A twenty-three-year-old Jaguar stared at her face in the cracked training room mirror. She was growing more certain with each passing day that those features hadn’t changed since she’d left Sky Labs. Sure, there were more bruises, more scratches, more scars, but—
“Jaguar. It’s time.” The approaching guard held up a pair of wrist cuffs.
Jaguar accepted her fate.
When they arrived at the arena gate, Mars held out her assigned weapon: a tiny ass dagger. “This?” Jaguar exclaimed as she took it. “Really?”
“It’ll make things more interesting,” Mars told her. “Good luck.”
“Make things interesting,” she muttered as the gate went up. “Those assholes.” She stormed into the arena, the blade twirling in her fingers.
Well, she wouldn’t be here much longer. Not if everything went according to plan.
Her opponent stepped out from under the opposite gate: a bulky orange alien from the planet Reo, triple her size. He wielded a mace that he swung in wide circles as he stalked toward her. As usual, her speed would be her best hope of winning. The dagger in her hand was all but useless.
“Our next match is Jaguar versus Blaze,” the announcer told the crowd.
Blaze charged and swung. Jumping out of the way was easy enough, but Jaguar had to carefully time her duck to avoid the next blow, and then he was only feet away. She sprang up and drove the dagger into the shoulder of the arm wielding the weapon. Blaze hissed, tossed the mace’s handle to his other hand, and swung again.
Great. Ambidextrous. Jaguar yanked the blade free, dodged another swing, and backed up. The mace would be perfect for her escape plan. She needed to keep it in the arena for her next fight.
Jaguar kept moving backward, veering toward the nearest wooden pole. She threw a few slashes at Blaze’s arms and legs, both to distract him and keep him close. She feigned a look of alarm when her back hit the pole.
Blaze swung. Jaguar ducked. The metal spikes dug into the pole above her, and she lunged up to drive her dagger into the alien’s neck. Quick. Clean. She yanked the weapon free. Yellow blood splattered across the dirt.
Jaguar could have dragged the battle out longer, earning more praise from the crowd and Mars, but she was saving her energy. She had one more fight, and it was going to be quite the show.
Still, Jaguar had done well enough to earn a “Not bad” from Mars when she returned through the gate. “Though, Blaze has been losing his edge lately,” he added. “I wonder if they’ll bother trying to heal him.”
Years ago, Jaguar would have thought that knife to the throat fatal. It probably still would be, even if the Den’s medical staff made an effort to save Blaze, but she’d been surprised by some of the wounds she’d seen healed during her time here.
She didn’t let her thoughts dwell on Blaze for long. While the guards chained her to the wall, she ran once again through the plan that had been her every waking thought for months. Her biggest obstacles were the guards, the heavy doors around the facility, and the fact that she was always in her cell, in chains, or in the training rooms.
The training rooms had seemed to be the best place to begin her escape at first, but Jaguar had heard stories over the years of failed escape attempts, and even witnessed a few herself. Sure, the prisoners had access to weapons in the training rooms. But so did the overwhelming number of guards and handlers.
And then Jaguar realized there was a place where she had no chains, no guards in her immediate vicinity, and access to weapons.
The arena.
The location also came with the added advantage of spectators. Above all else, Lion’s Den personnel were going to protect the people who made them money. Of Jaguar’s two matches today, the second one would be far more crowded for a variety of reasons: time of day, the placement of well-liked fighters in the time block, and the fact that Jaguar was not fighting another prisoner, but a free agent. The only one scheduled this pentasol.
There were still unknown variables she’d have to deal with along the way. But a failed attempt would be better than another day in the Lion’s Den. Anything would be better.
Jaguar was handed a whip for her second match. While the gate lifted, she focused. Focused on the way air filled her lungs, the way her boots thudded against the dirt when she started forward, the way dust floated in the light spilling into the waiting room from the arena. Now or never.
She stepped into the arena and cracked the whip, earning cheers from the crowd that she didn’t give a damn about. Her opponent, known only as Nightfall, entered on the other side. He was tall, toned, dressed in all black, and wearing a belt with two large daggers and an array of throwing stars.
Nightfall surveyed Jaguar. She let the whip fall limp, not wanting to give him insight into her movements.
In a heartbeat, he unleashed three throwing stars. One came directly at her, and two others would pass on each side, blocking her escape. They were too low for her to duck.
She jumped and flipped. Something else whizzed toward her mid-flip, and she twisted to see a fourth star. She snatched it out of the air with her whip. Her fingers wrapped around the star, and she sent it back at Nightfall. He dodged easily.
Time to see if he was as good with his daggers as he was with the stars. Jaguar ran at him, zig-zagging erratically to avoid giving him a straight shot. Still, a few stars nicked her arms. Blood trickled down her skin.
Nightfall’s hands moved from his stars to his daggers. Jaguar ripped one away with the whip, sending it flying, and then the other blade was slashing at her chest. She grabbed Nightfall’s wrist before he could land a good hit. His free hand struck the side of her face. She staggered.
Jaguar flicked her wrist, and the whip wrapped around Nightfall’s arm. He pulled, making her stumble forward, but she stayed on her feet. She landed a kick to his stomach and reached for the dagger’s handle. He twisted his hand. The blade sliced her palm.
Pain shot through the hand as Jaguar tightened it into a fist and threw a punch. Nightfall moved his arm to block, and she ripped the dagger from his grasp. She tossed the dagger aside before turning and running toward the center of the arena. Toward the pole. Toward Blaze’s mace.
More stars cut through the air, whistling a quiet warning. Jaguar dropped to her stomach and let them pass. Then she was back up, almost to the pole. The mace was just out of reach. She jumped. Grabbed the handle.
Her weight wasn’t enough to dislodge the mace, leaving her dangling a few feet above the ground. More stars came her way. She let go. Duck. Dodge. Jump. Try again.
This time, the mace came free when Jaguar grabbed it. She whirled around and swung, knocking a star out of the air before it could strike. Murmurs rippled through the crowd above. She stalked toward Nightfall, but she only kept her focus on him long enough to avoid his last few stars. Then, while he was running to retrieve his daggers, she veered toward the wall. Her eyes moved to the metal mesh fence separating the crowd from the arena.
Briefly, her gaze darted to Tyrso Starr and his teenaged son, Ryse, sitting on one of the balconies above the rest of the audience. The first time they’d shown up, it had completely thrown her off. She’d nearly been killed by her opponent.
Jaguar had no chance of getting anywhere near them today. And as much as her blood boiled at the sight of Tyrso, she wasn’t ready for a confrontation.
She flung the mace with as much momentum as she could muster. It sailed through the air and ripped open the fence.
Now people were screaming.
Something raced through the air behind Jaguar. She glanced back and spotted one of Nightfall’s daggers coming her way. She dove to the left. The dagger sank into the wall, about a third of the way up to the fence.
Jaguar’s hand tightened around her whip. She ran. Leaped. Her foot hit the handle of the dagger, and she pushed off. The whip wrapped around one of the metal posts supporting the fence. She pulled herself up.
Her hands found the fencepost next. There was no dodging Nightfall now. She moved on to the mesh and inched higher, listening for the sound of weapons coming her way. She was nearly to the hole the mace had made when a throwing star grazed her left arm.
She gritted her teeth and kept moving. The top of the fence wasn’t much higher than the hole, but every second she saved herself could mean the difference between escape and death.
As she pulled herself through the hole, another star sank into her left leg. She tumbled forward and smacked into the ground in front of the first row of spectator seating.
There was nobody in the seats. Everyone was on their feet, scrambling to get to the exits, not realizing that the chaos would make it easier for Jaguar to escape. She pushed herself up and staggered into the crowd.
Her main fear now was that the facility would go into lockdown before she could get out. Guards might usher the crowd somewhere secure while they searched for her. She needed something that would give them no option but to evacuate.
Fire sounded like a pretty good idea.
Jaguar picked up abandoned bags as she walked, fishing through them for anything useful. The fifth one she checked yielded a lighter. On her way up the stadium steps, she also grabbed a long coat, a hat, sunglasses, and a sanitary wipe to clean the dirt and blood off her face.
Guards were fighting to get to her, so she started with the lighter. The various bags and articles of clothing lying around burst into flames quickly. She also kicked over any bottles of alcohol she came across. Not all of the spilled liquid caught fire, but enough did.
As it turned out, Nova Cora was flammable too. Jaguar resisted the temptation to drink from the cans and bottles she found and instead dumped them out, adding to the flames.
Alarms blared and evacuation orders came over the loudspeakers. Jaguar threw on the coat and accessories she’d grabbed and ducked her head low as she merged with the crowd. The disguise kept eyes off of her for now, but it wouldn’t be enough to get her out of the building. Guards were bound to catch her on the way out. She needed to blend in long enough to get her hands on something better.
When Jaguar glanced back, Nightfall was pulling himself up over the fence. She quickly looked forward. Sharp pains shot through her body. She tugged down on her coat, making sure it covered the star in the back of her leg. She couldn’t pull it out until she had some way to stop the bleeding. In the meantime, she did her best not to limp.
Guards yelled up ahead, warning that they needed to check everyone leaving the Den, ushering people into lines, asking them to please be patient for their own safety. Jaguar located a guard about her size. She hurried toward them and raised her voice. “Excuse me, where’s the nearest restroom?”
The guard’s face was hidden under a helmet—marking her as one of the facility’s exterior guards—but her tone made it clear she thought Jaguar was crazy. “We’re evacuating, ma’am.”
“It’s an emergency!”
“Okay, okay, follow me. Be quick.”
The guard led Jaguar away from the frenzy and down a hall. Jaguar waited until they were at the restroom entrance to strike. She slammed the woman into the wall.
The guard immediately began fighting back. As they exchanged and dodged blows, Jaguar pulled her into the restroom, out of sight of security cameras. She yanked the guard’s helmet off, knocked her into the sink, and let her drop to the floor unconscious.
Jagur changed into the guard’s uniform and ran. Hopefully, by the time security realized it was Jaguar and not the guard that had left the bathroom, it would be too late. If she was really lucky, security would be too busy checking the faces of the evacuating crowd to have anyone on cameras at all.
Rather than going out the main exit, Jaguar cut down a hallway toward the training rooms. She’d take a shortcut there and go through the guard’s quarters, to the back exit they came and left through.
She flung the door open, thinking no one would be around to hear.
Mars stood in the middle of the room, staring at the wall of weapons. He looked toward her as she entered. “What are you doing?” He sounded more curious than suspicious, but that didn’t stop Jaguar’s racing heart from dropping to her stomach.
Jaguar hesitated. If she could deepen her voice enough and keep the helmet on, maybe she could get past him without any trouble. “I was told to check the guard’s quarters for stragglers.”
“Good idea.” Mars’s gaze returned to the wall.
Walk past him. Just walk past him. Jaguar tried not to think about all the hours he’d spent watching her get stabbed and thrown and hit. About all the scars that covered her arms and chest…
Curiosity nagged at her. She paused. “Why are you still here?”
“They’ll put the fire out long before it gets this far.”
Jaguar’s mind replayed the time he broke her right foot so that she’d learn to fight with her cybernetic leg. When he’d warned her to hide her limp so others wouldn’t spot her weakness.
All she could think to say was, “Right. Of course.” Keep walking. Keep going. She was almost free.
The silver galaxium sword hanging in the center of the wall reflected Mars’s black eyes. That hungry look that came out when fresh blood turned up in the Den.
Jaguar stopped again, two-thirds of the way to the exit.
“Is something wrong?” Mars asked.
She couldn’t stop the Lion’s Den, not right now. Mars was just a tiny part of a huge machine, a bigger system feeding on people like Jaguar. A system that found new victims every day. Him being dead wouldn’t make a difference.
But it would be better than nothing.
Jaguar turned around to find his blaster pointed at her.
“Take the helmet off,” Mars ordered.
Jaguar slowly lifted her hands, slowly lifted the helmet, and then threw it with as much strength as she could muster. The split second that Mars was caught off guard was enough for her to dart past him and grab the sword. The helmet clattered to the ground. She turned and slashed at the air in time to deflect the blast. The sword trembled but didn’t break.
“I underestimated you, Jaguar,” Mars said. “I suppose that’s what you were hoping for. But part of me hoped you would be the kind of fighter to enjoy the glory. Some learn to like it in the arena.” He lifted the blaster again.
“How did you get here?” Jaguar asked.
The question took Mars by surprise. “What?”
“In this place. Hurting kids like me. You didn’t just spring into existence a monster, did you?”
“You’re calling me a monster?” Mars asked. “I’m not the one who goes out there and kills day after day.”
“Don’t even try that. You know you’re not better than us. You made us.” Jaguar calculated how long it would take for him to fire the blaster, how long for her to reach him, how long to swing the sword.
“Hate to break it to you, kid, but some people are born down here in the shadows,” Mars said. He raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess, you were born into an ordinary life on Earth? Picked up by bounty hunters? You were dragged here into the underworld. I’ve been here my whole life. You can’t make me feel bad for you.”
Jaguar sidestepped the blast just in time. She swung, aiming for Mars’s neck but missing when he stepped back. The blade sliced his hand and the blaster slipped from his grasp. Good enough. She stepped forward and swung again.
Mars lunged forward and grabbed the handle, squeezing Jaguar’s hand so hard she thought it might break. “I taught you everything you know. You really think you can beat me?”
“I’m the one fighting for my life every day,” Jaguar hissed. “I think I’ve put in more hours.” She swung her fist. He caught her arm. She kicked. He faltered long enough for her to yank her hands free. The sword clattered to the ground.
Jaguar pushed Mars into the wall. Weapons fell around them. “I’m stronger than you. You know it, deep down. You’re scared of me.” She leaned forward. Her voice dropped to a whisper when she added, “I think they made me stronger than they meant to.”
Despite the frantic look creeping into his gaze, Mars doubled down. “You know it’s not about strength, it’s about outsmarting your opponent. You’ve fought things much bigger than yourself.”
“Because I’m faster than them. Are you faster than me?” Jaguar braced herself for the pain from her wounds and threw Mars to the ground. Hard. Something cracked and Mars made a sound somewhere between a grunt and a wheeze. Jaguar picked up the sword.
Blood spilled from her handler’s nose and mouth. He coughed as her shadow moved over him. She lowered the tip of the blade to his neck.
“Killing me won’t fix you,” Mars spat.
“I know.”
“You think it will make you feel better?”
Jaguar tightened her grip on the sword. “I’ll feel better knowing you aren’t breaking anyone else.”
She pushed the blade down.