Chapter 6: The Price of Survival

I turned and locked eyes with the Silver Hollow Coven’s head coach—his face so dark he could’ve started a thunderstorm just by glaring.

Game over.

The truth about using the golden girl as my lightning shield had finally come out.

The entrance to the Grand Illusion Arena shrank before my eyes, but I couldn’t make myself move.

The Arena only opens once every hundred years. They say a legendary fighter built it—leaving behind opportunities that could change a life.

Everyone wanted a shot. I finally got mine.

Now I had to stop here?

The smell of popcorn and gym socks drifted out from inside the arena. I clenched my jaw, disappointment thick as peanut butter in my throat. Maybe, just maybe, I’d get another shot in a hundred years—but at this rate, I’d probably still be broke, sword in hand, and haunted by the wild, relentless comment section.

I squared my shoulders, ready to face the storm—on the field or off. After all, what’s one more hundred years when you’ve got nothing left to lose?