Page 91 of The Last True Hero

Adam looked up. “And I’ve got nothing left to lose.”

“How’s the chest? Looks like a hot mess still.”

"Feels like déjà vu.” Colton had been the one who shot him over a year ago, when he'd been trying to escape Adam's town. “For some reason you’re always involved in my downfall.”

Another shrug. “Are you talking about the cells here? Or that pretty girl following you around?”

“It’s unlikely I’ll see her again.” He looked away. He just hoped she did the smart thing and rescued her sister, then got as far away from here as she could.

“Doubtful.” Colton straightened, stretching out the kinks in his shoulders. “From the way she was following you around, she looked like she’d staked some kind of claim.”

“Yeah,” he snapped, cracking his knuckles. “Well that was before I pulled my incredible transformation act, thank you very fucking much.”

“You’re breathing,” Colton returned, “which is more than I can say for your chances if I hadn’t. So my fucking pleasure.”

Adam pushed to his feet, feeling too small for his own skin. He paced in small circles. Dying felt like an easy way out, one he’d thought about before, if he were honest with himself. What always stopped him was the fact that he truly wanted to live. He just wanted to shed himself of this forsaken curse, even though he knew there was no cure. No hope.

And now he was trapped in this hellhole, what was left? Dying looked like something he might be acquainted with in his near future, and that made his gut clench with denial. No. He didn’t want to die.

He wanted... well, he wasn't getting what he wanted, but a man could still hope.

“I need to get out of here,” he said, looking around.

“Good luck with that,” Colton muttered. Apparently he’d given up toying with Adam and had slumped onto the cold stone bench. "They'll be back as soon as they've reported in to Cypher."

“So we can’t get out of the cells,” he muttered.

“Only time any of us gets out of here is when they’ve got us scheduled for a match." Colton lay down, dragging his shirt over his head. No help there. “If you’re lucky they’ll blood you first with whoever they've got in the arena at the moment, and it won’t be with me.”

Lucky. He frowned. From what he’d seen that night at the arena, there was only one gate in and out of the sandy cage, which clearly led back here to the warg cages. The wire dome around the arena was at least twenty feet high, and reinforced with electricity. By the time he tried to climb it, his hands would either be raw, or he’d be dead from a stray bullet.

“Anyone ever tried to escape the arena before?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Colton’s shirt lifted with his breath, but apart from that he stayed still. “Two weeks ago one of the wargs tried. They crucified him. Took turns at him. Wasn’t pleasant.”

“Then he shouldn’t have gotten caught,” Adam muttered under his breath, and Colton lifted his shirt off his face just enough to peer sideways at him.

But it didn’t matter.

Now he had something else to focus on, apart from losing Mia or dying.

* * *

The door slammed open, and Vex strutted into the cells. She had a lit cigarette in one hand, and she'd drawn her eyebrows on in red pencil that matched the bright gleam of her Mohawk.

"Jesus. H. Christ," she said, looking Adam up and down. "What happened? You get clawed up?"

"Let me out," he growled.

Vex laughed. "Put your hands on the bars," she said, "and I will. After I make sure you're human."

He wouldn't pass that test. Adam shook his head.

"Thought so." Her gaze cut to Colton, then to the blood on the floor. Vex stepped over a puddle of it, suspicion racing through her eyes. "Looks like someone died in here."

A reiver hurried through the door. "It was Rykker. Found him and his men stuffed in a cell that was meant to be empty." He swallowed. "Someone shoved a hand through his back and tore his heart out, but he'd also been shot."

That made her eyes narrow. She turned her attention back to Adam, as though he suddenly had a use again. "Whathappened in here?"