Chapter 10 · King Of The Pit

"Get your hands off me before I rip them off!" Carson spat, his voice a ragged edge.

He was pinned hard against the cold stone wall, two guards digging their weight into his shoulders. He looked wrecked. Chest heaving, clothes torn to shreds, those black curse-veins pulsing like ink beneath his skin.

I didn't move. I just leaned against the iron bars, arms crossed. "You're not in any position to negotiate, Rook. You just blew a hole through a reinforced floor. You're lucky the Warden thinks you're a circus act and not a liability."

Carson glared at me. His eyes were dark, shimmering with that unstable, dangerous light. "A circus act? That's what I am now?"

"Right now? Yeah," I said. "But the Warden's offering a map. The real one. All we have to do is survive the Pit King."

Carson let out a sharp, dry laugh that sounded more like a cough. "The Pit King isn't a fighter, Evelyn. He's a vessel. Like me. Only he's been rotting in that hole for a decade, eating every curse the Cartel threw away. You want me to fight that? I'm barely holding onto my own head."

I stepped closer.