“See anything interesting?” she asked Kohl.
“Mostly families, but I saw some of the people Bautix hired from overseas. None of them said anything interesting while I had time to listen. You?”
“About the same. Let’s check the halls.”
They climbed into the top-floor hallway. Doors stood open, laughter and music filtering into the hall along with the scent of grilling meat. As they walked down it, people moved between apartments, families and friends visiting one another. A mix of languages filled the air; Aina caught snatches of Kaiyanis, Durozvy, and Marinian.
Aina and Kohl walked to the end of the hall and through a door into a winding stairwell. A chill hung in the dark, windowless stairwell, a welcome respite from the summer heat outside. A single flickering bulb hanging from the ceiling lit the way. The staircases were so narrow, they had to walk one at a time, their breaths and echoing footsteps the only sounds.
They’d barely reached the second set of stairs when the door on the landing above opened with a loud creak. Kohl came to an abrupt stop, and Aina almost tripped trying not to walk into him, except he spun around and caught her by the elbow. Her back pressed against the railing, and she barely breathed as she listened to the voices above speak in Kaiyanis. Three male voices, all of them loud and boisterous, with no care in the world if they were overheard.
Kohl was too close. Their boots touched on the stair, his chest was an inch or two from her shoulders, his chin at her eye level. As the Kaiyanis men descended the stairs, Kohl glanced down at her and she gulped, trying not to breathe in his scent—the same smoke-and-mint scent she’d used to take every opportunity to be near. She leaned back slightly on the railing to put distance between them.
The men’s voices echoed as they approached, only one flight of stairs away now, and Kohl whispered, “Those are definitely some of the men Bautix hired, but all they’re talking about is how great the burlesque clubs on Lyra Avenue are supposed to be.” He raised an eyebrow at her and a blush overtook her face. She was about to shove past him when he said, “Follow my lead.”
The men turned the corner then, so relaxed they didn’t even notice Kohl and Aina standing there. But Kohl lifted a gun so fast, they had no time to react. Aina moved, drawing a knife. Kohl shoved the closest man away so he slammed into the wall, and fired into the head of the man behind him. At the same time, Aina launched a dagger into the throat of the third man.
As the two dead men slumped on the stairs, Aina pushed the surviving one to his knees. She placed a knife at his throat and turned him to face his dead colleagues. Kohl leaned toward him then and spoke in Kaiyanis, his voice a raspy whisper.
Though she only understood a few words, Kohl’s voice was threatening enough in any language. His eyes flashed while the man choked out a reply, and then Kohl nodded at Aina. She swept her blade across the man’s throat and let him drop.
As she stepped away from the body, Kohl said, “Bautix is having them prepare to escort a shipment of weapons this weekend, so they’ve been trying to enjoy the city’s nightlife before then. Let’s find out what else we can.” Then he moved to walk down the stairs, but paused, turning back to face Aina with a self-satisfied smirk. “I told you it’d be good to have me here.”
Grinding her teeth in frustration, she said, “We still have to sweep the hallways. Let’s check alternating floors and meet downstairs.”
Without waiting to see if he listened, she took quicker steps down the stairs and slipped into the next hallway, where he thankfully didn’t follow.
They met on the ground floor, and having found nothing more, they made their way to the next apartment building. The heat pressed down on them as they skirted through the crowds, so humid it felt like trying to breathe underwater. She cast a glance at the clock tower of a bank at the end of the next block; it was already afternoon, and she had to get back to the Dom to meet Ryuu, Raurie, and Lill. She waved for Kohl to hurry up, and they soon reached the next building. They repeated what they’d done at the first one, moving slightly faster this time. That search yielded nothing, nor did the next one.
As they stopped under the fire escape of the fourth building, Kohl turned to her and, with a hint of mock concern in his voice, asked, “Did you want to stop?”
She brushed the sweat off her forehead, glaring at him out of the corner of her eye. He still barely had a hair out of place.
“I’m fine,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Are you tired?” He reached out a hand and brushed back a lock of hair that had fallen from her ponytail.
When his hand touched her skin, she felt like an electric shock went through her, and she was thrust back into a memory. Last month, after she’d failed at a job, he’d cornered her in an alley, punched her in the face, and then touched her chin softly like this.
She flinched back and grabbed his hand, taking two of his fingers and bending them back dangerously far.
“Did you want me to break your fingers?” she snapped, nearly spitting the words in his face. “Don’t touch me, Kohl.”
She pushed his hand away from her and hauled herself up the ladder, resisting the urge to kick him in the face when he laughed a little. She was supposed to be making him uncomfortable, not the other way around.
“Hot-headed bosses also get their throats slit, Aina,” he said in a threatening tone, so low she almost didn’t hear. She stiffened for a moment on the ladder, then shoved his words aside and continued upward.
This last building went nearly the same way as the others, and Aina was close to giving up—until, at the first window of the third floor, she froze. Four people had gathered in the sitting room, and one of them had a Jackal tattoo on her forearm. The woman looked up then, and Aina pulled back from the window.
Hissing to Kohl, she caught his attention and waved for him to come over. He did, gripping the pipe running down the wall with his hands while his feet rested above the bricks.
“Can’t hear anything,” he said, peering into the room along with her. “You stay here where you can see them, I’ll go into the hall and try to listen at the door.”
She nodded, her fingers aching from holding on to the wall. She inched one foot over to the windowsill to have a bit more purchase. Leaning closer, she tried to hear more of the Jackals’ conversation. Their voices were mostly muffled with the closed window between her and them, but she caught something: “Day after tomorrow, I heard.”
“At an unholy hour of the morning,” another one groaned. “I’ll have to take the first train out to the port.”
One of them stood from their chair then and the squeaking sound drowned out the next words another one said. Aina’s hands began to sweat on the bricks. Edging her foot farther onto the windowsill, she strained to hear more.
Then her boot hit the window.
She yanked her foot back, but the Jackal woman who’d almost seen her before jolted upright from her seat, a pistol in hand already.
Her next words came clearly: “Heard something out there, and I don’t think it’s a bird.”
Aina grabbed on to the pipe Kohl had been holding earlier as the woman approached the window. Swinging herself around the other side of it, she gripped it with one hand and one foot, her other hand and foot scrambling to find purchase on the bricks, feeling very much like a cave spider. With her back to the wall, she could see the exact height of the three stories she’d fall if she lost her grip.
At that moment, a loud knock sounded on the door of the apartment. Aina barely breathed, trying to calm her racing pulse as the Jackals answered the door. “Blood King,” one of the Jackals greeted perfunctorily when they opened the door. “Didn’t know you knew where to find us.”
“There are many things I know that you don’t,” Kohl replied without a pause. “Check that the Kaiyanis rebels aren’t enjoying Lyra Avenue’s revelries too much. They’re already sneaking out and probably getting seen by plenty of Diamond Guards who will be able to tell they’re not simple
tourists. Keep them in line.” He paused then, and added, with a hint of bitterness in his voice that Aina thought only she might be able to recognize, “Bautix’s orders.”
As his words died out, Aina made her way over to the fire escape and climbed onto it.
The window opened then, and she jolted behind the steps. The Jackal woman who’d almost seen her stuck her head out of the window, one hand still gripping the gun. She glanced left and right, then slammed the window shut and drew down the blinds.
Aina swore as she leaned back on the railing. They’d almost shot her, and Kohl had been the one to save her by distracting them. She needed to do something to throw him off, to make him scramble for a reply.
When Kohl stepped out onto the fire escape a minute later, he finally looked bothered—he brushed back his dark hair, sweat on his forehead and shoulders tense. “Did you hear that? The shipment will be here in two days, at the southwestern coastal port. They’ll be putting it on a cargo train.”
“I’m going to stop it,” she said, looking out at the rooftops visible ahead of them, the bars and brothels and casinos spreading all over Lyra Avenue, and toward the Stacks. A pall of black clouds hung over it all. “You in?”
“Wouldn’t miss the chance to put Bautix in his place.”
She locked eyes with him then, and for a moment, she imagined grabbing him and flinging off the fire escape. But instead, she said the one thing he wouldn’t expect from her. “Thank you, Kohl. The Jackals would have seen me if you hadn’t distracted them.”
The words were like poison on the back of her tongue—admitting that he’d helped her. He froze, his eyes narrowed as he took in her words. She kept her features casual, unreadable. He could taunt and threaten her all he wanted, but she had a better weapon: making him trust her. And she was just getting started.
He held out his hand to help her up, and this time she took it.
11
The training room in the Dom looked different at night, wind jostling tree branches into the windows, the only light the small candle Aina had lit in the center of the room. Aina watched the flames for a moment, remembering the torches in the tunnels under the city that led to secret underground worship services, and a chill spread down her spine. Down there, being quiet was the only way to stay alive.
Ryuu had arrived before anyone else, having left early from a meeting with his company’s advisors, and got here before Aina had even made it back from her job with Kohl. While Tannis finished a shooting practice session with the recruits outside, Ryuu and Aina waited for her, Teo, Raurie, and Lill in the training room.
“Did you know,” Ryuu asked, yawning where he stood near the window, “that running a business empire is tiring?”
“Try running a criminal empire. Can you shut that window? I don’t want anyone to overhear.”
Once he did, he asked, “Do you feel any different now that we have this magic? Not physically, but like you’re a part of something now.”
She walked toward him, biting her lip as she thought of a response. “I feel like learning this magic is actually making me closer to my parents. I’m using it as a weapon, and I doubt they’d approve, but it feels nice in a way.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” he asked with a small laugh. Black bangs fell over the side of his face as he stared out of the window, hands in his pockets. The leaves of the willow tree outside left shadowed patterns on Ryuu’s face, and Aina felt at ease in a way she hadn’t all day with Kohl. “Makes me feel like I’m doing something right. People like Kohl, Bautix, all the Steels, they don’t care what happens to anyone from the south as long as their pockets are full. I see why my brother wanted me to shut down the Steels.”
“But what does that mean to you?” she asked, leaning against the window across from him. “There will always be people with more money than other people. There will always be people who think anyone different than them is bad.”
“I know,” he said, his brow creased. “But it’s what we’re doing with that money that’s the problem. My family has money now, but they started as poor miners in Natsuda over a hundred years ago. And sure, King Verrain brought a bad image down on the Inosen and his fight against the Steels made a war. But before that, he was the leader who advocated that Sumerand focus on steam engine production and funded the education of some of our best engineers. The past and the future aren’t always in opposition; magic and technology can stand side by side. So while I know we can’t actually get rid of the Steels, we can change what we choose to do with the power and money the Steels have.” He sighed then, not meeting her eyes as he said, “I don’t think I’ve done a very good job. But learning this magic and standing by the Inosen is a way to start.”
She waited a moment before replying, knowing the guilt he felt was less about being a Steel and more about how he blamed himself for not being able to save his brother from Kohl.
“Do it because you know it’s the right thing to do,” she said slowly. “Not because you want to be their hero. I know that’s not what you actually want, but if you’re driven by guilt, that’s what it will become. I know you still blame yourself for your brother’s death, even though you shouldn’t. Trust me on that.”
Even though you can’t trust me in other ways, she thought, guilt twisting through her. She leaned back, intending to put distance between them, when he reached out and took her hand.
“Thank you, Aina. I know we’ve both gotten a lot of new responsibilities lately, and it’s easy to be too hard on yourself. But you and Tannis are doing a great job with the Dom. All the employees here are lucky to have you.”
He gave her such a sincere smile, she actually believed it herself for a minute. He locked eyes with her, half of his hair mussed up and completely at ends with the finery of his suit. It made him look like a boy she might have met in the Stacks, not one of the richest people in the city. His words reminded her of how close they’d grown in the past month, how they both tried to show each other a little of their worlds. And though he’d grown up in a mansion, his childhood had been as lonely as hers.
The sun had vanished then, leaving him outlined in moonlight. For a moment, her heart stuttered, and she was thrust back into her past with Kohl—the nights with him at the train station, him standing in the moonlight, her in the shadows. They’d spend hours there, her shooting careful glances at him while he twisted his words to make her further committed to him. She shook the memories away and looked back at Ryuu.
She’d grown to value his friendship, but sometimes, when they were alone like this, she remembered that there’d been more between them—shy looks, deep conversations, sharing their hopes and fears. When she’d betrayed him last month, he’d been angry and told her they shouldn’t speak anymore.
But then they’d made up and here they were, still close, their friendship stronger than ever—and now she had another secret.
Her stomach twisted with unease. Was Kohl right to say they were more alike than she’d ever admitted? She swallowed hard, finding a bitter taste in the back of her throat.
The more pain she felt from Kohl, the more pain she seemed to inflict on others. It was better for someone like her to be alone.
Footsteps outside the room made them both break apart, and a moment later, Tannis and Teo entered the training room followed by Raurie and Lill, who both wore jackets despite the heat.
“Sorry we’re late,” Lill said, walking toward the candle in the middle of the room with Raurie. “We had to make a good excuse to leave, and couldn’t look like we were in too much of a hurry.”
“But look what we got,” Raurie said with a mischievous grin. She reached into the inner pocket of her jacket and withdrew a small handful of diamonds. Lill did the same, and with defiant expressions, they spilled them onto the floor next to the candle. They shone bright on some sides, dull on others, glinting in the candlelight as if daring one of them to take them.
As they all gathered around the candle and the strew of diamonds on the
floor, Aina felt a surge of purpose; they were all here to stop Bautix for their own reasons; for revenge, to protect the tradehouses and the Stacks, to stand up for the Inosen. She knew they were only a few people, but with this magic at their hands and all the determination between them, she knew they stood a chance. Teo and Tannis sat a little farther away in the circle, Teo with his arms crossed and Tannis leaning back on her hands. Raurie, Ryuu, and Lill knelt around the candle, each of them fidgeting slightly.
“How much do you think we can learn in the next two days?” Aina asked, kneeling next to Ryuu.
“Two days?” he asked sharply. “Is Kohl planning something?”
“Did they leave another note?” Teo asked.
Aina shook her head. “Bautix. He’s hiding Jackals and men he’s hired from Kaiyan in these apartments on Lyra Avenue, and Mirran found out where they are. I went there today and overheard when his next shipment of weapons will be. Day after tomorrow, coming from the coast.”
Silence followed her words, and a ripple of energy swept through the group as they all realized a chance to stop Bautix was so close. A twinge of guilt worked through her; she’d mostly told the truth, but she’d left out that Kohl had been with her today. If they stopped Bautix soon enough, it wouldn’t even matter; Kohl would die at her hands, and no one would ever need to know she was working with him.
“We need to stop it,” Lill said, clutching one of the diamonds in her fist. “If Bautix gets those weapons…”
“The Inosen won’t stand a chance,” Raurie said. “Not while most of them don’t even want to learn magic; they’re too afraid of retaliation. Imagine, being retaliated against for trying to defend yourself.”
“He sees you as a means to an end,” Tannis said in a bitter tone.
Turning to Ryuu, Aina asked, “Can you get train timetables for the coastal line and blueprints of the shipyards at the western ports?”
Shadow City Page 10