Nolan is down. That bastard is fucking dead. So what if one of my eyes is swollen shut and my back feels like I’ve been kicked in the kidney by a fucking horse.

I won. For just a second, I actually believe Kaya is free. That we can get the hell out of here.

Then everyone starts yelling at once.

I try to catch Kaya’s gaze. To give her a wordless signal to run. To tell her that I’ll catch up with her. But then the circle of spectators begins to narrow on me, fists clenched. Jaws bulging with rage, as if I’ve just stolen something from them. Three guys lunge at me, and though they all lost earlier rounds in the tournament—hell, I knocked one of them out myself—I’ve fought four rounds today and I can only see out of one eye.

“Kaya, run—!” The first form crashes into me, driving me to the ground. Forcing all the air from my body. I roll over and leap to my feet, but two new opponents start taking swings at me, and suddenly what began as a semi-organized event—civilization imposed upon chaos—becomes an all-out brawl. A fucking riot.

They were never going to let me win. This “civilization” was never more than a thin veneer. They were never going to let Kaya walk out of here.

I dodge blows and throw punches, concentrating on remaining on my feet, because if they get me on the ground, I’m dead. Kaya screams, but I can’t see her. I can’t get to her. I can’t—

A space opens up in front of me. One of the men throwing punches is suddenly just gone, and in his place…

Graham. Holy shit, am I glad to see him!

He punches another one of those riotous fucks in the kidney, and I take a shot to the ribs, distracted by his sudden appearance.

With a grunt, I kick one man in the ribs, and as he falls, he takes another man down with him. “Graham! Where’s Sylvie!”

He points, but before I can follow his aim, there’s another asshole in my face, throwing punches. I kick his knee as hard as I can, and he goes down with a howl, out of the game for good. Without medical care, he’ll limp for the rest of his life.

“She and Warren are over there with Kaya.” Graham throws another punch, then takes a shot to the face before I can pull an opponent away from him. “We came as soon as we heard you were here. We—”

A new sound cuts him off, and we look up at the same time. As does everyone else.

A shuttle.

“Shit!” Graham shouts, as the rioters realize what’s happening. “Grab Kaya and run before they drop the gas!”

I have no idea what gas he’s talking about, but I get the general idea.

All around us, men scatter like cockroaches in a sudden flare of light, and I glance around for Kaya. There. With…Sylvie! Graham is already halfway there, and I race after him, motioning for the women to head toward us.

“We have to be in a building or in the woods before they drop the gas!” Graham shouts as Sylvie and Kaya join us.

“They won’t drop it,” Kaya says, loud enough to be heard over the engine. “It’s not that kind of shuttle. They’re not here to break up the fight.” She sucks in a deep breath. “They’re here for me.”

Fuck. “You turned on the com?”

There are tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I was afraid Nolan was going to kill you, and I couldn’t let that happen.”

Damn it. But I can’t blame her for trying to save my life.

“It’s okay. Let’s go.” I take my pack from her and grab her hand, already pulling her toward the road. Mourning my loss of depth perception.

“What are we doing?” Sylvie demands with a glance at the sky, where the shuttle is now shining a search light at the dark ground, trying to pinpoint Kaya’s position in the crowd. “If they’ve come for her, let them take her! She doesn’t belong here!”

“I’m not leaving without him!” Kaya shouts.

Sylvie turns on her, mystified. “What the hell does that mean? You want to stay on Rhodon?”

“No,” I start to explain. But then Graham grabs Sylvie’s hand and starts running.

“Come on!”

“This way!” I lead Kaya into the crowd running for the nearest building, hoping Sylvie and Graham are right behind us. The shuttle’s spotlight swings around, but they haven’t found her yet. If we can just get to the woods…

“Sylvie! Come on!” I grab Kaya’s hand again and break from the crowd, leading our little group between two of the buildings, instead of into them. Turning every few steps to make sure the shuttle isn’t heading toward us. It isn’t. It’s still circling the fleeing crowd, evidently convinced Kaya is among the inmates.

We dart out of our hiding place and race through the dark toward a patch of woods. By the time we reach the trees, we’re all out of breath. Kaya looks near to collapse.

I stop running. We all need a rest, now that we’re out of the searchlight’s reach.

“What’s going on?” Graham demands, bent over with his hands on his knees, and I’m surprised to see that Warren has followed us.

“Don’t worry about him,” Sylvie says. She’s the only one of us not winded. “Warren’s a friend. He came to find us as soon as he heard they were going to give Kaya to the winner.”

“Eric couldn’t keep his mouth shut,” Warren explains. “He’s more stupid than dangerous, but this time he managed to be both.” He turns to Kaya. “I’m so sorry.”

“All’s well that ends well.” Kaya shrugs. “My dad used to say that.”

“Ends?” Sylvie snaps. “This hasn’t ended!” She throws one arm toward the cluster of buildings, which we can still through the tree line, lit by bright moonlight. And the searchlight. “They’re still looking for you, and they’re not going to stop. Why don’t you want to be found? Especially after that? They nearly gave you to Nolan fucking Mason. Nolan Mason is—”

“I know who he is,” Kaya says. “Or, who he was. And I know what he would have done. But we have a plan. And now that you’re here, we can implement it.”

“What plan?” Graham asks, while Warren listens with one eye on the shuttle still lighting up in the sky.

“An escape plan,” I tell her, trying to ignore the throbbing my entire face has become. “Kaya’s the leverage. We’re going to use her com device to demand a long-range shuttle in exchange for her.”

“You’re—” Sylvie stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. “You’ve had a com device the whole time? You’re telling me you could have sent her back up into orbit where she belongs, but you didn’t? You nearly got her killed, Sebastian! She doesn’t belong here! She can’t take care of herself.”

Kaya bristles. “That’ll change. You can teach me. You can all teach me.”

“We’re not going to…” Sylvie runs both hands through her hair. “We can’t teach you, because you’re going back to Station Alpha. Or to whatever guard station they stick you on when you’re not schmoozing sponsors and prepping fighters.”

“No, I—”

“She’s coming with us,” I say, and everyone turns to look at me. “She was my hostage, but somewhere along the line that changed. Now she’s my… Um…”

“Coconspirator,” Kaya supplies.

“Wait, what?” Sylvie stares up at me, her face highlighted by a beam of moonlight shining through the foliage. “You took her hostage?”

Kaya shrugs. “He also crashed the blimp.”

“Thanks, babe, but you’re not helping,” I tell her.

Graham snickers, and Warren just stares at us. But Sylvie looks…confused. And pissed. “What…in the living hell…is going on here?” she demands, punctuating each phrase with a deep breath.

“I’m getting us out of here. Off the planet. And Kaya has volunteered to help us.”

“Agreed,” she corrects. “I agreed to help, but I didn’t exactly volunteer for any of this.”

“The point is that with her as our hostage, we can demand a shuttle, and UA will give it to us.”

“Sebastian, they’re not going to give you a shuttle. You crashed the fucking blimp! They’re going to shoot you the second they see you!”

“No, Syl, they’ll give us anything we ask for. Kaya’s engaged to one of the CEOs.”

“Not really,” Kaya explains. “That’s kind of a big misunderstanding.” But no one’s listening to her.

“She’s…” Sylvie looks from me to Kaya, then back. “You’re fucking her, aren’t you? You kidnapped a Universal Authority CEO’s fiancé, and now you’re sleeping with her? Have you lost your fucking mind?”

“Hey!” Kaya shouts. “Stop talking about me like I’m not standing here listening. I didn’t volunteer for this, but I’m in it now. One hundred percent in. I’m done with UA. I’m done with this planet. We’re going to use this fake hostage situation to get a shuttle off this rock, then, instead of dropping me off somewhere ‘safe’ to be ‘rescued,’ we’re just going to keep going. All of us.”

“Aiding and abetting an escape is a felony, Kaya,” Graham says.

“If they catch us, they’ll throw you down here with us,” Sylvie adds. “For good.”

“They’re not going to catch us,” I assure her. “This is our chance, sis. We don’t belong here.”

“Well, I do,” Warren says. “But I’d love to come along, if there’s an offer on the table.”

“I…sure.” If not for him, we wouldn’t have found Sylvie and Graham. I’d probably be dead and Kaya would be fighting off half a dozen rapists. “Sylvie, we’re getting off this rock. We’re going to let Mom and Dad know we’re safe, and when the attention dies down, they can send us some funds.” I put everything I had in their names before I came to Rhodon, because I knew I might not be leaving. “We’ll live out our lives in peace, somewhere out of the way. You and Graham. Me and Kaya. And Warren. Evidently.”

Sylvie blinks at me. “This is real? We’re really going to do this?” She turns to Graham. “Is it worth the risk? Should we do this?”

He shrugs. “What risk? If we get caught, they send us back here, and we’re no worse off than we are now.”

“You know that’s not true. They’ll separate us. Or execute us. They’ll definitely execute you; you’re already supposed to be dead.”

“I’m willing to risk it, Sylvie.” Graham pulls her close and presses his forehead against hers. “For the chance to spend the rest of my life with you, someplace where people aren’t trying to kill us?”

I grin at them. “That’s the dream.”

Sylvie nods. Then she throws herself at me, and I wrap my arms around the only sister I have left. “We’re really going to do this.”

“Yes,” I say. And when she lets me go, I pull Kaya into my embrace. “Thanks to Kaya. We just have to wait for that shuttle to go away, so we can find some place to hide and call in a ransom.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.” Warren points through the tree line at the shuttle, and—

“Shit! It’s coming closer.” As if it knows we’re here.

“Nononono…” Kaya mutters as her grip on my hand tightens. “It’s slowing down. Why is it slowing down?”

“Fuck. Did you turn off the com?”

“Crap!” She digs in her bag and presses her thumb to the com screen again, but it’s much too late for that.

“Run. We have to run,” Sylvie says as the shuttle slows to a hover, then begins to descend.

“She’s right,” I say, but Kaya is staring at the shuttle. She won’t move. I’m about to throw her over my shoulder again when the ship smoothly touches down in the grass, about fifty feet from our patch of woods. Facing us directly, though surely whoever’s inside can’t actually see us.

The ramp descends, and a man walks out. Alone. He’s wearing a suit and carrying a laser pistol.

This makes no sense.

“Oh my god,” Kaya whispers. “It’s David.”