The arena was loud the way only the Lunar Combat Arena got loud, the kind of noise that pressed against your chest and lived there, crowd packed into every row, moonlight cutting hard across the sand floor below.

I rolled my shoulders and looked across the arena.

Two rings. Mine on the left, Val's on the right. Twenty feet of sand between them that might as well have been a wall.

Val was already in position, arms loose at her sides, watching Bram Cole rotate his neck across from her. Cole ...