Chapter 16 · Voidbound - Chapter 16: The Champion Calls

"You fight like you got something to lose." Rook's voice cut through the roar of the crowd before I even made it off the sand.

I didn't turn around. My ribs were still burning from the last hit, and the hatchling was coiled tight around my wrist, trembling. Not from fear. From hunger.

"Keep walking," I muttered, half to myself, half to the creature pressing its snout against my pulse.

Rook's boots hit the ground behind me. Close. Too close.

"That thing you got," he said, loud enough that a few stragglers in the tunnel turned to look. "Doesn't fight clean. Moves wrong. Smells wrong."

I stopped. The hatchling hissed, low and wet, and I felt its jaw unhinge just a fraction against my skin.

"Congratulations," I said without looking back. "You got a nose."

"I got eyes, kid." His hand landed on my shoulder and spun me around. Up close, Rook Chainbreaker was every bit the nightmare they said he was. Scar tissue webbed across half his face, and his pact-mark glowed faint red along his collarbone, visible through the torn edge of his shirt. His bonded—something with too many limbs and not enough bones—