“I wouldn’t have,” I replied in a low hoarse voice.

Master tipped his head to the side. “No?”

Balling my fists, I said, “No. Because there is no such thing with you.” I pointed out of the cell. “You tell these champions that the winner will gain his freedom, but we know it isn’t true.” Master’s face froze. “Freedom doesn’t exist in your world. You exploit. You use and you bring pain. You strip people of their choice and punish them if any morsel of happiness is found. You force the males to kill. You force the monebi to fuck, and you force the chiri to exist in the shadows.” I inhaled deeply, and continued, “You delude yourself into thinking you are our Master. No soul in this place respects you. You have no honor. No female that you force to take your cock welcomes it unless forced or on drugs.” I took a step closer, then another. Mere inches from his face, I said, “Inessa was repulsed by you. Every time you took her, she hated it. She would tell me how her skin crawled when you touched her. She would tell me how she avoided your eyes as you stroked her hair and rutted above her like a desperate fool.” I watched as Master’s face filled with red. He was holding his breath, his anger rising to boiling point.

Allowing myself to smile, I leaned forward and emphasized, “But with me, she wanted it all.” I lifted my hand and showed my palm. “She wanted me to touch her.” I held out my arms. “She wanted me to hold her.” Reaching down, I gripped my cock and locked onto his stare. “And she loved me freely. Without the drugs, she gave herself to me … simply because I was me. No demands, no coercion.”

A part of me felt sick talking of Inessa this way. But what I said was true. We never fucked. With us it was something else entirely. And I could see my words striking Master as effectively as if I were slicing into his bare flesh.

Delivering the final blow, I announced proudly, “And every time you took her after me, she told me she would picture my face hovering above her. She would imagine it was me that was filling her.”

Master couldn’t take it anymore. Slamming his hand on the metal bars, he snarled, “I will watch you die today, 901. I will watch you die slowly and painfully in the sand, where you’ve killed so many others. I will laugh as you draw your last breath, then spit on your corpse when your blood has drained away.” Stepping back as if he hadn’t just exploded with rage, he promised, “Then I will end 152. I will strip her flesh in your honor. Her slow death will be down to you. She will die hating you. She will die knowing that wanting you was the stupidest thing she could have ever done.”

Master flicked his wrist at the chiri. I stood resolute, furious eyes fixed on the male that had imprisoned me from a child as the needle broke my skin. I watched as he smiled triumphantly.

He had no idea what was coming his way.

Sticking to the plan, I closed my eyes when the chiri stepped away. I swayed on my feet, reaching out to grip the wall as the liquid traveled through my veins. When I opened my eyes, I saw Master smile.

Turning on his heel, he said, “I’ll be in my seat, watching you take your last breath. Unlike every other match, I’m going to enjoy you dying quickly, 901. No games this time. Just death. I should have done it years ago.”

With that, Master walked away, his guard following behind. When he was out of sight, I straightened, feeling the drug infuse my muscles. But this wasn’t the drug that Master had demanded I receive. It was adrenaline to keep my body strong and able while we slaughtered them all.

The chiri female looked up at me. She met my eyes and a smile pulled on her lips. Closing in, she said, “We are all ready.”

I nodded in acknowledgment. Just as she was about to leave, she said, “Master has taken every one of the chiri females against our will. We are not so different from your Inessa. When you fight today, you fight for us all. When you stop his heart, you free our hearts. We are with you, Champion. We are all behind you. The fighters. The chiri. Anyone who is enslaved. We will follow your lead and we will die if we must. Today the Blood Pit falls.”

“Thank you,” I rasped. The turncoat guard that had been watching us since yesterday let her out. The chiri rushed away, I assumed to take her position. My cell door had been left open and I entered the hallway. In seconds, Luka, Zaal, and Valentin walked out, too. We were all dressed the same: bare chested in the obligatory black pants. I could see the adrenaline pumping in their veins. Our muscles were tense and our veins protruded from the need to kill.

I met each of their eyes, but locked a few seconds longer on Valentin’s. He inhaled through his nostrils, then declared, “For Inessa.”

“For Inessa,” I repeated.

Viktor approached us, and Luka placed a hand on his shoulder. “Are we ready?”

Viktor nodded. “Everyone is in place. You have about seven minutes to fill before the doors will be sealed and the fighters will be in place.”

Luka patted Viktor on the back. “You give me the signal”—Luka looked to us all—“then we attack.”

I rocked on my feet and gripped my Kindjals tighter.

“Are we all clear on the plan?” Luka asked.

“Yes,” we each replied.

Luka bowed his head and his eyes closed. I watched as he mouthed something to himself. When he lifted his head, eyes open, he said, “This, everything that we have been through, endured, and survived, ends tonight. Each of us has his own story. We have our own versions of hell. But they all stem from this place. They all exist because of one male.” Luka didn’t name Master; we all knew who he meant. Luka met each of our gazes and said, “We have fought for freedom, but true freedom doesn’t exist until Arziani is dead and this place is razed.”

Grunts and heavy breathing came from us all as we envisioned what that would be like. Luka pounded his chest with balled fists. “Freedom comes at a cost. If any of us falls, the others continue. And we don’t fucking stop until every last bastard in the place is dead.” He curled his lips and raised his voice. “Our bodies will ache, we will tire, but we don’t stop!”

I jumped from foot to foot, hearing the crowd’s volume beginning to rise in the arena. Luka glanced toward the tunnel. Facing us again, he said, “We all have females we must return to. Keep them in your heart, keep their faces in the forefront of your mind. We kill for them. We kill for the future children we will have. Children that will know nothing of this hell. Children who won’t face danger because of the deeds of their fathers.”