Chapter 72 The Prince of Chains

Kai followed Patrona through the wide halls, his boots loud against polished stone. They had no need to be shown the way this time. The guards at the gate knew them now, and the path to Enzo’s chamber was burned into Kai’s mind. He didn’t care for the gold-framed portraits or the marble floors. His focus was on Elijah’s wife and daughters—the ones Enzo had stolen with a signature and a smirk.

Patrona stayed close, her eyes sharp and wary. Every time a servant passed with lowered head and stiff collar, her hand twitched toward her blades. She didn’t trust this place. Neither did Kai.

The door to the main chamber opened, and Enzo was waiting as though he had been expecting them all along. He lounged in a chair of carved ivory, a goblet of wine turning lazily in his fingers. His smile was wide, polished, fake.

“Kai,” Enzo said smoothly. “And an elf. I wondered when you would return.”

Kai didn’t waste words. “Elijah’s wife. His daughters. I want them back.”

Enzo gave a soft laugh, leaning forward. “Straight to business. Admirable, if a little rude. Sit. Drink with me. You’ve earned the right.”

“I don’t want your wine,” Kai said flatly. “I want them released.”

Patrona stayed standing too, arms crossed. Her stare never left Enzo’s face.

Enzo sighed as if disappointed in children who refused a gift. “You ask as though they were trinkets I could simply hand over. But beastfolk… ah, they are valuable. Do you know how many merchants begged me to part with that rabbit-blooded family already? A mother and two daughters? Quite the set. Innocence and maturity in one neat package. The bidders practically drooled.”

Patrona’s jaw clenched. Kai’s hands curled into fists, but he kept his voice steady. “They don’t belong to you.”

Enzo laughed again, sharper this time. “Belong? You speak as though ownership is a matter of right. But ownership, my friend, is simply a matter of coin. Contracts. Retainers. You know this, or you would not be standing in my hall.”

Kai took a step forward, but Patrona caught his arm before he did something that would end the fight before it began. Enzo noticed and smiled wider.

“Still, I am not without heart. I like you, Kai. You’ve made quite the name in my arena. The crowd adores you. A human with the strength of ten beasts, smashing through monsters and warriors alike. You’ve raised my revenue by thirty percent in a week. Do you know what that kind of return means to a man like me?”

“I don’t care about your profits.”

“Ah, but you should.” Enzo tapped a ringed finger against his goblet. “Because profits are what stand between you and Elijah’s family. You want them? Then pay for them. Retaining fee, registration fee, release fee—why, even if you fought for months you would never see the sum needed.”

Kai’s glare hardened. “Then make me a deal.”

Enzo’s grin widened, sharp as broken glass. “That is exactly what I had in mind. You fight, Kai. Not just once. Not twice. You keep fighting until I say otherwise. Every victory earns you coin, faster than any common man could dream. Enough to purchase your little rabbit family back. Perhaps even Elijah himself, though I must say—prison labor has already put his hands to good use.”

Patrona’s voice cut like a blade. “You’re stringing him along. You never intend to let them go.”

Enzo placed a hand over his chest as though wounded. “My dear elf, you wound me. Do you think me so dishonorable? I am a businessman. If the human earns the coin, he earns his prize. But it will take blood. So much blood.” His eyes glittered. “And that is the real cost, is it not?”

Kai didn’t answer. His silence was answer enough.

Enzo leaned back, satisfied. “Good. You’ll fight again tomorrow. A special match. One the people will remember. Do well, and the path to your rabbits becomes a little clearer.”

Patrona bristled, but Kai laid a hand on her arm, steady. He wasn’t agreeing, not with words. But his eyes said what his lips refused: I’ll do it. For them.

Enzo raised his goblet in a mocking toast. “To chains, Kai. May they bind as easily as they break.”

Outside the mansion, the evening air felt heavier than the stale perfume inside. Patrona exhaled hard, spitting to the side.

“He’s playing you,” she snapped. “You know that, right? He’ll take and take until you’re nothing but blood on the sand.”

Kai adjusted the strap across his chest, the weight of his batons comforting against his back. “Maybe. But if that’s the only way to reach them, then I’ll keep fighting.”

Patrona stopped in the road, eyes flashing. “And if he never intends to give them back? If every fight just pulls you deeper into his pocket?”

Kai turned his head, staring at the glowing lamps of the city. He remembered none of his own past, but Elijah’s daughters’ faces came clear—white hair, red eyes, small hands reaching out as the armsman dragged them away.

“Then I’ll take them,” Kai said quietly. “One way or another.”

Patrona stared at him for a long moment. She thought of the kiss she’d stolen from him, the fire that had burned in her since. He didn’t remember her. He didn’t remember any of it. But the man standing here—the man who would fight through chains and blood for children that weren’t even his—that was the man she couldn’t walk away from.

She nodded once. “Then I’m with you.”

Kai’s expression didn’t change, but he felt it all the same. The weight of her vow. The way her presence steadied his steps.

Tomorrow, he would bleed in the arena again. Tomorrow, he would start laying the bricks of Enzo’s empire bare. And someday soon, he would rip them down.

Brick by gilded brick.