Elara’s POV

Pain dragged me up from the dark like a hook through my ribs.

I didn’t open my eyes right away. Couldn’t. The left one was swollen shut completely—I could feel the tight, hot pressure of fluid trapped beneath skin stretched to its limit. The right cracked open a slit. Light poured in. White. Clean. Wrong.

My ribs screamed with every breath. Short, shallow inhales were all I could manage. Anything deeper sent a jagged bolt of fire through my left side—cracked, maybe broken. My jaw throbbed in time with my heartbeat. My lower lip was split. I could taste old copper on my tongue.

I lay still. Listened.

No crowd noise. No distant roar of spectators pounding their fists against the iron railing of the pit. No grit of sand beneath my cheek. No dripping pipes. No stench of sweat and rust and blood.

Instead—silence. Deep, expensive silence. The kind you could only buy.

I forced my right eye open wider.

A ceiling. High. Vaulted. A crystal chandelier hung above me, its facets catching light from somewhere and scattering faint rainbows across white plaster. The bed beneath me was soft—obscenely soft—the kind of mattress that swallowed your weight and held you like something precious. White linens. Too many pillows. The faint scent of fresh-cut flowers drifted from somewhere to my left.

This was not the changing room behind the arena.

This was not my apartment.

This was not the warehouse.

I turned my head. Slowly. Every vertebra in my neck protested. Floor-to-ceiling windows stretched along one wall. Beyond the glass, a city glittered far below. Magelights dotted the grid of streets like scattered jewels. The buildings looked small. Distant. I was high up. Very high.

Luxury hotel. That much was obvious.

I looked down at myself. Someone had stripped me out of my fighting leathers. Gone—the bloodstained wraps, the reinforced vest, the boots I’d laced myself into before stepping into the ring. In their place, a soft cotton shirt. Loose pants. Clean. The fabric smelled like lavender soap.

Bandages circled my torso beneath the shirt. I could feel them—tight, professional, wrapped with the practiced hand of someone who knew what they were doing. My split knuckles had been cleaned and dressed. Even the gash along my forearm—the one I’d gotten from that elbow strike—was covered with a fresh compress.

Someone had undressed me.

Someone had undressed me while I was unconscious.

The realization hit like a fist to the sternum. Panic surged up my throat—hot, sour, immediate. My skin crawled. Every nerve ending fired at once, screaming at the violation of it. Hands I didn’t know. Hands I couldn’t see. Touching me while I lay there limp and defenseless, unable to fight back or even open my eyes.

I sat up. Too fast. My ribs shrieked. Black spots exploded across my vision and I doubled over, pressing both palms flat against the mattress. Sweat broke across my forehead.

Breathe. Breathe. Think.

I forced air through my teeth. Slow. Controlled. The way I’d taught myself in those early months in the pit, when every fight ended with me on the ground, gasping, wondering if the next breath would come.

The panic didn’t leave. But I shoved it into a corner. Locked it there.

Assess.

I patted myself down. Pockets—empty. My communication stone was gone. My keys. My coin pouch. Everything stripped away. I had nothing. Not a weapon, not a means of contact, not a single copper to my name.

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. The floor was cold marble beneath my bare feet. I stood. My knees buckled. I caught the bedpost, held on until the room stopped spinning, then released it and shuffled toward the windows.

The glass was thick. Seamless. No latch, no handle, no balcony railing beyond it. Just a sheer drop to the street below. I pressed my forehead against the cool surface and counted the floors of the building across the avenue. Compared the angle. Calculated.

At least thirty stories up.

No fire escape. No ledge. No drainage pipe.

I turned from the window and limped toward the door. Heavy wood. Reinforced. A crystal lock mechanism glowed faintly on the inside—no keyhole, no visible latch. Sealed from the outside by some spell or ward I didn’t recognize.

I pressed the handle anyway. It didn’t budge.

I rattled it. Harder. Nothing.

"Damn it."

My voice came out raw. Barely recognizable. I stepped back and stared at the door.

Not Zane. Zane barely had enough coin to rent the kind of roadside inn where the sheets smelled like mildew and the mattresses sagged in the middle. He would never bring me somewhere like this. He couldn’t bring me somewhere like this.

So who?

My mind raced through options, discarding each one. Traffickers didn’t bandage their merchandise. Stalkers didn’t book penthouse suites. Arena operators wanted their fighters functional, not comfortable—and if they’d moved me, it would’ve been to a cellar, not a chandelier-lit bedroom overlooking the capital.

None of it added up. And that terrified me more than a clear answer would have.

I backed away from the door. Scanned the room. Crystal decanters on a sideboard. A marble writing desk. An armoire. A vanity mirror that reflected a face I barely recognized—swollen, purple, wrong. I looked away from it.

Think like you’re in the ring.

In the ring, you didn’t wait. You didn’t hesitate. You assessed, you committed, and you moved. Waiting meant bleeding. Hesitation meant losing.

I had no weapon. No key. No communication stone. But I had my legs. They were bruised, yes. The left knee ached from a takedown that had gone badly. But the muscle memory was intact. Three years of underground fighting had given me that much, at least. I could generate enough force to shatter a standard door lock if I hit it right—heel strike, just beside the mechanism, where the bolt met the frame.

I limped back to the door. Positioned myself. Drew a breath that made my ribs catch fire.

I didn’t care.

I shifted my weight to my right leg. Pulled the left knee up. Aimed.

"Going somewhere?" a low male voice sliced through the silence.

My leg froze mid-strike. I turned.

A tall, broad-shouldered man with a sharp jawline, black hair, and dark gold eyes stepped out of the shadows with predatory grace.

A terrifying, bone-deep familiarity crashed into me, paralyzing me with profound fear.

He stared at me.

"You’re trying to run again, aren’t you?" he asked, and my blood instantly ran cold.