I hugged Ellen under the tent outside the Fallen Delvers Memorial the next morning. She wore her battle robes—they’d self-repaired from her fight in the Ghostmarket—and carried a staff I’d only seen a handful of times. She’d pulled it out of a B-Rank portal, and it was supposed to accelerate her casting, but make her spells cost more. In most circumstances, that was a misplay. The extra cost would be too prohibitive in a portal.

  But the new strategy required her to go fast, and if it worked, she’d have a massive advantage against Deborah. She was sacrificing sustain for power.

  “You’ve got this,” I said, and kissed her forehead. “I’ll see you in the finals.”

  “Not if Jeff beats you first,” she shot back, then headed into the stairwell down to the portal below.

  I had ten minutes before they started fighting, and with the rain, the line outside of the memorial itself was pretty small, so I waited patiently. When it was my turn, I typed ‘Roger Gerald’ into the screen and pulled up his information and urn. Then I stared at it for a while, hand still on the scanner. “Hi. I’ve tried my best. Hope it’s been enough, and that you’re proud, wherever you are.”

  There wasn’t anything else to say, so I waited my two minutes of allotted time, hand on the scanner like it was a way to touch Dad. I’d made him proud, and I knew it—but that wasn’t enough. It wasn’t the same as hearing him say it, and I’d never get that.

  When his urn finally sank back into the memorial on its platform, I took a deep breath and walked to the massive screen.

  Deborah and Ellen were already outside the doors to the sparring room—the portal world itself had taken on a Warren appearance, but one I’d only seen in one place before. Sandstone walls, pillars of stone, and tan brick walls. It was undeniably a Warren, but not one for goblinoids or troglodytes. This was as close as the world could get to Queen Mother Yalerox’s world.

  The doors opened, and I stared at the room.

  It was covered in pillars. They were everywhere, a wide ring around the edge of the rectangular sparring room, then a second, smaller ring on the inside. At the center was a pit that seemed to drop into nothing, and an identical gap in the ceiling. Arches looped from every pillar to their neighbors, creating a honeycomb above Ellen and Deborah.

  And a buzzing filled the air. It sounded like a million bees or the static of a bad connection.

  Ellen moved first—the staff was fast. She dropped a Darkness on herself, then started vomiting out casts as quickly as she could. Her Mana had to be plunging, but she didn’t stop. Instead, she pushed her fear aura out and—

  “Match.” The Spark of Life moved. One second, she stood on a balcony above the arena. The next, her hands were on Ellen’s neck. Blood spurted from the wound. I could see her spine. Deborah stood next to the door Ellen had come in through, sword dripping blood. Ellen’s blood.

  What had happened? How had she done that? The questions grappled with a familiar feeling. The playground. Yalerox. Every time my friends and schoolmates had been up against a bully they couldn’t fight. Stormbreak crackled across my core, and in that moment, I didn’t care about the tournament—I just wanted to fight Deborah. She’d hurt Ellen. Somehow, she’d cheated. And I had to do something about it.

  Deborah turned and walked for the door without saying anything. Her eyes flicked up to the camera as she stalked away, shield and bloody sword still in her hand. I met her eyes for a fraction of a second—then I was sprinting toward the stairwell, Stormsong in hand.

  Jeff stopped me.

  I’d have fought anyone else, but when he stepped between the door and me, no weapons ready and hands outstretched, I hesitated. “Kade, breathe.”

  I almost stopped hesitating. Stormsong came up, and so did Jeff’s open hand. “Seriously, Kade. Breathe and think about what you’re doing.”

  “You saw what—“

  “Yes, I did. If we hurry, we can beat them to the GC hospital. That’s where they’ll take her.”

  I blinked. The battle trance was all but overwhelming. I needed to fight something. Someone. Anyone. “But—“

  Jeff slapped me.

  It didn’t hurt. He hadn’t been trying to make it hurt. But it did re-center me. So did what he said next. “Right now, Deborah doesn’t matter. Your partner is in trouble, and the Spark of Life’s going to need to do some serious healing to fix her. Sophia would be completely overwhelmed right now, but Sarah Cullman’s not her. Ellen will be fine. When she wakes up, do you want her to wake up to an empty room? Do you want her to see you either dead or in a GC cell on the news? Or do you want to be there for her?”

  Deep breaths. Three of them. Not ten—ten was the correct number, but there wasn’t time for ten. The fury didn’t leave. It kept boiling inside of me. But Jeff was right. Stormsong vanished from my hand, and my armor shimmered and faded as I stopped putting Mana into it. Then I nodded slowly. “Fine.”

  “Fine?”

  “Yeah. Fine. Let’s go.”

  He took the lead and climbed into Deimos’s driver’s seat. I took shotgun, and the car took off, heading for the GC building.

  “You know, we could have walked,” I said quietly after a few seconds.

  Jeff snorted. “Yep. They’re probably walking Ellen over, though, and this gives you a minute or two to get your shit together.”

  “So it was a trick?”

  “No,” Jeff said. The silence hung in the air for a moment, and I pressed the volume button on Deimos’s control panel. Drum and bass filled the car. “No, it wasn’t a trick. Remember our first fight together?”

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  I nodded slowly. It had been a doozy of a fight. Jeff and I had gone after this guy who’d been screwing with kids. Seventh grade. We’d caught up to him—and to his friends. Then we’d piled in. When the teachers caught up to us, I was covered in bruises, had a black eye, and my nose wouldn’t stop bleeding. The bully and his friends were pretty much in the same place. And Jeff…Jeff was untouched. Completely, totally untouched. He’d made up a lie about trying to break up the fight, and the teacher had believed it.

  She’d ended up making him drag me to the nurse’s office, then the principal’s. And he’d used that time to pull me together, so when the verdict came down and I got suspended again, I was ready to hear it.

  “Yeah, I remember,” I said.

  “Are you ready to see her?” he asked. She’s not going to be in good shape. If you need a few minutes, we can sit here and walk, and talk about stuff.”

  I looked out the window.

  We were outside the GC building. The drum and bass music was still shaking the car, but it felt like background noise. It had always been background noise when Ellen drove. I took a deep breath and tried not to check my resources or summon my lightning sword. They wouldn’t help me here. I couldn’t fix this. Not right now. I’d have to wait for Jeff’s fight this afternoon, then—

  Jeff’s fight.

  “Are you going to be okay for your match?” I asked.

  “You’re avoiding my question.” Jeff stared out the front window. “Yes. I’m as ready as I’m going to be. My archer opponent’s not a problem. He hasn’t shown anything that can break my defense, and I’m fast enough to corner him eventually. If I get in close, he’ll lose. Simple.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Kade, quit stalling. Ellen’s going to need you.”

  I nodded. The car door opened, and I stepped out. So did Jeff. “I’m heading back to the tournament. On foot. If she’s well enough to go home today, you’ll want the car.”

  “Sure. Thanks, Jeff. For everything.”

  “I’ll always be here to talk you down, and to back you up if I can’t,” he said. Then he disappeared, jogging back through the crowd toward the Fallen Delvers Memorial and his quarterfinals match.

  I stepped into the hospital, got Ellen’s information, and settled down for the hardest thing I’d done all year. I dropped into a chair and waited.

  It took a couple of hours for Sarah Cullman to walk past on her way out the GC building’s front door. I kept my head down, but even seeing her sent me right back into my battle trance. Deborah had done something. She’d figured out some way to break the rules. It was the only thing that made sense. How else could she have beaten both Harold and Ellen so quickly? And she was only getting faster.

  Worse, the GC hadn’t made an announcement about her. She was still in the tournament, and the online brackets had already been updated, moving her up to fight Ophelia.

  The moment Sarah made it through the front doors, I swallowed, pushing down my anger through sheer force of will and bottling it up inside the Stormsteel core. It raged there, along with the storm inside of me. Then I stood up, shoulders tense enough to hurt, and headed to the front desk. “Eleanor Traynor. Where is she?”

  “Recovery. Room 2114. Sarah had to work on her for a while to save her, and she’s going to need time,” the receptionist said.

  “Can I see her?”

  The receptionist stared at me for a moment. Then he nodded. “Yes. I’ll let the nurses know you’re on the way. Sarah’s intervention saved Miss Traynor days of recovery time, but even so, she’ll stay overnight. She’s in no condition to move—and do not make her talk. Her throat’s still recovering.”

  I tried not to think back to the screen, and to her exposed spine and gushing blood. “I understand. I saw the footage.” Then I started walking.

  “Hold on, I need your information.”

  “Right.” I stopped. “Kade Noelstra. I’m her boyfriend and advancement partner.”

  He stared at me, then pressed a button on his tablet. “Can I verify that last part?”

  “Sure.” I pulled up my status, and he read over it. Then I pointed out Shadowstorm Battery and spent a minute I didn’t have explaining how it worked.

  “Alright. That sounds like family…sort of. Head on up,” the receptionist said.

  I disappeared into the stairwell and started climbing, and I didn’t stop until I reached Ellen’s room.

  Everything hurt.

  Ellen’s entire body felt like it was on fire. Intellectually, she knew she’d only taken a single blow in the fight. But intellectually, she also knew that she should have been dead. Sophia, at full Mana, might’ve been able to save her, but it would’ve been close. Even the Spark of Life’s efforts hadn’t been able to fix her completely. All the S-Rank healer’s magic had done was stabilize the injury so her delver’s healing could do the rest. Slowly. And painfully.

  And the pain made it so, so hard to focus.

  So did the failure. Ellen had done everything she could. She’d game-planned with Kade and Jeff over and over, watched hours of Deborah’s fights, and looked for every crack in the A-Rank tank’s defenses. She’d found a weakness she could exploit, and practiced until she could execute perfectly. She’d been ready for the fight.

  None of that preparation had mattered, and the failure ached inside of Ellen’s chest almost as much as her near-decapitation burned at her neck and throat with every breath. Deborah had done something she hadn’t been ready for. She’d overlooked something—or been tricked. Both stung.

  She forced her eyes open.

  The room smelled like disinfectant and blood. It was white and bright—so bright it took her a few moments to see anything but the fluorescent lights overhead. She tried to bend her head to look to her side, but two plastic-and-foam pads held it in place, along with a strap across her forehead. “Wha—“

  The word cut off, and Ellen poured all her Stamina into her throat at once in an attempt to dull the pain for even a second. It hurt. It hurt it hurt it hurt.

  She tried to raise her left hand. It wouldn’t move. Her right would, though.

  “Don’t do that,” a familiar voice said. “The nurses say you’re not supposed to strain your body at all while the nerves set again. I’ve got you, though.”

  Kade’s face appeared in the space she could see, and Ellen almost squeezed her eyes shut again.

  It was the face of fury. Of anger. She flinched away from him on instinct, and he winced. “Sorry. I’m trying,” he said. He didn’t explain what he was trying to do, and Ellen didn’t ask. She’d been inside of his core before. She knew the rage that lived there—and she knew that he had to be holding it back through sheer force of will. That force of will smoothed out his face as he fought with himself for a few seconds.

  Then he squeezed her hand. “I’m glad you’re awake. Don’t say anything. Blink twice if you want to watch Jeff’s fight.”

  She paused. Then she blinked twice, and Kade held his phone up so they could both see his best friend chase an archer across a field of trenches and burning catapults.

  “Sorry,” Ellen whispered once she had enough Stamina to quell the pain of talking. It still took her almost a minute to work up the courage to say it, but she had to. Kade had worked so hard to help her prep for the fight, and she’d blown it. The pain didn’t matter. Kade had to hear that she felt awful.

  “No. No, you don’t need to be sorry.” The anger came back for a moment before he suppressed it. “You did everything right. Deborah’s up to something, and I’m going to figure out what it is. Then I’m going to make her pay for what she did today.”

  Ellen stared at Kade’s face, looking for the anger that had just flared up. It was already gone, though—replaced with a determined, hard stare into the distance. “Sorry,” she said again.

  As her Stamina flooded into her neck for a third time, Kade’s hand squeezed hers. “Don’t talk. Here. Jeff’s about to wrap this up.”

  He held the phone up with his free hand, put his head close to hers, and together they watched as Kade’s best friend beat his quarterfinal opponent into a pulp. Ellen wasn’t sure that was a good thing—for either Kade or Jeff.

  They’d have to fight each other to get to Deborah—and between Kade’s battle fury and Jeff’s determination, she wasn’t sure who’d win.

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