“Then I’ll go keep our crocodile friends busy.” Niten’s teeth flashed in a smile. “I’ll try to leave a few for you.” He stepped away and faded into the night.“Be careful,” Prometheus called.A disembodied voice drifted out of the fog. “I was born for this. What’s the worst that could happen?”“You could be killed and eaten by the Spartoi.”“Doesn’t frighten me.”

“I shook my head at Janco. “I’ve got the situation under control. Go back to the Keep, I’ll meet you there.”Janco stared at me in astonished silence. Ari, though, trusted me. “Come on, she doesn’t need our help.” Ari sheathed his sword. Janco recovered. He flashed me one of his mischievous grins. “I’ll bet you a copper that she’ll be free in five minutes,” he said to Ari.Ari grunted in amusement. “A silver on ten minutes,” he countered.“I’ll bet you both a gold coin that she kills him,” Valek saidfrom behind them. They moved aside and he entered, still dressed in his Adviser Ilom disguise. “The only way to take care of your problem. Right, love?”

“I could never leave you, Ethan Wate. I’ll always be watchin’. Make me proud.”

“You’re not leaving me here alone,” I say. Because if he dies, I’ll never go home, not really. I’ll spend the rest of my life in this arena, trying to think my way out.”

“Now. Maybe you think it is arrogant or self centered, or ridiculous for me to believe that God bothered to wiggle a cheap bolt out of my new used car because he or she needed to keep me away for a few days until just the moment when my old friend most needed me to help her mother move into whatever comes next. Maybe nothing conscious helped to stall me so that I would be there when I could be most useful. Or maybe it did. I’ll never know for sure. And anyway, it doesn’t really matter.”

“Beckett Taylor, you killed my hopes and dreams. Now I’ll kill you and everyone you care about. You’ll leave this earth as empty as I am now.”