Chapter 16 · The First Death Match

The contract smelled like rust and blood. Chen Feng stared at the paper on Old Xu's kitchen table, the ink still wet where Steel Claw's thumb had pressed down. Three fights. Three lives. One piece of meteor iron.

"You don't have to sign it tonight." Old Xu's voice was rough. He'd been chain-smoking since they got back from the gym. "We can figure something else out."

Chen picked up the pen. His hand didn't shake. It should've. "He knows what I am. If I don't sign, he tells everyone."

"Let him tell." Old Xu crushed his cigarette into the ashtray, half-smoked. "So what if they know? You think I care if some underground trash finds out you eat metal?"

Chen almost smiled. Old Xu cared. He cared so much his hands were shaking when he lit the next cigarette. But Chen had seen Steel Claw's palm, seen the way the meteor iron pulsed under the skin like a second heart. That thing was alive. And it called to whatever was living inside Chen's gut.

He signed his name. Chen Feng. Not the fake one he'd used at the gym for three years.