Rejected, Reborn, and Ruthless: A Lunas Revenge Chapter 09

Rejected, Reborn, and Ruthless: A Lunas Revenge Chapter 09 Odds of Twelve Thousand to One

Julian had been waiting for me by my car for an hour, which told me everything about how badly I’d rattled him.

“Cassie’s not carrying my problems anymore,” he said. “You knew she wouldn’t.”

“I knew a lot of things.”

“That’s exactly what I want to talk about.” He tilted his head, and for a second, the pretty mask thinned and I saw

what was underneath: something cold and calculating and profoundly for sale. “You knew about the pregnancy. You

knew Damien’s engagement date. You cleared the Grey Cairn nine days after being publicly discarded. And now you’ve

registered a two-person pack for the Trials.” He smiled. “I’d like to buy you, Wren.”

“I’m not for sale.”

“Everyone’s for sale. It’s just a matter of currency.” He held out a card. “Ashgrove backs you. Full sponsorship,

resources, a real pack around you. In exchange, whatever it is you know, you know it for me.”

I looked at that card and thought about the northern wall.

I thought about the fog, and Julian on the parapet, and Margo screaming.

And I took it.

Because you don’t cut off a traitor’s hand while it’s still deciding to reach for the knife. You hold it. You keep it warm.

You wait until the whole world is watching and then you show them what’s in it.

“I’ll think about it,” I said.

He drove off delighted, and I stood in the dark feeling like I’d swallowed something with legs.

The Trials betting book opened at dawn, and I got to watch the entire realm laugh at me in real time.

PROVINCIAL ASCENSION TRIALS OUTRIGHT WINNER

–

Silverpine (Thorne): 2/1

Ashgrove (J. Ashgrove): 3/1

Ironfen (Kaldrenn guest entry): 4/1

HOLLOW (Calloway): 12,000/1

Twelve thousand to one.

The forums did what forums do.

who let the wolfless girl register?

it’s the rejected one. from silverpine. she’s doing this for attention

someone should stop her, she’s going to get killed on camera

12000/1 Imao I’d bet a dollar for the meme

Rhys read it over my shoulder in the motel room and got very, very quiet.

“Wren.”

“I know.”

“They’re going to put you in a ring with trained warriors. In front of everyone. And they want you to break.”

“I know.”

I opened the exchange, transferred every coin I had left two point six million and put it all on HOLLOW at 12,000

to 1.

Rhys stopped breathing.

“That’s everything you own.”

“That’s everything I own,” I agreed. “Which is why we’re not losing.”

He sat down on the end of the bed and dragged both hands down his face, and then he started to laugh- rough, disbelieving, delighted.

“You are the single most dangerous person I have ever met,” he said, “and I once fought a man who ate his own brother.”

“Flatterer.”

“Wren.” He caught my wrist as I passed. Not hard. Just enough. “If they hurt you in that ring, I’m going to kill everyone in the building.”

–

I looked down at him at eight years of silver scarring, at a man who dreamed my murder every night before he ever saw my face.

“Nobody’s dying but us,” I said softly. “And we already did that part.”

Nine days.

I spent them in the woods with Vaelith, robbing a nine-thousand-year-old god blind, twelve hours at a time.

ACQUIRED: STORMSKIN. ACQUIRED: SERPENT’S STEP. ACQUIRED: THE NINTH COIL.

And on the last night, as I turned to go, the great silver head lowered to the ward and its ancient eye rolled toward

Rhys, waiting for me at the tree line.

“Have you asked him yet, little thief?”

“No.”

“You should. Before the ring.” Vaelith’s forked tongue tasted the air, and it made a sound almost like pity. “Because when your blood spills on that sand, he will remember what he is. And then, Hollowborn – then you will see what I

have been chained here for.”