“It’s not the curse,” he said sharply, reaching up to press his fingers into the black marks encircling his neck. “I didn’t have this shit when I fought five years ago, and the Mad Dog thing happened then too. I don’t know why I get like that. I never go crazy anywhere else. Only there.”
My eyes went wide. Good god, he didn’t know.
“Nik,” I said, grabbing his hand as tight as I dared. “You didn’t do that.”
“Of course I did it. I don’t remember anything that happens when I get like that, but I saw the video. That’s me in there bashing a man into paste.”
“But it’s not,” I said frantically. “I mean, it was you physically, but I was there when it happened. I felt the magic twist.”
Nik looked at me like I was nuts. “What magic?”
“Awful magic,” I assured him. “I don’t know what’s going on with that arena, but it’s full of the angriest, bloodiest power I’ve ever felt. You’re not the only one who lost it. Everyone in there went nuts. You think people cheer for that sort of horrific violence normally?”
“Yes,” Nik said flatly. “Because people are shit.”
“Not that much,” I argued, getting frustrated. “I’m not saying people can’t be jerks, but there’s a big, fat line between being a callous asshole and being a bloodthirsty psychopath. Just like you don’t normally black out and turn into a mindless killing machine, I bet those people don’t normally cheer for grisly murder. There’s something in that arena that makes people terrible. I was there, Nik. I felt it!”
He scowled, thinking that over. “It is a horrible place,” he said at last. “But it doesn’t matter. The Gameskeeper told me when I woke up that he’s already got next week’s match set. He didn’t tell me who I’d be fighting, but he made it clear that he doesn’t expect me to survive. If I skip out, though, my head pops off and I die anyway.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I said. “Let me see your neck.”
Nik dutifully leaned over, pulling the bandages down with his sole remaining hand to reveal the entire noose of the black marks. “I don’t know what you’re looking for,” he said in a heavy voice. “Peter already warned me that the curse wasn’t removable when I talked to him this morning.”
“He told me the same thing last night,” I said, pulling out my phone since my goggles were still upstairs on the bed. “But he also said there might be a way to get around the rules, so that’s what I’m going to look for.”
Nik chuckled. “You are good at finding loopholes.”
I was, and dammit, I was going to find this one. As I’d noted yesterday, the spellwork branded into Nik’s skin was dense and complicated. Now that I was staring straight at it, I recognized Kauffman’s work. He hadn’t signed it or anything, but the pin-neat handwriting was a dead giveaway, and given where the curse had come from, he was the only mage that made sense.
That was bad news for me. Loath as I was to say anything nice about him, Kauffman was a damn good mage. I looked up all the functions in my phone’s spellwork dictionary anyway, just to be sure, but as usual, Kauffman hadn’t left any dangling threads. The core of the curse was simple and clear: Nik had to fight five opponents of the Gameskeeper’s choosing in the Rentfree arena. If he tried to run or cheat or otherwise get out of the agreement in any way, the curse would cut off his head.
“No dice, huh?” Nik said when he saw my face.
“He’s a thorough bastard, I’ll give him that,” I said, sliding Nik’s bandages gently back into place. “But just because I couldn’t find an escape on first glance doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist. We’ll figure it out. I am not letting you die in that stupid arena.”
“I don’t want to die there, either,” Nik assured me, but his eyes were lowered. “It’s just…maybe this is it. I’ve been running from the Gameskeeper for a long time. He said I’d never get out the first time, but I did. I thought I could do it again. Thought I knew what he wanted and how to play him, but…” He heaved a defeated sigh. “All runs come to an end eventually, you know?”
“No, I don’t know,” I said, grabbing his shoulders. “We’re going to do this. I’m not giving up on you!”
The way he looked at me then was something I couldn’t describe. He still looked like Nik, but I’d never seen his face like that before. He was clearly killing himself to hide it, but even when he’d been lying on his couch drunk with backlash, he’d never looked so scared.
“Oh, Nik,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around him. “It’s okay. I won’t leave you. You don’t have to face this alone.”
“You should leave,” he whispered, burying his face in the crook of my neck. “I did this to myself. I was so stupid to go back there. I deserve whatever I get, but I don’t want to take you down with me.”
“You won’t,” I promised, ducking down to make him look at me. “And no one deserves what’s been done to you. The Gameskeeper isn’t bringing either of us down, I promise.”
“You can’t keep that,” he whispered, his eyes scared. “All the other crazy stuff we did, you always had a plan. Maybe a nuts one, but it was always there. You don’t have anything this time.”
“I’ve got you,” I said. “I’ve got the DFZ. I’ve got my dad. None of us are alone. We can figure this out together.”
Nik’s answer to that was to press his face back into my neck. He stayed there for a long time, just sitting with his body pressed into mine. I secretly suspected he was crying, but I wasn’t about to check. I’d never seen Nik
