Chapter 0346

“Just don’t blow my cover,” he murmurs, rubbing my back for a moment as the bell sounds again and the fight starts anew.

I watch carefully as Luca and the Atalaxian champion come together again and again, sometimes trading blows, sometimes moving in fast just to dodge away again. Luca, I notice, gets in quite a few combinations that look very impressive and which always make the crowds cheer. But Rafe, still standing close at my side, doesn’t cheer along.

I can’t help glancing up at him, wondering what he’s seeing that others aren’t. Because to all means, it looks like Luca is doing much better than our enemy. “Tell me,” I urge, somewhere in the third round.

Rafe glances down at me for a second, I think deciding whether or not I actually want to hear it, but when I look up at him with pleading eyes he leans closer to me. Luca’s doing great,” he says, and I nod, recognizing that. “But, tell me what you’re seeing with the Atalaxian.”

I turn my eyes back to the ring, studying him. “He’s advancing a lot,” I say, narrating what I see happening in front of us, and slightly below. The ring – it’s really not very far at all – close enough for me to see Luca’s muscles shake whenever he delivers one of his shattering blows. “But not…not punching very much?”

“Look harder,” Rafe murmurs, instructing me and sounding a lot like dad.