"I need to deal with a problem in the Red Squid Slums."
My voice comes out steadier than my body deserves. Zhang Xi closed what needed closing, but the fight against Veric still lives in the joints, the abdomen, the bottom of my lungs. The body works again. That doesn't mean it's ready for what comes next.
Veric opens his eyes on the arena floor, still pale, dust caught in his hair and dried blood at the corner of his mouth.
"You've barely solved one problem, bastard…" He tries to sit, fails on the first attempt, and pretends it was part of a stretch. "And you're already hunting another."
"You know problems find me."
"Then this time I'm in."
Rhayne looks at the two of us as if facing a contagious disease that learned to talk, her eyes saying we're both absurd. Oliver sighs, takes Veric by the forearm, and helps the prince to his feet. Veric accepts it with wounded dignity, too proud to admit he needs it and too unsteady to sell the act.
"I'm coming," Rhayne says.
