Page 9 of Splintered Desire

“Zela!” Kolson’s sharp tone pulls me from my spiral.

I blink hard, pushing down my growing panic, and turn toward where his voice rang out. Kolson and Isaac stand across the room near a set of steps I hadn’t noticed before, their eyes both fixed on me.

“Sir.” A guy, probably around the same age as Kolson, approaches him with a clipboard and a serious look on his face. He’s vaguely familiar, probably from my time fighting here, but I don’t know his name. The only people I know are some of the fighters' alter egos, and Reed…and I guess Kolson, Isaac, and Jace.

“Tucker.” Kolson greets him with a straight face and a nod, and while there isn’t much emotion, he also doesn’t sound as annoyed as I’m used to. Meaning he either really doesn’t like me or he does like Tucker.

Not that I give a shit either way.

“Five fighters have yet to gather the information for the new location,” Tucker tells him, and just like that, Kolson’s pissed off again.

“Who?”

“Spite, Grimm, Vesper, Huntsman, and Vixen.”

I try to control my reaction, but fuck, it’s so weird to hear her name, my name. My heart is pounding so hard I’m shocked they haven’t heard it yet.

Do they know?

Isaac looks my way, and before I can stop myself, I’m speaking.

“Weird-ass names,” I say, trying to keep his attention off of me. The last thing I need is for him to look too hard at me. I need to blend in.

“All the fighters are anonymous. Not even we know who they are,” Kolson says, and I’m kind of shocked he took the time to explain.

I know that, or at least that’s what I’d always been told. But seeing as they own the damn place, I felt the need to make sure.

Without another word to Tucker, Kolson turns and heads up the stairs, clearly expecting the rest of us to follow him, and of course we do.

We reach the top, a platform that overlooks not only the fighting pit but gives a clear view of every seat in the house.

“Stupidest fucking rule I’ve ever heard of,” Jace grumbles as he drops into one of three chairs with a pout.

“You only hate it because it stops you from fucking them,” Isaac says, shaking his head.

“And? Have you seen them? Of course, that's why I hate it!” Jace yells, throwing his hands up in annoyance.

“Don’t act like you don’t get plenty of pussy as it is,” Kolson shoots back, rolling his eyes at his brother's dramatics. His eyes dart around the room, taking in the setup that's taking place below us, as if daring someone to step a toe out of line. Jace barks a laugh at his jab, but even though Kolson didn’t seem to mean it as a compliment, that seems to be how Jace takes it.

“I never said that, but there’s no such thing as too much pussy.” Jace wiggles his brows in delight as he folds his arms behind his head. “But tell me you haven’t thought about it, Kol?”

A wicked smirk twists his lips as he watches his brother, hungry for a reaction. Kolson doesn’t give him one, though, instead keeping his eyes fixed forward and acting as though he hadn’t even heard him speak.

“Tell me if Vixen came up here after a fight and said she wanted to wrap those pretty lips around your cock, you would turn her away?” Jace presses, unable to accept his silence.

Jace’s question hangs in the air around us as if it has physical weight, and Kolson isn’t the only one who feels it.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! This is bad.

“Who’s Vixen?” I force out the question and almost sigh in relief when my voice doesn’t waver.

They don’t answer me for a second before Isaac lets out a sigh as if taking pity on me.

Fucking assholes. Why bring me here if they were just going to act like I was such a goddamned inconvenience the whole time!

“She’s our best fighter,” he tells me, and I see something in his eyes—maybe respect mixed with something else, but he looks away before I can figure it out.

“Best female fighter,” Kolson clarifies.