Chapter 26 · Tamer of the Ash Wilds - Chapter 26: The Death File

Lin didn't look at the chip. He held it in his palm like it was burning him, but he didn't look.

The Champ leaned back against the wall, one hand pressed over the gash across his ribs. Blood leaked between his fingers. He wasn't trying to stop it. Just keeping pressure so he didn't collapse before this conversation ended.

"You're stalling," the Champ said.

Lin closed his fist. "I'm thinking."

"Think faster. You've got maybe two minutes before someone notices I'm not upstairs."

The arena floor above them was still roaring. The crowd hadn't calmed down from the match. Lin could hear boots stomping, voices chanting something he couldn't make out. They thought he was dead. Or close enough.

He looked at the Champ's face again. His own face. Older, scarred, wrong in all the ways a reflection shouldn't be. But the eyes were the same. The tilt of the jaw when he was pissed off. Even the way he breathed through his teeth when the pain spiked.

"Why," Lin said. "Why tell me now."

"Because you won't stop climbing." The Champ pushed off the wall, took two steps, and sat down hard on the edge of a supply crate.