When they left the tavern, the night had grown colder. Hair clung to her skin with sweat from the heat inside the bar, and after Aina brushed it away, she tensed, sensing eyes on her from a distance. One hand went to a knife. A fluttering on the ground caught her attention, and she inhaled sharply when she spotted the piece of paper held down by a rock.
“Another note,” Tannis whispered behind her.
As Aina bent to pick up the note, the others circled around her, all of them looking toward the shadows between buildings ahead, the rooftops, the windows, for some sign of who’d left it.
In a rushed handwriting that she didn’t recognize, it said:
You can keep fighting, Miss Solís, but Kosín will belong to General Alsane Bautix again within one week. You’re welcome to join the new order if you fall in line, but first … he’ll knock you down a few rungs on the ladder.
Tannis read it over her shoulder, her eyes hardening as she did. Once Tannis finished reading, Aina curled the note into a ball and tossed it over her shoulder—hoping that whoever left it was watching.
If Bautix managed to take back the city, he wouldn’t stand for having someone in charge of the tradehouses who wasn’t allied with him. Kohl’s leadership had been beneficial for him, but hers was a thorn in his side. She looked over her shoulder, eastward toward the Dom, and her stomach twisted with nerves.
I won’t let them down, she promised herself. I won’t let them fall to the claws of this city.
Then she noticed the girl who’d been working behind the bar had slipped outside to join their group, closing the door softly behind her. She wore her wavy red-violet hair tied back in a loose ponytail, and freckles dotted her ivory Sumeranian features, but her eyes were the bright gold of Kaiyanis people. A bit of dirt was smudged on her nose and she picked at a frayed end of her shirt.
“Can I help you?” Aina asked, one hand settling on the handle of her scythe.
The girl cast one frightened look at the weapon, then turned to Raurie. “Raurie, is this about the Jackals you mentioned earlier? One of the other workers came back from their break, so your uncle said I could leave. Can I go with you?”
She said it all in one breath, a plea in her eyes as she waited for Raurie to reply. “I want you to come, Lill, but it’s not just me who gets to decide,” Raurie said, frowning, then she spoke to the group. “I told Lill she might be able to join us, but I didn’t know all of you would show up. She’s trustworthy, and I’ve never met anyone who hates the Jackals more than her, but there might be too many of us. I don’t want us to get caught before we even get there. Maybe only a few of us should go.”
“But we don’t know how many Jackals there might be,” Ryuu pointed out. “We don’t want to be outnumbered either, and we want to take out as many of them as possible.”
Aina paused, part of her wanting to agree with Raurie, while she also knew Ryuu made a good point. But time was wasting, so she made a decision.
“You can come with us, Lill. These factories are big, so we’ll need a couple of us to keep watch to make sure no more Jackals come in while we’re inside. Let’s go already.”
She and Raurie led the way west, while the others stayed close behind them. From the corner of her eye, Aina saw Lill approach Ryuu, her head tilted to the side.
“You’re Ryuu Hirai,” Lill said with a hint of curiosity.
“I thought you looked familiar,” Ryuu said slowly, and then added with a desperate tone to his voice, “Our parents were friends, weren’t they? Why did you leave our safe house near the mines? It’s secure, I promise—”
“No, it’s not,” Lill cut him off. “The Jackals know about it. They have for years, actually, but we were too afraid to leave until now. The Inosen can only afford to side with one another until we see who ends up ruling this country. Sorry.”
She shrugged, not looking sorry at all, and Aina held back a laugh as Ryuu’s mouth fell open in shock.
As they walked, Raurie whispered the location to her and kept an eye out for any sign of the Jackals she’d seen earlier. Aina checked the location of each of her weapons—the two scythes strapped to her thighs, the brace of diamond-edged daggers across her chest, additional daggers in her sleeves, and a pouch of poison darts tied to her belt. Each one made her stronger, made her into a trained killer who’d proved herself in plenty of fights before.
Her confidence rose as they left the Stacks and crossed through the streets of the Center, heading west to the warehouse district. Under the quiet night, the creak of metal and the occasional gust of wind were the only sounds. Apart from two women who walked together across the road under streetlamps and a boy on a bike who sped past while humming to himself, they were the only pedestrians around. The buildings towered above them, the streets growing narrower and the stench of sewage building the farther they went. The steel mills, textile factories, and production plants all clustered together here, and though it usually emptied this late at night, something about the silence seemed eerier than usual.
This was familiar to her, stalking through the dark, noting every brush of the wind against her skin, every movement of shadow in the corners they passed. What was unfamiliar was walking with so many people—friends. Having them at her side now made her feel a little stronger, a little more protected, almost invincible. Almost like she could beat Kohl before he attacked.
“It smells out here,” Tannis remarked, wrinkling her nose as they drew closer to the place Raurie had indicated.
“It always smells,” Aina said with a shrug.
“Different now, though. Like something’s rotting.”
The scents of chemicals and smoke grew thicker in the air as they approached the factory. They gathered in a shadowed alley across the street, steam rising from a manhole in front of them, and took it in.
The textile mill was four stories, one of the biggest in the city, with Sumerand’s symbol engraved above the main entrance: a sword and a pickaxe over a slab of rock. Tannis and Lill took places at either side of the building to watch for more Jackals, while Aina, Ryuu, Teo, and Raurie approached a side door. A stronger sewage scent reached them here while Teo picked the lock, and Aina buried her nose in her scarf.
When they stepped inside, the factory was empty of people, but the fumes of dyes and chemicals were still strong, etched into the walls and permeating the air.
“My mother worked in one like this,” Teo said, his voice low with a bitter note. “No one can survive long, breathing in this stuff all day.”
Aina placed a finger to her lips, then looked around the factory—three stories rose above, all work floors with machinery standing still and uniform like soldiers. Dread formed a pit in her stomach at the sight. Thousands of employees needed these jobs, hired by Steels who would just as soon let them die from the factory fumes; Inosen as well, whose Steels bosses would report them to Diamond Guards the minute they discovered who they were.
The only light came from fluorescent bulbs in a second-floor manager’s office, which had a large window for managers and supervisors to watch the work floor. A narrow metal staircase without a railing ran along the right side of the wall, the only way to walk between each floor.
“You all have weapons?” Aina whispered, and when they nodded, she said, “Good. See the staircase? I think there’s a basement.”
They began walking down the stairs, sticking close to the wall to avoid tumbling over the railing-less side. Aina’s anticipation rose as they did, her heart beating so loudly in her ears, she feared it would give them away.
It was nearly pitch-black down here, which she supposed made sense if they’d wanted to keep this hideout a secret. They must have set up some kind of bribe with the factory managers. The stairway creaked under their footsteps, and she winced each time, expecting a sleeping Jackal downstairs to wake up and start shooting at the staircase any moment now.
When they reached the bottom, she blinked a few times to adjust her eyes to the darkness. It was empty, their breathing the only sound. Her heart sank, but then she shook away the disappointment. Even if Kohl wasn’t here, they could find something to help track him down.
A few of the windows above let in moonlight that illuminated the space. Unused or broken machinery spread around the room in a sort of maze. A single wooden door was in the far corner of the basement. Rows of cots lined two of the walls, dust swirling in the moonlight above them. In the dark corners were boxes of what might be supplies or weapons.
She pointed to one of the boxes, and Teo moved forward to check it. But before he got more than a few steps, the door in the corner creaked open.
Aina threw herself behind one of the tall textile machines that stood near the stairway. Teo squeezed in next to her a moment later while Raurie and Ryuu hid behind another machine.
Torchlight shone through the door as three men entered, their footsteps echoing off the basement floor. Through the door, Aina could make out the rocky, rough-hewn walls of a tunnel. Her hand gripped her knife so tightly, she thought she might break the handle, but Kohl wasn’t part of the group. One of the men’s sleeves were rolled up to show the tattoo of a Jackal’s open jaw. They left the door open, and slow-moving footsteps sounded from farther down the tunnel—more people coming.
When Ryuu squeezed a little bit more behind the machine, his shoes squeaked on the floor and one of the Jackals looked up.
“Thought I heard something,” he mumbled, his voice carrying in the quiet.
“Rats,” said one of the other Jackals in a dismissive tone. “You got what we need from the Blood King?”
Aina stiffened at those words, leaning forward around the machine as far as she dared to see what this could be. The other Jackal nodded and flashed something in his pocket. Its smooth surface glinted in the torchlight, but he put it away so quickly, Aina couldn’t tell what it was.
“How many more of these shipments will Bautix be doing?” the third one hissed, casting a quick glance upward as if he feared someone could hear them. “Feels like we’re getting a new one every other day.”
“He has to wait for the smuggler from Kaiyan to return to act,” the first one said. “These shipments, they’re smaller parts of a whole that the smuggler is sending in before his return.”
A minute of silence passed, punctuated only by labored breathing and the still-approaching footsteps coming from the tunnel. Then, four more men entered carrying two heavy boxes between them—and none of them bore Jackal tattoos. The Jackals stepped aside to let the men pass, then stood with their backs to the door they’d all come through.
The third Jackal’s eyes flicked up once more, and this time, Aina followed his gaze to the manager’s office on the second floor. Three figures had stepped into the light, and Aina cursed herself for not checking that room before. She squinted, trying to make them out, when one of the Jackals on this floor spoke again.
“You’ve all been very helpful, bringing this delivery,” he announced to the men who’d carried in the crates. One of the crates was slightly open, and Aina could make out the edge of a grenade and the barrel of a gun. “I have your payment right here.”
Then, he pulled out from his pocket what he’d shown the other Jackals before, something from Kohl. The glass sphere shone brightly under the torchlight, with a clear liquid inside, smoke rising off it and fogging the inside of the sphere. Aina’s breath caught, and she beckoned the others to retreat with her toward the stairs leading out of the basement.
Before any of the men who’d brought the weapons could do more than lean forward to see what the Jackal was showing them, the Jackal threw the sphere on the ground and it shattered. Smoke rose into the air as the Jackals vanished into the side door and slammed it shut behind them. A lock sounded.
“Run!” Aina whispered back to her friends as soon as they reached the steps.
“They tricked us, those goddess-forsaken bastards!” shouted one of the men who’d brought the weapons.
He ran to the door the Jackals had left through and began pounding on it, but it wouldn’t break, even when he slammed his body into it. Risking a glance over her shoulder as they raced up the stairs, Aina watched as one of the other men collapsed on the floor. His eyes stared glass-like at the ceiling, the shadows of machinery towering over him while Kohl’s poison choked the air.
“What kind of poison is that?” Raurie asked as the other two men reached the staircase and began racing toward them.
“Move!” one of the smugglers shouted behind Aina, pushing so hard she almost fell off the stairs. Ryuu grabbed her by the elbow to stop her fall while Teo caught up to the smuggler, yanked him back from the top step, and shoved him off the side of the stairs. They reached the first floor, the whole factory dark except the light from the second-floor managers’ office. The three people there began to turn away, and the glint of a diamond earring caught Aina’s eye.
The fluorescent light revealed the man’s face: a tightly coiled red beard, starkly pale skin on a chiseled face, and sharp blue eyes. “Bautix,” Aina whispered as he lifted his chin at her in a taunting gesture.
She’d make him tell her where Kohl was hiding—and then she’d slit his throat. The last smuggler fled to the nearest door. He tried to shove it open, but something outside blocked the exit. They were trapped, and the poison would drift up to the factory’s main floor in seconds if they didn’t move. Aina raced to the next flight of stairs, with Teo, Ryuu, and Raurie right behind her. Teo fired into the window on the second floor. It shattered, spraying glass everywhere, and the three men inside ducked. But Bautix hardly looked shaken—he stood straight, facing them with an amused grimace on his face.
They reached the second floor just as Bautix vanished through a door in the back. The two men with him, most likely Jackals, lifted their guns.
Aina slammed her back into the wall, dodging the first shot. Ryuu fired back, one of his bullets hitting and instantly killing a Jackal.
Before the second Jackal could shoot them, Aina leapt through the window and knocked the gun out of his hand. It skidded across the floor, and Raurie put a knife to the man’s throat a breath later. Aina raced out the door to find Bautix.
The door led to a hallway that passed through the back offices. The hallway was drafty, with all the windows open, and a sudden wind brought goose bumps to her skin. She raced down the hall, checking through each door, but there was no staircase to the other floors, and Bautix wasn’t in any of the rooms. She ran to the fire escape instead, but didn’t see him anywhere on it, nor on any of the surrounding streets.
She slammed her fist on the railing. It may have been years since he’d actually fought in Sumerand’s army, but clearly the skills hadn’t left him.
A moment later, Teo, Raurie, and Ryuu joined her on the fire escape, their shoes clanging against the metal surface. “Bautix is gone,” Aina said, her voice harsh. “This was a waste of time. Kohl wasn’t here, and now this hideout is compromised. They won’t stay here anymore.”
In silence, they left the warehouse by the fire escape and circled back to the front to meet Tannis and Lill. As they did, Kohl’s words came back to Aina, calling her a broken blade that couldn’t do its job and needed to be thrown out. She curled her hands into fists, knuckles straining.
“What would you do without me?” he’d asked one day several years ago when he’d spotted a grunt from a rival gang about to mug her in an alley off Lyra Avenue. Aina, only fourteen and still getting used to her training, hadn’t seen the boy, but Kohl had found him almost instantly.
“I don’t know,” she’d muttered, unable to say why it had frustrated her so much at the time. Even then, she’d known agreeing with him was the safest choice.
She wished she could go back in time and change her answer, tell him she’d never needed him at all. If that boy had mugged her, she would have dealt with the consequences. If Kohl had never brought her into the Dom, she would have found her own path. She wouldn’t have starved to death or suffocated on glue, alone in a back alley of Kosín.
She tried to convince herself of that now, but every time she came close to finding him, he vanished. Every time she had a clue, it proved fruitless.
Kohl had money, an entire gang working for him, and plenty of skill and weapons. She had all of that too, and they would continue running for each other’s throats and just missing until one of them had something that would give them the upper hand.
Something to put her a step ahead of him, something Kohl himself had never even dared to do. Something to give her power that the rich, like Bautix, hated simply because it wasn’t money and steel. Something the people of this city had always turned to when they had nothing else.
Her parents had used it to heal. She would use it to kill. She would beat Kohl at his own game.
Once they’d met with Tannis and Lill and retreated to an alley nearby, Aina looked around at them all and voiced what everyone had feared since the civil war.
“I want to learn to use blood magic,” she said, her voice a whisper yet freezing all of them in place. “To fight.”