Page 138 of Bratva Knight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Nikolai Volkov

Thechainsaroundmywrists and ankles rattled, echoing through the underground caverns of the Arena as I shuffled along.

We moved in a single file, Father and Autumn at my back, Aleksandr and Lukyan at my front. Our cuffs were all locked together. Connected to make it harder to run if we tried to escape. Pointless considering we would never try to escape without Illayana.

Ten A-Team soldiers escorted us, five leading the charge and five covering the rear. Every single one of them was armed with a high-powered machine gun, their focus unwavering. They hadn’t told us where they were taking us, but then again, they didn’t really have to. I could hear the roar of the crowd from all the way down there.

The next round of Talon’s games was about to begin…and we were the main attraction.

Lukyan glanced over his shoulder. “You gotta admit, impending death aside and all, this place is pretty fucking cool.”

I glared, opening my mouth.

“I know, I know. ‘Shut up, Lukyan’,” he said, rolling his eyes before turning back around.

Aleksandr grunted in agreement at his words.

To be fair, I did agree with Lukyan. If you took out who made the Arena and what was about to happen, the place was pretty awesome. But, like always, Lukyan’s timing was off. There was a time and place for it, and that wasn’t while we were getting marched to our death.

I had no idea how much time had passed since our capture. There was no way to differentiate night and day down there. But based on the amount of meals we’d received, I’d say it had been roughly two days. During that time, I’d done nothing but work out, pray Illayana was okay and think about Tatiana.

The chances of us getting out of there alive were basically non-existent. Evenifsomeone was going to try and rescue us, they had no idea where we were. I’d come to terms with it and accepted that I was going to die very, very soon. The only thing I cared about was how it was going to affect Tatiana.

My beautiful, golden-haired goddess. I’d promised her I would come back to her. That’s what hurt the most. In my final moments, I would let her down…again.

No one else had come to visit us since Talon and Dominik. Our food was even delivered by one of the A-team soldiers, like Talon didn’t trust anyone else to come near us (probably smart, given how I managed to get in there).

Lukyan had been surprisingly…tolerable during our time locked in the cells. He’d barely said two words, in fact. I think, like the rest of us, he was too worried about Illayana to really focus on anything else.

We were led down gloomy corridors and up spiral staircases (presumably because we all couldn’t fit in the elevators at once), until we finally stopped in front of a heavy cage door. Through the metal bars, I could see a huge sand field encircled by flaming tiki torches. Racks of weapons were off the side, along with shields of all different shapes and sizes.

It was giving a very “roman gladiator” kind of vibe, which made the TVs mounted high on the walls seem completely out of place.

“This is where we come to train every day before the games begin,” Father said from over my shoulder.

“Talon let you train?” Lukyan stared ahead at the field with an almost dream-like expression on his face.

“Of course he did. Above all else, Talon wants to put on a good show. He can’t do that if the fighters are malnourished and out of practice. It’s one of the reasons why he feeds us so well. It wouldn’t look good if the fighters pass out from dehydration and starvation two minutes into the fight.” He pointed at what looked like a huge concrete door that took up half the wall. “That’s the entrance into the main fighting area, where everyone watches. We train here before the fights start to warm up, and then we’re ushered through the door out into the public.”

“He wasn’t worried you guys might use those weapons over there to try to escape?” I asked.

The chains rattled as he lifted his arm to tap the collar around his neck. “These prevented that. The collars aren’t removed until we’re about to step into the arena.”

One of the guards turned the crank and the cage door began to rise with a groan. One by one, they unlocked our cuffs, pushing us into the sand field.

First Lukyan, who hadn’t been prepared for it and he stumbled forward, landing roughly on his hands and knees with a grunt.

Next Aleksandr. The same guard who shoved Lukyan undid his cuffs. The moment my brother was free, he grabbed the guard by his tactical vest, yanked him forward and smashed his forehead right into his nose, breaking it. The guard cried out in pain. Aleksandr shoved him away and then went right to Lukyan, helping him up.

The other guards had their guns up and aimed at us instantly, expecting us all to start fighting and trying to escape, but that wasn’t what that was about. Aleksandr wasn’t trying to escape. He just wanted to punish the guard for hurting Lukyan. His overprotectiveness covered all those he loved. Plus, we would never try to escape without Illayana.

When the other guards realised we weren’t trying to make a run for it, they finished unlocking us, opting not to shove us inside like the first guard had done, allowing us to walk in at our own pace.

The cage door slammed down with an ominousbang. The guards dispersed, leaving us alone.

“I don’t see Illayana,” Lukyan said, looking around the room.

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