Tomorrow, when I walked out of this place.

With moy prekrasnyy by my side.

* * *

Sleep hadn’t come easy. My mind was clogged with what today would bring. But most of all I had pictured Inessa with Master. I had pictured her in pain, tied with rope between two posts. I felt sick when I thought of her being lashed.

I pushed myself off the floor, up and down, as I finished my push-ups. I needed my body warm and prepped. My muscles protested, pushed too far over the past few weeks. But I knew they had in them one more day.

The most important day I would ever live.

This day would bring only one of two possible outcomes: liberty or death. I faced both with a smile on my face.

The sound of Luka, Zaal, and Valentin warming up echoed outside my cell. Luka with his bladed knuckle-dusters, Zaal with his black sais, and Valentin with his unpowered steel picanas.

I replayed last night in my head. The plan. The rules and the show we must perform until it was time to strike. Until Luka gave the signal. Viktor and the rebel Wraiths would ensure everyone moved into position as we fought. I shook my head at that news. At the knowledge that not all of the guards were true Wraiths. That, like me and many others, they had been forced into servitude by Master. The rebels, as we fought, would take out as many Wraiths as they could. Master and all his guests would be in the crowd, watching the four-man fight. Unbeknownst to them, the doors would be sealed. There would be no escape.

Not for a single one of them.

The sound of footsteps approached the champions’ quarters. I detected three, two heavier than the third. I jumped to my feet, stretching my muscles, when there was movement at my cell door.

I didn’t need to look to see which fucker stood there. I closed my eyes and forced myself to keep from charging the bars and killing him on the spot. I held in my thirst to kill.

Just barely.

“901,” Master’s voice said, the sound of it slitting down my spine like shards of broken glass.

I turned and glared at the soon to be fallen king of the pit. I was on a countdown to slay.

He smiled at me. It was proud. It was victorious. He stood close to the bars, a guard and a chiri flanking him. The chiri held an injection pack in her hands. Her head was bowed, and I knew this was the female that Maya had told me about last night. The one that was sent to drug me.

“So,” Master said coldly, “you made it to the final?” I didn’t answer. My jaw ached at how hard it was clenched. He laughed, then pointed at the other cells behind him. “I never really doubted you could. After all, you’re the greatest fighter the Blood Pit has ever produced.” Master dropped his hand and said, “But you won’t be after today.”

Master clicked his fingers, and the guard cautiously opened the cell door. He kept his gun aimed at my head as Master pushed the chiri inside. The older woman stumbled in and quickly righted herself. She silently opened her bag and made quick work of retrieving the needle filled with the drugs that would make me weak.

As she held it, Master raised his hand, signaling for her to pause. The chiri did as commanded. I glared at Master, and he shrugged nonchalantly. “You didn’t think I would allow you to win, did you? Not after you pathetically fell in love with my High Mona and decided to covet what was mine.”

I lifted my chin, refusing to show any remorse for falling in love with Inessa. Master’s face lit with challenge at my defiance. He shook his head, tutting loudly like he was reprimanding a child. “You see, 901, this has always been your problem. Even as a child, you never quite conformed. You never took a mona. You never built friendships with the other fighters. You lived alone.”

Master slipped his hands into the pockets of his slacks. Shrugging, he added, “And now you will die alone.” Master’s taunting face fell. Then a cruel, sadistic smile appeared on his face. “As will she.” My blood ran cold when he added, “Alone. Racked with pain. Slowly, in the most cruel manner possible.”

I heard a livid roar coming from Valentin’s cell. Master raised an eyebrow as he looked that way. When he faced me again, he said, “You fucked up, 901. If you had obeyed me from the beginning, you could have been great. You could have gained your freedom if you had simply played by the rules.”

“I wouldn’t have,” I replied in a low hoarse voice.

Master tipped his head to the side. “No?”

Balling my fists, I said, “No. Because there is no such thing with you.” I pointed out of the cell. “You tell these champions that the winner will gain his freedom, but we know it isn’t true.” Master’s face froze. “Freedom doesn’t exist in your world. You exploit. You use and you bring pain. You strip people of their choice and punish them if any morsel of happiness is found. You force the males to kill. You force the monebi to fuck, and you force the chiri to exist in the shadows.” I inhaled deeply, and continued, “You delude yourself into thinking you are our Master. No soul in this place respects you. You have no honor. No female that you force to take your cock welcomes it unless forced or on drugs.” I took a step closer, then another. Mere inches from his face, I said, “Inessa was repulsed by you. Every time you took her, she hated it. She would tell me how her skin crawled when you touched her. She would tell me how she avoided your eyes as you stroked her hair and rutted above her like a desperate fool.” I watched as Master’s face filled with red. He was holding his breath, his anger rising to boiling point.

Allowing myself to smile, I leaned forward and emphasized, “But with me, she wanted it all.” I lifted my hand and showed my palm. “She wanted me to touch her.” I held out my arms. “She wanted me to hold her.” Reaching down, I gripped my cock and locked onto his stare. “And she loved me freely. Without the drugs, she gave herself to me … simply because I was me. No demands, no coercion.”

A part of me felt sick talking of Inessa this way. But what I said was true. We never fucked. With us it was something else entirely. And I could see my words striking Master as effectively as if I were slicing into his bare flesh.

Delivering the final blow, I announced proudly, “And every time you took her after me, she told me she would picture my face hovering above her. She would imagine it was me that was filling her.”

Master couldn’t take it anymore. Slamming his hand on the metal bars, he snarled, “I will watch you die today, 901. I will watch you die slowly and painfully in the sand, where you’ve killed so many others. I will laugh as you draw your last breath, then spit on your corpse when your blood has drained away.” Stepping back as if he hadn’t just exploded with rage, he promised, “Then I will end 152. I will strip her flesh in your honor. Her slow death will be down to you. She will die hating you. She will die knowing that wanting you was the stupidest thing she could have ever done.”

Master flicked his wrist at the chiri. I stood resolute, furious eyes fixed on the male that had imprisoned me from a child as the needle broke my skin. I watched as he smiled triumphantly.

He had no idea what was coming his way.

Sticking to the plan, I closed my eyes when the chiri stepped away. I swayed on my feet, reaching out to grip the wall as the liquid traveled through my veins. When I opened my eyes, I saw Master smile.

Turning on his heel, he said, “I’ll be in my seat, watching you take your last breath. Unlike every other match, I’m going to enjoy you dying quickly, 901. No games this time. Just death. I should have done it years ago.”

With that, Master walked away, his guard following behind. When he was out of sight, I straightened, feeling the drug infuse my muscles. But this wasn’t the drug that Master had demanded I receive. It was adrenaline to keep my body strong and able while we slaughtered them all.

The chiri female looked up at me. She met my eyes and a smile pulled on her lips. Closing in, she said, “We are all ready.”

I nodded in acknowledgment. Just as she was about to leave, she said, “Master has taken every one of the chiri females against our will. We are not so different from your Inessa. When you fight today, you fight for us all. When you stop his heart, you free our hearts. We are with you, Champion. We are all behind you. The fighters. The chiri. Anyone who is enslaved. We will follow your lead and we will die if we must. Today the Blood Pit falls.”