, but she didn't seem to care."Tinny," she repeated, the name sounding like music in her cool, velvet voice. "A small name for such a large stare."Without asking permission, she reached through the bars. Her slender, pale fingers, adorned with a ring that cost more than the gym's entire roster, extended toward the boy. Before the handler could shout a warning, she gripped the boy’s chin, forcing his head up so she could inspect his face in the

She swept out of the room, her red dress trailing behind her like a lingering threat. Vargus stood in the empty hall, the flickering candlelight casting his shadow in monstrous proportions against the wall.He followed her, drawn by a pathetic, magnetic pull he couldn’t control. From the shadows at the end of the corridor, he watched her slip into the suite; the sharp click of the lock echoed through the hall like the final strike of a gavel.Driven by a desperate impulse, he approached the door and pressed his palm against the cold, polished wood. Beneath his ribs, his heart hammered a frantic, uneven rhythm, a silent plea against the barrier between them.For a long minute, he just stood there. His eyes narrowed into dark, jagged slits. The mask of the simping host didn't just slip; it shattered. His features froze into a mask of pure, murderous intent.‘One day, he promised the door. ‘One day, the lock will be on my side.’He turned on his heel and marched toward his office,

"What's wrong with you?" Vargus snapped. "Drink some water. You look like you've seen a ghost."The assistant swallowed hard, his eyes slowly rising to meet Vargus’s."Sir..." he whispered, his voice thin. "The boy. Once you looked away... once your back was turned and the guards were dragging him out...""What?" Vargus demanded, his grin faltering."He stopped," the assistant said, his voice shaking. "The crying. The pleading. It vanished. He looked at me, sir.”“He looked right at me and he... he smirked. He gripped the guards' arms and walked with them. That pleading... it was fake. All of it."Vargus’s hand froze halfway to his mouth. The silence in the office turned cold, the triumphant heat of a moment ago evaporating into a hollow, sinking feeling in his gut. He looked toward the door, but the boy was already gone into the dark.Vargus stood frozen, the wine glass hovering inches from his lips as a cold prickle of sweat traced the line of his spine."He... he smirked?" Vargus

Vargus’s heart hammered a frantic, joyful rhythm against his ribs. He felt a giddy, toxic rush watching the boy’s final display of arrogance. To Vargus, that smirk wasn’t a sign of strength; it was the last twitch of a fly before the spider descended."You like his face, Tatiana?" Vargus whispered, leaning in until he could smell the floral perfume that had haunted his dreams all week. "Take a good look. It’s the last time it’ll be in one piece."He turned back to the Pit, eyes gleaming with sickening excitement. He hadn't left Tinny’s fate to chance; he’d spent three days scouring his roster for the most brutal, experienced engine of destruction he owned."And now!" the announcer screamed, his voice reaching a fever pitch. "The man who has broken more bones than the city’s surgeons can fix! The veteran of a hundred slaughters! The Wall of the Apex... KOROV!"The opposite gate didn't just open.It slammed against the stone with a thunderous bang. Out stepped a nightmare.Korov was

Tatiana looked down, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Watching the boy she admired as a base fighter turn into a punching bag was driving her into a state of absolute, trembling fury.Vargus felt a hysterical laugh bubble up in his throat. He had wanted the boy beaten, but not like this. Tinny was using his own body as a pawn to escape the gym and hide in Tatiana’s shadow, and he was making Vargus look like a fool in the process."Stop the fight!" Tatiana roared at the guards. "Stop it now before he’s ruined!"Vargus watched as the guards rushed into the ring to pull a confused Korov off the bloody boy. Tinny lay still, a wreckage of bruises and red, but as they rolled him onto the stretcher, Vargus swore he saw the boy’s blood-stained lip twitch.The little rat had won. He had traded a few broken ribs for a ticket out of hell, and he had done it while forcing the Master of the Gym to watch every second of the play.The dust hadn't even settled in the Pit before the storm broke