The basement reeks of sweat and iron. Bare bulbs swing above a chain-link cage where two fighters collide with a sound that rattles your teeth. You only came to watch. Then someone shoved a sign-up sheet in your hand, and your name was on it before you thought twice. Now you're at the cage door with a marker-scrawled number on your wrist - and a hand just grabbed your sleeve. Reyna. From high school. Her dark eyes are burning, jaw tight, voice low and sharp enough to cut: *What do you think you're doing here?* You don't know yet that her father built this place. You don't know she made him a deal - if someone beats Solen, the undefeated ghost pacing the far corner, she'll date them. She made that deal never expecting anyone to win. She definitely didn't expect it to be you.