Shadow City

by Francesca Flores

  Then Aina noticed the diamonds still clutched in Lill and Raurie’s hands. Inhaling sharply, she looked toward the passengers who’d moved to the other end of the compartment. None of them spoke or looked toward them, but they might have seen something.

  “I saw more people leaving when I came in,” Tannis said, crossing her arms and leaning against the booth where Raurie and Lill had sat. “Unless you want to hunt them all down right now, it’s too late. We were loud enough up there that anyone in the surrounding cars could have heard.”

  Aina nodded stiffly, knowing she was right, then walked toward the passengers at the end of the car. They all flinched back in their seats when she drew near to them, their eyes flicking to the blood coating her shirt and her weapons.

  “Leave,” she said in a flat tone, and they nearly tripped over themselves trying to get out of the compartment.

  Teo and Ryuu were seated across from each other at a table in the center of the car, and neither of them looked at Aina as she sat in the opposite row with Tannis, Raurie, and Lill. Teo stared out the window, tapping the fingers of one hand on the table between him and Ryuu. Every single tap felt like an accusation directed at her, and she knew she deserved each one. Ryuu turned his head toward her, and the pure venom in his eyes made her back up on her seat. He kept his hands clenched together on the table, knuckles straining.

  As much as she wished she could go back in time and tell them the truth, the fact remained that they wouldn’t have gotten this far without her fake partnership with Kohl.

  “Raurie, what’s wrong?” Tannis asked suddenly, reaching over and placing her hand on Raurie’s overturned palm. Raurie jumped a little, blinking back tears that hadn’t been there a few minutes ago. But she didn’t move her hand away.

  “I couldn’t … I’ve never actually wanted to hurt someone before, but I had to stop the Jackal coming at me.” The blood on her hands seemed to stand out on her palms then, under the harsh light in the train car. “I know it had to be done, but I didn’t know how fast it would work. Or how brutal the magic would be when I really wanted to use it. I just wanted to hurt him, not necessarily kill him, but I wasn’t able to control how strong the attack was. I grew up in the Stacks; I’ve had to fight for myself for a long time, and I’ve seen plenty of death, but … I’ve never killed anyone before.”

  Aina and Tannis sent each other a quick look, and Aina knew they were both remembering the first time they’d killed—and how Kohl had taught them to think of it. That they were a weapon doing what weapons did best, and the real blame rested with whomever had hired them as an assassin. Feeling any guilt only left room for errors. But Raurie wasn’t an assassin-in-training. She didn’t have Kohl whispering away the guilt and reminding them he had no room in his tradehouse for people who questioned their jobs.

  “I didn’t want to kill anyone today either,” Tannis said. “It’s never something I want to do. But we get wrapped up in things we don’t choose or want sometimes, and we have to make the best of it … even if we have regrets.”

  “They were trying to hurt us, so we hurt them instead,” Aina added. “You already know it’s the only way to stay safe in this city.”

  Tannis nodded. “But you’re doing it for something greater than survival; you’re fighting for what you believe in. We try to avoid killing in our jobs, only doing it when necessary. And today it was necessary.”

  Raurie said nothing, just stared at the table between them as silence fell. Lill finally lowered her hand from her neck and leaned back in the seat, tears at the corners of her gold eyes. The blood on her neck and torso had begun to dry, but still looked gruesome.

  “How are you doing, Lill?” Ryuu asked, standing from his table across the aisle and walking toward them.

  “Alive, I guess,” she muttered.

  “You froze up there on the roof,” Ryuu said, leaning on the edge of the bench. “Did something happen? Were you scared?”

  “I’m not scared,” Lill said in a harsh tone, then she winced and sent Ryuu an apologetic look. “Thank you for helping me back there. No, it’s … something else.” She looked toward Raurie then, who nodded as if encouraging her to speak.

  “My mother used to live in the safe house too, and she was a faithful Inosen back when I was a child. She left because she fell in love. With someone who wasn’t my father. She loved him before, but the war changed things—made her scared. Some people only want to stick around where power and safety are, and the Inosen were losing both. Did you ever wonder how Bautix got the Jackals on his side? Or why we got scared of the safe house near the mines being targeted?” When they said nothing, Lill cleared her throat and said, “That was my mother on the roof. She fell for Bautix, and she got in with the Jackals. Eventually they trusted her enough to follow her lead when she took them to work for Bautix. I didn’t know I’d ever see her again, so I wasn’t prepared to face her. I’m sorry I put us in danger by doing so.”

  “It’s okay, Lill,” Ryuu said. “You didn’t know she would be there. Which Jackal is she?”

  Lill blinked back tears before saying, “She’s the red-haired Sumeranian one. Her name is Kerys.”

  Aina startled a little at hearing that. Lill’s mother was on Bautix’s side? But Kerys was also working with Kohl. Which one was it really? Or did they both pull her between them, trying to force her to pick one side or the other? Aina felt a twinge of empathy with her at that.

  But if Kerys was pretending to be on Kohl’s side, she would have told Bautix about their plan to intercept the shipment and leave a fake one here. She might be the reason they’d failed at this mission. And if this had been a fake shipment, then where was the real one?

  “Your mother is truly on Bautix’s side?” she asked, and Lill shrank back in her seat at the words, like they stung. “She wouldn’t switch sides or waver in that, would she?”

  “I don’t know,” Lill said. “I haven’t spoken to her in years. She seemed sure of him when she abandoned us. He was strong, and we were Inosen. We were the weak ones in the war; we couldn’t give her the life she wanted.”

  Her voice stayed steady as she spoke, and Aina realized she must have thought them over and over again until it was the only truth she acknowledged.

  Aina looked over her shoulder as if expecting to see Kohl standing behind her, waiting to hear this information about Kerys and start planning how to recover from this failure. Her mind already spun with ideas, from tracking down this current shipment, to torturing Kerys into telling them Bautix’s current location.

  But that would all have to wait. Teo was still ignoring her, and no one else would look her in the eye for longer than a second. Guilt twisted her heart—how would any of them trust her after this? She wouldn’t blame them if they never did again. But she had to at least try to explain. Letting out a heavy sigh, she stood and faced them all.

  “He also wants to kill Bautix,” she said. “For his own selfish reasons, of course. But using his information has gotten us closer to our goal than anything else. Do you think I want to be around him? He killed my parents. I’m only partnering with him until Bautix is dead. I am sorry I didn’t tell any of you, but I did this for all of you. I did it for everyone who lives in the Stacks, and for the Inosen, since Bautix thinks he can use us to regain power. I did it for you, Tannis, so we could beat Kohl and prove we’re more than capable of keeping the Dom and running the tradehouses. I did it for you, Ryuu, because I know what it feels like to lose your family to him.” Then she turned to Teo, who kept his gaze averted. “I did it for you. He had a rifle aimed at your window while you were sleeping. I got there in time to say I would work with him, to spare your life. Because I’d rather work next to the man who ruined my life than watch you die at his hands.”

  Her voice trembled on the last words. She pushed away from her seat and walked to where the luggage was stored in the cabin, then sat down and stared out of the window. The rumble of the train helped steady her breaths and calm her.


  She’d saved Kohl. It would have been so easy to loosen his grip from the side of the train. To watch him plummet to his death. It scared her that she hadn’t. She thought of the night she’d stayed in his house at the southern docks, the time they’d spent on the little boat yesterday when he’d told her his past. She’d been getting too close to him lately.

  Whatever this new weakness was, she would get rid of it. Like all the other weaknesses and softness and pathetic aspects of herself that she’d shed since her parents’ death, she would cut off this one too. She had to be strong if she wanted to live, and granting your enemies mercy was not strength.

  Keep drawing blood, show no weakness, or you’ll be the one who’s bleeding. She repeated the words like a mantra to herself in her thoughts.

  Twenty minutes later, the train pulled into the station with a loud creak of its wheels. Aina stared at the floor of the car as people around her gathered their luggage and disembarked.

  The flash of a familiar face outside the window caught her eye. Kohl walked away on the train platform, his hands in his pockets and his gaze fixed on the city ahead. Once he disappeared from sight, she stood and turned to face the rest of the car.

  Tannis, Raurie, and Lill were still there, but there was no sign of Teo or Ryuu. She tried to pretend that didn’t hurt, but maybe she still deserved their anger. One apology wouldn’t be good enough. “They went to the safe house ahead of us,” Raurie said. “Said they needed time to think.”

  Tannis passed Aina a wet cloth and nodded at her arm, and Aina used the cloth to wipe away the dried blood from using magic. Her eyes flicked toward the platform outside, wondering how many of the passengers had overheard their fight.

  They barely said another word as they moved to the train platform and then made their way out of the station. Half the people walking by pushed past them on their way to the ticket booths, and the other half moved toward the exit along with them. Since Diamond Guards were still checking every person who walked into the station, long lines had formed outside, disgruntled passengers sweating in the heat and complaining they would miss their trains.

  As they pushed through the crowd to reach the exit, Aina caught whispers of blood magic. Right in front of her, Raurie and Lill stopped in place and shot each other a panicked glance.

  It took them another minute to reach the exit, stepping through the glass doors into the square. The sun beat down hard on them as they walked across the square, but even with the heat, Aina felt a chill.

  Halfway across the square, an older couple nearby stared at their group for a long moment, whispering to each other. Tannis glared and flashed the silver edge of a dagger, making them hurry away.

  “Don’t worry,” Aina said, trying to keep her voice level as she faced Raurie and Lill. “Pretend this is a normal day. We’ll get you back safely.”

  They both nodded, then moved on, Aina in front of them and Tannis behind. She kept her eyes on the people around them, watching to see if anyone else began talking about them.

  “Diamond Guards down that street,” Tannis whispered, nodding with her chin to the road they were about to cross to. “Let’s take a longer way around.”

  But no matter which way they took, they passed Diamond Guards, and Aina heard more mutterings of magic, more whispers spreading through the city at an alarming rate. Her pulse pounded as they walked, and she impulsively rubbed her arm where the cut from using magic was, even though her sleeve covered it. She swallowed hard, finding her throat dry. Not only had they failed to stop the shipment of weapons, but … they might have just put a target on all the Inosen by using the old form of magic. When Aina saw June waiting for them in a shadowed alley across from the entrance to the sewers minutes later, she knew it wouldn’t be good. June rarely came up from the safe houses unless it was necessary. Her arms were crossed, the diamonds on her forehead glittering under the sunlight.

  “She knows,” Raurie whispered, clenching her hands together.

  When they approached, June simply said, “Hand over the diamonds.”

  Raurie froze for a long moment and opened her mouth with a confused expression on her face, but June swiped a hand through the air as if cutting through her excuses.

  “Don’t act like you’re clueless. Hand them over.” As Raurie and Lill both grimaced and then reached for the inside pockets where they kept the diamonds, June continued in a murmur, “Tales of bleeding men falling from the roof of a train and people holding diamonds like weapons. We had two girls missing from the safe house today who slipped out before dawn and didn’t even leave with a proper excuse. You were obvious and reckless. Everyone knows Verrain’s magic is back now. Come with me, and hope that the tunnel isn’t bombed while we’re walking through it.”

  21

  When they gathered in the dimly lit, cool underground safe house—thankfully, the roof of the tunnel did not collapse while they were walking—and saw all the frightened faces, Aina’s heart sank. Urill pulled Lill into a tight hug, and said nothing when they let go, relief in his eyes but his mouth flattened to a thin line. He, June, and Sofía sat across from Raurie and Lill at a table. June folded her hands in her lap, waiting for them to speak.

  At the same time, Tannis retreated to a corner to sit between Teo and Ryuu. Ryuu looked up once and gave Aina a small nod, but Teo still didn’t look in her direction. She needed to apologize to them, but right now, her focus was on the Inosen. If more anti-Inosen sentiment rose in the city and Bautix used that to his advantage, all the people here would suffer for her choice to learn this magic. She moved toward the table then and sat across from the Sacoren as well, between Raurie and Lill. “It’s my fault that these rumors are spreading. I’m the one who suggested we learn blood magic.”

  “But we had to do something,” Lill said under her breath, looking between Aina and her father with a plea in her eyes.

  Instead of replying to either of them, June turned to her niece with tears in her eyes. “Words cannot describe how disappointed I am that you hid this from me, Raurie. We’re family—not just us, but every Inosen here. Using Verrain’s magic puts every single one of us at risk.”

  “It’s not Verrain’s magic,” Raurie said quickly. “It’s the Mothers’ magic. They gave it to us—”

  “That doesn’t change how they see us,” Urill spoke up. “Lill, you know better than this. If people hear rumors of Inosen making men bleed in the streets, they’re never going to let us follow our beliefs freely. We will always be underground.”

  “The people of this country love to blame anyone for their problems but themselves,” Sofía added. “Using this magic that they hate, out in the open, will be an excuse for them to treat us the same as they always have.”

  “You say you want to fight back, Raurie,” June said, “but you’re forgetting to be smart along the way, and you’re forgetting that I am the person who raised you after your parents let their own bravery get in the way of their common sense. They were caught and killed. I refuse to let the same happen to you. Let your use of this magic die as a rumor on these streets and nothing more.”

  As the Sacoren left them and Tannis walked over, Raurie’s hand went to her wrist, turning her bracelet over and over so the little stones caught in the cavern’s dim light.

  “I don’t know if I can blindly trust the magic just because the Mothers allow us to use it,” she said, with unshed tears in her eyes. “Especially after killing someone with it. I couldn’t heal Lill after, Ryuu had to do it because the spell wouldn’t work for me. We’re supposed to show respect for life, and because I didn’t, the Mothers didn’t let me heal Lill. She almost died. And I don’t want to put the rest of the Inosen at risk.” She twirled a frayed end of the purple shawl she always wore, then said, “You know this shawl is my mother’s? It’s the only thing I have left from them. Your parents died for their magic too, Aina. Doesn’t part of you just wish they’d stayed safe?”

  Silence fell after her words, but Aina didn’t know how to reply.
If the Mothers wanted them to live peacefully, maybe they should have given everyone a fair chance at life. She couldn’t imagine it, the faith that the people in this safe house had, the faith her parents had had despite how much they’d struggled.

  “We can’t give up now,” Lill said.

  “You can do whatever you feel is best, Raurie,” Tannis said slowly. “But only if it’s really what you think; don’t let Bautix scare you. You’ve always believed in your convictions more than anyone I’ve ever met. Don’t let them shake that out of you.”

  “It’s like you told us after the Dom burned down,” Aina added, her voice growing soft and her heart clenching at the memory. “This is where they expect you to give up; don’t give them the satisfaction. And Bautix won’t rest now that he has this shipment of weapons.”

  He’ll destroy it if he takes over the city. She remembered Kohl’s words from the day on the boat when he’d whispered that Bautix would find a way to retaliate by attacking the home they both wanted to protect. That included places like this safe house, where the Inosen hid. And by using this magic and drawing attention to the Inosen, she might have doomed them. A chill swept down her spine, knowing Bautix’s threat to take back the city within a week was now a very real possibility.

  She remembered something else then: that night at the warehouse, they’d overheard the Jackals talking about Bautix’s upcoming weapons shipment. There would be smaller shipments prior to the return of the smuggler from Kaiyan. She frowned, wondering whether this had been the big shipment or if there were still more to come. Kohl would be able to find out.

  As if reading her mind, Tannis said to Aina, “Maybe it was the best way, siding with Kohl temporarily. Working with him will get Bautix out of our lives faster. I don’t blame you for making that judgment. But you should have told me, Aina. Are you the boss of the Dom, or are we?”