The point of Dawnbreak rested against his chest, humming softly, while Hajin simply could not stop smiling. Ninety thousand people screamed for him to die, but he listened to one voice inside his head.
His heels hung over the edge of the ring, blood dripping from his fingertips into the dark water below.
"Yield now, thief, I will end this quickly," Alya said, her voice trembling with something that was not quite triumph.
"You'd have done it already if you could, Halo."
"Her patron is speaking again," Aria murmured in his skull, "expect a lag of one beat, perhaps two."
Through the Divine Eye he saw the leash flare gold at her throat, a whisper written in light.
'One.'
'Two. There it is.'
Her thrust hung a heartbeat late, trembling on the edge of his coat as the leash dragged at her will. He stepped sideways into that gap, flicking his wrist so Gold Coil unspooled from the Chain in a glittering net.
