Chapter 40
Elijah sat with his eyes closed, the warmth of the Eternal Grounded Tree moving through his body. The healing was slow, the adaptation slower, but he could feel the ache in his ribs fading, the split in his lip pulling together, the rawness on his knuckles smoothing. His Ki moved in quiet circles, patient, persistent.
Kai leaned over. "You want to cash out or go again?"
Elijah opened his eyes. "What's the return?"
"Double if you win the next match. If you lose, you walk away with nothing." Kai held up his betting slip. "Four thousand for you. Two thousand for Henry. You want to keep it or risk it?"
Henry didn't hesitate. "Double."
Elijah looked at him. Henry's green eyes were bright, his body still buzzing from his fight. He wasn't tired, He was hungry.
"Double," Elijah said.
Kai smiled. "That's what I thought." He stood up. "Come on. We have to tell the registerer before the next round starts."
Elijah pushed himself up, his body protesting, the healing not finished but far enough. He followed Kai down the steps, Henry beside him, the crowd still thick around the ring. The noise was constant now, a wall of sound that pressed in from all sides.
They reached the betting windows. Kai leaned over the counter, spoke to the man behind it, slid the slips across. The man nodded, wrote something in his ledger, handed them back. Kai folded them and put them in his pocket.
"Done," he said.
Elijah turned to head back to their seats, but his feet stopped.
Jack Reyes was looking at him.
He was in the same corner as before, his arms crossed, his body relaxed against the wall. The lights caught his blond hair, made it almost white. His red eyes were fixed on Elijah, and he was smiling.
Kai followed Elijah's gaze and went still.
"Jack," Kai said. His voice was flat.
Jack's smile didn't change. "Kai."
They looked at each other across the room, the crowd moving between them, the noise filling the space.
"Last time we fought," Jack said, "I didn't win."
Jack pushed off from the wall, his hands dropping to his sides. He was taller than Elijah had realized, broader too. The distance between them was thirty feet, but it felt like nothing. "I didn't lose either."
"But you almost did."
Jack's smile flickered, something shifting behind his eyes. "I wanted to see what you would do. When you couldn't win. When you couldn't run." He tilted his head, his red eyes moving from Kai to Elijah and back. "You surprised me."
Kai didn't answer. His jaw was tight, his hands in his pockets, but Elijah could see the tension in his shoulders, the way his weight had shifted onto the balls of his feet.
"Jack," Elijah said.
Jack's eyes moved to him. "Elijah."
"You know my name."
"I know everyone's name who fights here." Jack's smile returned, easier now. "I saw your match. You move well for someone who hasn't been doing this long."
Elijah didn't ask how Jack knew how long he had been fighting, he didn't need to.
Jack pushed off from the wall and walked toward them. The crowd parted for him the way it had parted for Henry, but differently. Not because they didn't know him Because they did.
He stopped a few feet away, close enough to talk, far enough to leave space. His red eyes moved over Elijah's face, his shoulders, his hands.
"Last time Kai and I fought," Jack said, "I thought I was going to kill him. Not because I wanted to but Because he didn't want to stop attacking me." He looked at Kai. "But he didn't stop and kept coming. He waited for me to make a mistake."
Kai's voice was quiet. "You did."
Jack nodded. "I did and you got inside my guard." He looked back at Elijah. "I've been waiting for him to come back. To see if we could change that draw into a winner. But he never did."
"I didn't want to fight you," Kai said.
"I know." Jack's voice was soft.
The silence stretched between them. Henry stood behind Elijah, not speaking, his green eyes moving between Kai and Jack. The crowd flowed around them, people pushing past, voices rising and falling, but the four of them were still.
"I'm fighting tonight," Jack said. He looked at Elijah. "If any of you want to step in, the registerer is taking names."
Elijah felt the weight of the words. Jack wasn't challenging him, but he was offering.
Kai put his hand on Elijah's shoulder. "We'll think about it."
Jack smiled. "Don't think too long." He turned and walked away, the crowd swallowing him, his blond hair disappearing into the sea of faces.
Kai stood there for a moment, his hand still on Elijah's shoulder, his eyes on the space where Jack had been.
"You fought him?" Elijah asked.
"Once, some months ago which was Outside the fights. No ring, no rules, no crowd so nobody knows about it excit for him and me." Kai's voice was distant. "I was coming back from a job, and he was there. In the street waiting for me."
"What did he want?"
"He wanted to see what I was made of." Kai let his hand drop. "I barely got out of that fight. I didn't win, and I didn't lose as I only survived. And when it was over, he looked at me and smiled, and I knew he had been holding back the whole time."
Elijah looked at the corner where Jack had been standing. "He's a monster."
"He's a monster," Kai agreed. "Just like you."
Elijah turned to him. Kai's face was serious, his blue eyes steady.
"You don't see it," Kai said. "But I do. From your speed in growing stronger, and how no matter how strong someone you face, you always find a way to win. But don't fight Jack until you have grown even stronger."
Elijah didn't know what to say to that.
Henry cleared his throat. "The next match is starting."
They walked back to their seats. The crowd was settling, the lights brightening over the ring. Elijah sat down, his body still aching, his mind still on Jack's red eyes and Kai's words.
The announcer called the next name.
Then the next name. "Kai."
Kai stood up. He didn't look at Elijah or Henry. He just walked down the steps toward the ring, his hands in his pockets, his face calm.
His opponent was already in the ring. A man with thick arms and a thicker neck, his head shaved, his chest bare. His Ki was steady, controlled being at Beginner Knight Stage Mid.
The bell rang.
Kai moved across the ring like water over stone. His first punch caught the man in the jaw, snapping his head to the side. His second drove into the man's stomach, folding him forward. His third—an elbow to the back of the head—sent the man to the mat.
The crowd barely had time to react. The man lay on the canvas, his arms splayed, his eyes open but not seeing. His Ki flickered and went dark.
The announcer's voice cut through the silence. "Winner—Kai Vance."
Kai didn't look at the crowd. He didn't raise his hands. He just stepped over the ropes and walked toward the betting windows.
Elijah watched him go. Henry sat beside him, his arms crossed, his face unreadable.
"He is going to the registerer," Henry said.
Elijah nodded. Kai was going to the registerer. He was putting his name in for another match.
Maybe more than one.
Elijah leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. The healing warmth moved through his ribs, his knuckles, his lip. Somewhere in the building, Jack Reyes was waiting.