She assessed her injuries and decided she was in good enough shape to get right back to work. She’d worry about the bruises after Kouta was dead.
She could ask Teo for help, but right now, she didn’t want anyone else to see how desperate she was. It had been easy enough to break into the Hirai mansion before, even without knowing how many guards would be there. But to do it without Teo’s help, and likely face more security after the attempted murder, she needed to get supplies fast.
In seconds, she was off to the bank, and managed to keep her voice from shaking as she asked the teller to withdraw money from her account.
“I’m sorry,” the woman said with a well-practiced, courteous smile as she looked up from the ledgers. “The account in question has a zero balance.”
Aina laughed unsteadily. “Do you have the right number? Try again.”
But the woman shook her head after a few minutes of renewed searching. “It looks like the funds were withdrawn twenty minutes ago. Is it a shared account?”
Without answering, she stepped away, left the bank, and drew in shallow breaths in the bright sunlight outside. Kohl had opened her account in the first place, so he had access to it. Since he’d gotten her the jobs, he’d probably claimed it all as his money now, even though half of it had been earned from her diamond sales.
She clenched her fists so tightly, her nails nearly pierced the skin on her palms. The familiar helplessness settled on her like cloying smoke, making it difficult to draw breath. She was back where she’d started, on the streets with more fear than kors. As much as she’d shoved those memories away, they returned now as easily as donning her scarf each day.
Her first instinct was to head to the mines and get diamonds to sell so she could have money, but she needed to pay the supervisors a cut and she had no kors to do so with. The drawing of her that Bautix had held up flashed through her mind’s eye. Any of the workers at the mines might report her, especially since the mines were run by the Hirai family. It was too risky.
There was another option. This idea was probably as smart as walking off a cliff and hoping a cloud would appear and save her from plummeting to death. She needed to return to the Dom and get supplies without Kohl realizing she was there.
When she stepped away from the wall, turning south, she saw it—a poster glued to the side of a building, one of its edges flapping in the wind. It was the drawing of her, reproduced, with the reward amount for her capture printed in bold letters at the bottom.
She drew her hood over her head, pulled her scarf over her nose and mouth, but her breaths still came in sharp bursts and her hands still shook.
There were more posters lining the buildings along a dirt path as she wound her way down it and toward the Stacks. The posters diminished in frequency as she descended the hill into the south of the city, but there were still a few, some against the sides of cardboard houses and others strewn across the ground. Her own face stared at her from every corner. Every time someone looked at her, her hands flinched to her knives, certain that person would recognize her even with her hood drawn and her scarf shielding half her face.
She hurried now, wondering if any of the gangs or tradehouses had already heard that she’d failed at the job, that she no longer had Kohl’s protection—that they were free to do whatever they wanted to her.
Before she’d joined the Dom, the Jackals had tried to jump her into their gang, but she’d kept dodging them, too scared to put her life in their hands. Once she’d started working for Kohl, they’d always sent her cold, threatening glances, but until now, they could do nothing about it.
Once the Jackals found out about her failure, they would come after her with no fear of repercussions. She’d killed the baker in their territory, and they would want to punish her for it.
The thought frayed her nerves, making every shadow resemble the barrel of a gun. If they caught her off guard, she’d die at their mercy in an alley with no one to mourn her, like Mazir.
The lack of Kohl’s protection felt nearly tangible and dissolved all the bravery she’d gained in the past six years. If she failed to fix her mistakes, she’d never have his protection again, and worse, she’d lose him.
The anger on his face, the disappointment in his voice, were engraved in her mind. Losing the one person who’d given her another chance, who’d taken her from the streets where she would have died—the thought alone was like a stake through the heart.
No one was on the first floor of the manor when she entered, but she heard voices upstairs. She felt like an intruder in her own home, sneaking along the ghost-white walls, making her footsteps quiet as she slipped through Kohl’s empty office and into the side room that they used to brew poisons. She shut the door behind her with a soft click, her heart hammering out a countdown to when Kohl would reappear and kill her.
Moving as quickly as possible, she lit a fire under two of the clay pots and donned a mask over her nose and mouth. She already had enough darts filled with a wolfsbane poison that could kill a human in seconds, but she needed to make two different types of paralyzing poison: one injected by dart that would leave the victim unable to move for several minutes, which she had used to break into the Hirai mansion yesterday but had now run out of, and another that would knock anyone in the vicinity unconscious if they breathed in its fumes for longer than a few minutes.
When the poisons were done, steam filled the air with a noxious scent and sweat beaded on her forehead. As she carefully filled a vial and a set of darts with the concoctions she’d brewed, the door creaked open.
14
There was no hiding that she was in here, but she ducked behind the pots anyway and hoped to simply melt into thin air.
A young voice rang out, “Who’s there?”
It was one of the young recruits Kohl was training to work for him. Aina exhaled in relief, then stood and waved as though nothing were out of the ordinary.
“Miss Solís,” the girl, Johana, said slowly. “Do you know where the Blood King is? Or Mazir?”
She bit her lip, thinking of how best to answer. “The Blood King is busy.” She failed to mention that Mazir was dead. The kid would figure it out soon enough, just like she would figure out that Aina was next in line.
“Oh.” The girl frowned, worry lines pulling at her forehead. “He’s never here lately. Do you know what he’s been up to?”
Teaching me a lesson. “I said, he’s busy. You don’t need to know where your boss is. If you want something to do when the Blood King isn’t here, or when I’m not here, ask Tannis or Mirran. And if you’re really bored, you can clean the Dom. Start with this room.”
With that, she tucked her new poison supplies into a pouch on the inside of her sleeve and into another pouch hooked to her belt. Part of her was tempted to take more weapons from the armory, but Kohl would definitely notice if those went missing. Leaving the girl to clean up, she left the manor.
A knife appeared at her throat the moment she stepped outside. She grabbed her attacker’s wrist and twisted as she whipped around. The knife clattered to the ground. When she saw who it was, she relinquished her grip with caution.
“Someone’s instincts are sharp today.” Tannis smirked as she bent to pick up the knife, gold eyes sparkling with challenge. “You look nervous, street child.”
About a hundred questions flicked through Aina’s thoughts in an instant, but one stood above the rest. Does Tannis know that I failed?
“Watch where you stick your knives,” she said before stepping away.
She sensed Tannis’s gaze on her back the whole way down the street. She might have been able to trust Tannis before, might have liked her, but she was too loyal to Kohl. She’d gotten away without being killed for now, but either Johana or Tannis would tell Kohl about how suspicious she was acting, and then she’d be in even further jeopardy with him. The thought made her stomach twist in knots, but she had no time to let fear take over when Kohl had only given her a week to finish this job
.
The afternoon heat built up as Aina walked to Amethyst Hill. Soon, all she heard was her own blood pounding in her ears, and all she felt was the dagger she gripped under her jacket. Being cautious hadn’t helped much last time, so now she would use surprise to her advantage. She wouldn’t waste time nor try to hide what she was here for. If killing any guard who tried to stop her was quicker than incapacitating them, that was what she would do. Today, she wanted to make an impression, that anyone who got in her way was a target. That way, once Kouta was dead and people heard she’d fixed her mistake, they would also hear how ruthless she’d been in the effort. She would be safe for a long time.
Ryuu would tell her exactly how his brother had escaped death, what their plan was, where his brother was now—and then he would die too.
Twenty feet away from the main gate, she paused in the shade of the trees, withdrew a wolfsbane dart and stuck it between her teeth. A steady calm settled over her. Her fears and her humanity slipped away, leaving the Blade she was in their stead. Beyond the gate, mansions and manicured gardens spread toward the horizon. She approached the entrance where the two guards sat within their glass enclosures.
One of them exited his tower as she approached, whistling casually.
“Good afternoon, madam. Please show your identification.”
Aina smiled and turned slightly to block the other guard’s view.
“Don’t have any,” she said, thrusting forward to lodge a knife between his ribs. She twisted and yanked it out, catching the guard as he fell. His hands grasped at the blood pouring from his chest.
“Help, I think he’s having a heart attack!” she shouted.
Footsteps pounded behind her. Spinning around, she dropped the bleeding guard and blew outward. The dart landed in the second guard’s neck. He collapsed to his knees, hands grasping for the dart, but even though he managed to pull it out of his neck, the poison spread quickly. He would be dead within minutes.
She left the guards where they’d fallen and made her way down the main road. Families passed her, sending her odd glances at the splash of blood on her sleeve. Most avoided her out of pure instinct. The bruise on her temple from Kohl’s punch throbbed as she walked, but she gritted her teeth against the pain and used it to fuel her adrenaline.
There were more security guards than last night at the Hirai mansion. A few were poised in windows on the upper levels. Others sat in trees, probably thinking no one could see them. She failed to remember the last time she’d climbed a tree, but there weren’t many other options.
She withdrew a dagger from her boot, took aim, and threw. It punctured the back of the guard’s neck, knocking him to the ground. After shoving his body behind a bush and retrieving her weapon, she climbed the tree and crawled along the branch, thankful there was only about a foot or two of space to jump between it and the open window. But first …
Taking out the vial with one of the new poisons she’d brewed, she lobbed it inside the open window like it was a grenade. Glass smashed on the floor inside, the sound making her wince. She covered her nose and mouth with her scarf, breathing in the copper scent of dried blood—which was still better than breathing in the fumes of her poison. A few minutes later, she jumped to the window and tumbled through it to land next to an unconscious guard. All down the hall, at intervals of about ten feet, guards and servants lay on the floor, knocked out from the poison. It had certainly been effective.
She could kill them all, but that would waste precious time—someone still conscious could stumble upon this hallway and raise an alarm. She was safe for now, so she left the unconscious bodies and moved on.
She proceeded down the hall, bounded up a set of stairs while dodging servants and guards, and then slowed. Three guards stood outside of a room around the corner, all armed with guns that could rival any of Kohl’s. She crouched behind the wall, as silent as possible, withdrew her blowgun, and fired. Two guards collapsed, the poison killing them quickly. But right before she fired the third dart, the final guard jolted out of place, leapt in front of Aina and pointed a gun directly at her head.
“Turn around and place your hands above your head.”
Trying not to smirk, Aina turned around and lifted her hands above her head. A second later, the guard grabbed her wrists and twisted them behind her back. Aina slammed her head back and heard the man’s nose break. Whipping around, Aina cracked the guard’s neck and let him drop to the floor.
She stepped over the body and opened the door a fraction. A bedroom greeted her, extending in all directions in sickening luxury—the granite floor, the obnoxiously large bed, floor-to-ceiling windows facing the endless fields and mountains east of Kosín, a broad shelf filled with books, a red lacquer desk, and a glittering gold chandelier that hung above it all.
Steam poured through a gap above another door across the room, and the sound of running water reached her ears. It must have been Ryuu inside.
An idea struck her, and she went back into the hall to retrieve the guard’s corpse. Hauling it inside by the armpits, Aina left the body near the bathroom door. She locked the door to the room, then pushed over the desk from the bedroom and placed it next to the wall. For a moment, she thought she heard Ryuu singing.
She lifted the body upward and then, straining under the man’s dead weight, managed to stand on top of the desk while carrying him. She lifted the body and tossed it over the wall of the shower.
A shout told her all had gone to plan.
15
Aina jumped down from the desk as the door swung open. Before Ryuu could step a foot outside, she rammed her elbow into his nose. He slipped again and nearly fell, but caught himself on the doorframe.
Stepping farther inside to block his exit, Aina examined him. He’d managed to wrap a towel around his waist. Steam and drops of water clung to his skin, highlighting a few old scars on his chest and shoulders. His nose and mouth were covered with blood from where she’d hit him. As she approached, he backed into the wall, wiping the blood off his face as best he could.
“Why are you here again? Did someone send you after me too?” He shook his head at the dead man on the floor, eyes wide in disbelief. “He worked for our family for a decade.”
“Well, he clearly wasn’t very good at his job.”
She stepped into the shower and cornered him, ready to strike again if he tried to call for security. He was at least a foot taller than her, and she straightened to feel bigger.
“Did you help your brother survive?”
“I have no idea how—”
“Liar.”
Aina pinned him to the wall. He nearly broke out of her grasp, but Kohl had spent the past six years teaching her how to beat people who were bigger than her, and this was no different. She withdrew a dagger and placed its tip at his collarbone.
“You’re going to give me answers. And if I think you’re hiding something, my dagger will show you how I feel about liars.”
It had been a while since she’d allowed anyone to live long enough to witness fear build up in their eyes. If she hadn’t seen so many people at the end of their hope, she might not have noticed it in the first place. But his fear was slow and steady, as if he was trying his best to hide it. His breath grew shallower with each passing second.
“I know you can kill me,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone, his eyes deadening as if he’d long ago accepted his fate. They were the eyes of someone accustomed to threats. “I know what you are. You’re an assassin.” He said her job title with the same air children used when telling ghost stories.
“Good for you. So, how do people with slashed throats get up and walk around? How do I know it was really even him that night? You were in the room with him. Tell me what happened.”
“I’ll tell you what I know,” he said. “Just … let me get dressed, okay?”
“You have two minutes,” she said, pressing her dagger a little more into his skin as a warning before leaving the bathroom.
&nb
sp; A minute later, he entered the bedroom and sat on the oversized bed while avoiding her gaze. Now that she didn’t have a knife at his throat, she got a better look at him. The chandelier’s golden light glistened on his wet hair. The sleeves of his mauve-colored blouse were rolled up to his elbows, the color a nice complement to the bronze shade of his skin. His blouse and sleek black pants likely cost more than all the clothes she’d ever owned. His hands curled into fists at his sides. The fear she’d seen in him before was gone, but now he seemed distressed, his eyes downcast.
“Sit, please,” he said after a moment. “You’re making me nervous, and this is hard enough to talk about.”
She stayed exactly where she was to show him who was in charge here. The seconds ticked by.
After it became clear she would do whatever she wanted to do, he shook his head and asked, “What do you know about the magic of blood and earth?”
“I know you might get a slap on the wrist or a few months in prison for it, but anyone from my side of the city will be shot with no questions asked. Isn’t that how justice works in Kosín?”
He grimaced. One hand flinched toward her knife, aching to thrust it through his neck.
“All right, I’ll tell you. Once you left last night, I felt for a pulse. He was still alive, but barely. So I asked an Inosen maid to use magic to save him. He was bleeding out, and the magic can save you from blood loss.”
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes as if he were somehow ashamed. But she had no sympathy for him. Her life was ruined because Steels like him could get away with whatever they wanted. He probably had diamonds lying all over the house in jewelry and decorations, ready to use, so he wouldn’t even need to risk his life purchasing rough diamonds illegally like her parents had used to do.
Diamond City Page 10