Chapter 51. The Win

The room hummed.

That was the first sound she registered—not voices, not movement, just a low mechanical hum. The kind of sound that lived under skin once you had been around too many machines.

Fluorescent light spilled through half-closed blinds. The world smelled of antiseptic, plastic, and something faintly sweet—IV drip solution.

Lia opened her eyes slowly.

White ceiling. Steel bed rail. Her own pulse was loud in her ears.

For a second, she couldn’t remember where she was. Then the memory hit like recoil—the cage, the crowd, Dominic’s face breaking under the lights, Ethan’s weight in her arms.

The fight. The broadcast. The fall.

She tried to sit up. A sharp sting shot through her ribs.

“Easy,” a voice said.

Cassian.

He was sitting in the corner chair, coat off, shirt sleeves rolled, hands clasped between his knees. He looked exhausted—the kind of tired that didn’t come from lack of sleep but from holding everything toge