“I heard some things while I was being processed in the prison,” Teo said. “Did you know people still talk about Kohl’s escape even though he’s been out for more than a decade? They all disagree on how he did it, but whatever he did, it must have been good. How else would he get away with everything he does?”
“He has a lot of bribes,” Aina said with a shrug. “A lot of friends, a lot of people he threatens. He seems to conflate the two.”
They both laughed, then, and Aina was grateful to have him back. He and Kohl were so different to her. She and Teo had always been friends, and she would never want to risk losing that. Occasionally, though, she wondered if there was more between them. But something still held her back from seeing him the way she saw Kohl.
Teo had saved her life more than once, as she had in return, but he had first met her when she was already strong. She’d constantly proved herself to him even if she needed help sometimes. She’d spent so long building up an invincible image of herself that she was frightened to show him more of her vulnerable side.
But Kohl had seen potential in her when she was nothing and no one, and he’d saved her then. Perhaps Teo might have done the same, or maybe his eyes would have passed over her, nothing special, like they did every day when they walked past people sleeping on the street.
Until he saw her starving, homeless, and desperate, and decided she was still worth saving, she would never know.
Aina fell asleep within the hour on the armchair, her bones weary with exhaustion. A clock ticked somewhere, the sound reminding her of the one on the desk in Kohl’s office. She woke up a few times throughout the night, certain she was at the Dom and that Kohl would kill her for daring to return. She shook off the nightmares as well as she could, but they returned every time she closed her eyes.
In the middle of the night, she woke with a start—another nightmare that flitted from her mind the moment her eyes opened in the mansion’s dark room. Something soft and warm covered her. It was a blanket that smelled like Ryuu’s forest scent. She pulled it tighter around herself and fell asleep.
When she woke in the morning, her neck was stiff, but she was well rested. Opening her eyes and sitting up straight, the blanket slipped off her shoulders and fell to the floor.
The door creaked as Ryuu opened it and entered carrying a tray with cups of tea. He brought Aina a cup with a warm smile, and she murmured thanks, hoping he caught on that she also meant gratitude for the blanket.
Once Teo was awake and Raurie had come downstairs, they waited for a nurse to check on Teo. While the nurse looked him over, Aina stood in the corner of the room, careful to put up her hood and shield the lower half of her face with her scarf.
“You should rest for another day,” the nurse muttered while removing his bandages. “Don’t want to overexert yourself.”
But as she left, the door clicking shut softly behind her, Teo said, “I’ve rested enough.”
“Are you sure?” Aina asked.
He met her eyes once, then turned away with a slight blush rising up the back of his neck, as if he were embarrassed.
“If I’m working, I’m not thinking about my mother.”
“You’re right. We should get back to the job.” Avoiding Ryuu’s gaze, she locked eyes with Teo so he would know the real job she meant. Killing Kouta while using his brother’s money to do it.
Ryuu walked to the side of the room and retrieved a large, rolled-up poster from between two bookshelves. Bringing it over, he unrolled it on the floor and placed a few books at the edges to hold it down.
It was a map of Kosín, drawn in charcoal and filled in with colored paint. The edges of the map were green smudges of forests and fields. The Minos River was a white-blue ring around the city with tributaries winding their way north and west. The Stacks were inked in gray and brown, little detail given to it except for main roads, bridges, and docks. The north and the Center had clearer buildings and landmarks, especially Rose Court. Amethyst Hill was in the northeast corner of the map, each mansion given specific detail down to the color of the paint on the outer walls.
Aina couldn’t help but scoff. Even in mapmaking, the rich neighborhoods got more resources.
Ryuu pointed near the Tower’s top-center position. “This is where we went to find you, Teo. There was a train yard near there and also here,” he continued, pointing to the west of the city where the black market was located amid the warehouses. “But we didn’t see Kouta in either of those places. If he’s in one of the trains, like the vision showed, then there’s one last train yard he could be.” He tapped a southern corner of the map, easily able to pinpoint the location even without many details inked in.
Aina and Teo locked eyes. She would recognize that part of the city on any map.
“Can’t go there,” she said in a stiff voice. “That’s Jackal territory. They might still be recovering from our fight, but if I walk right onto their streets, that’s a death sentence. Without Kohl’s protection, they can do whatever they want to me, like we saw in the market.”
With a frown, Raurie asked, “What if we made our way there underground instead?”
“Is there another way?” Aina asked quietly. Going underground meant returning to the darkness, and though she’d have to do it to get to her target eventually, she wasn’t eager to return to the tunnels any sooner than she had to.
“Not if you want to avoid the Jackals’ territory,” Raurie said. “We can go through the sewers from anywhere in the city and come underneath their territory to reach the train yard, instead of going above ground where they’d catch you. The sewers are one level down from the subway tunnels.”
“They cross under the tunnels here,” Ryuu said, pointing at the map, “and there’s a maintenance shaft we can use to go up to the train yard where Kouta should be.”
“It’s a good plan,” she said, trying to push away the fear, “but we need more supplies. Smoke bombs, poison darts, knives, grappling hooks, flares.”
“I need guns too,” Teo said. “Lost all my weapons when they arrested me. We can go to the black market to stock up. And in case anyone forgot, we just broke out of prison. More people will be looking for us. Did any of the guards see you clearly?”
“One did,” Ryuu said, biting his lip. “But I don’t think he knew who I was. We’ll have to stay out of the open, though, since they’ll recognize you or Aina.”
Aina nodded. “Let’s get to work.”
30
The cool morning air helped Aina’s senses stay sharp as they weaved west through the seedier parts of the steel mills, warehouses, and textile factories, away from where the Diamond Guards usually patrolled and far from any posters of her face.
A steady rain fell as they walked, leaving the sky a deep gray. Aina’s eyes trailed to the people who slept on the sides of roads, remembering how difficult it was to survive whenever the streets were covered in snow or flooded with rain.
Now, she drew her jacket closer as if to remind herself she’d slept in a warm house last night. But the fear that she’d end up on the streets again never left.
Her eyes kept flicking to Ryuu. Each time, she had to push down the growing sense of guilt she felt for still planning to kill his brother. It had been easy, over the past few years, to always shove aside morals where her job was concerned and to become the Blade she needed to be. All she had to do was remember Kohl’s words the night after her first kill.
She’d been fifteen. She’d thought Kohl had sent her on the assignment without any backup or supervision, but after the deed was done, she’d left the house of the first body to die at her hands and stepped into the alley behind it to find Kohl standing there, peering into the window.
“What?” she asked, digging her hands into her pockets. Despite the early winter bite in the air, she was still sweating and breathing hard. “You didn’t think I could do it?”
She cursed herself at how much her voice shook. Though Kohl stood in front of her, sharp eyes e
xamining her, all she saw in her mind’s eye was the man who’d bled out under her knife. She wished Kohl would do something other than stand there. Maybe hold her or tell her she did a good job. Or at least take her to get a drink so she could forget what she’d done.
“I follow everyone on their first few jobs,” he said with a shrug. “You wouldn’t be here now if I didn’t think you could do it. I’m just making sure you did it right.”
Leaning against the wall, she let out a nervous laugh. “Sure, I can put a knife through someone, but is there really a right way to do it? I’ll do the jobs, Kohl, but after three years here, I still can’t be convinced there’s any right way.”
She’d spoken in a rush and had to take a moment to control her frantic breathing. Her eyes flicked to his face to gauge his reaction; she’d called him Kohl out loud for the first time. It was an unspoken but obvious rule in the Dom that all the young recruits called him “boss,” or “Blood King.” She’d heard the older employees call him by his name and began to imagine the day she could as well. His face was unreadable, but at least he didn’t seem angry.
“I can tell you one way you’re screwing up.” When she raised an eyebrow, he continued, “You’re standing right outside the murder scene, laughing and debating morals about the body I can see through this window. Let’s go somewhere else.”
In minutes, they returned to the Dom, and Kohl led the way to the armory without speaking. Once inside, he sat at the small wooden table in the middle of the room and began cleaning one of his pistols. Aina leaned between two racks of blades and placed her hands flat on the wall behind her to stop their shaking.
What if her target had children and they found his body first? Nausea rose through her at the thought.
“It’s hard to…” She took a deep breath. “My own parents were shot, Kohl. How can I be someone who takes away other people’s parents, their children, their friends? I know I agreed to the job, but—”
“Why would you blame the person who pulled the trigger? Blame the person who told them to do it.” He looked up at her from his task and swept his eyes over her incredulous face. “Here’s an easier way to think about it. Imagine you fall in love, and then one day you find out your handsome prince starts—”
“Prince or princess,” she muttered as a blush climbed up her cheeks. To avoid looking at him, she tilted her head up and stared at the walls of weapons circling them, each glimmering silver under the weak winter sun shining through a window near the ceiling.
“Right,” Kohl continued, “so, your charming prince or princess starts sleeping with someone else who doesn’t even know that your sweetheart is in a relationship. Which of them do you think deserves your scorn?”
After a short pause, she said, “The person who cheated on me.”
“Exactly. So why would you blame the hired gun? Blame the person who bought the bullets and told the gun where to point. If there’s any lesson of mine that you remember, Aina, remember this: You are not a person behind your weapon. You are simply the blade itself. Do not make the mistake of thinking you’re anything more important.”
Her eyes snapped to him, but he’d already turned back to his cleaning.
“Is that how you live with it?” she whispered, wondering how much it weighed on his shoulders to give his employees these jobs—if at all. “The guilt?”
“It’s not how I live with it.” He placed his gun down with a clink of metal on wood. “That’s simply the way it is.”
She nodded slowly, tapping her fingers against the wall as she tried to embody his words. Maybe he’d taken her to the armory on purpose, to be among all the scythes, axes, daggers. Blades, like her. The image of the man bleeding out in front of her had faded a little. Distraction was good—from glue, from the lives she’d take. Distraction was what she needed.
“So, who was the first person you killed?” she asked. When he frowned at her, she said, “What? That’s not a normal topic of conversation for people like us?”
“Do you mean my first kill on purpose,” he began, “or by accident?”
“Either. They both end the same.”
For a long moment, she thought he wasn’t going to reply. Then he’d stood from the bench and walked toward her. Her breath had caught as he approached and leaned on the wall next to her, still holding his gun and running a finger over the shiny barrel.
He stood so close, but his eyes were averted from her. Whenever he did look at her, she felt a sense of being examined, like she was one of his guns.
Was that all he would see her as? He was six years older than her, infinitely more accomplished, and she was just another grunt he’d picked up off the streets. What else could he ever want with someone like her?
Finally, as the silence grew suffocating, he spoke. “Remember what I told you the other day? How my old boss sold me out to the Vultures when he wanted to cut off his loose ends and get out of the city.”
When she nodded, her eyes flicking to his vulture tattoo, he said, “Before I went to meet him that night, I thought I’d better get some extra money so my parents and I could start a new life once we broke them out of prison. So, I got a few friends together and sent them to break into one of the Amethyst Hill mansions. They’d all get a cut, so of course they went. When I went to the Tower to meet my boss, and found out he double-crossed me, I thought maybe I could get out of it by telling the Diamond Guards about the robbery. Surely if they knew one of the Steels’ mansions was about to get robbed, they’d let a kid like me go?”
After a pause, Aina said, “They didn’t.”
“See, you’re smarter now than I was then,” he said, turning to her with a small smile. “They threw me in a cell and caught my friends too.”
“I bet your friends weren’t happy about that.”
“Not at all. One of them was a Milana girl named Clara. You sort of look alike, actually. She hated me the most after they all got caught. A few months in, they all cornered me and started kicking and punching me. I fought back, and in it all, I … I pushed Clara. She fell off the balcony to the prison courtyard from six stories up.”
Aina let the words sink in, imagined a girl who looked like her bleeding out on a prison floor. “So, what about her? No one told you to kill her. Do you blame yourself for her death?”
Instead of answering, he’d reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, his hand hot on her skin.
“Keep doing a good job like you did today,” he’d said, making her beam with pride, until he added, “Unless you want to end up like her.”
Kohl’s lessons were easy enough to remember. But now, her gaze still drifted to Ryuu walking ahead of her in the rain, and her heart clenched once more.
31
When they finally reached it, the storage building was dark, with a chill that seeped into Aina’s bones. Rain still lashed the windows in a steady torrent. Water leaked from the holes in the ceiling, and rats skittered across their path, but at least it was dry in here.
Down the stairs and through a musty corridor, they came to the door leading into the black market. Aina slid a few coins through the slot, spoke the password, and stood back as someone opened the door. With a quick nod to the greeter, they passed smoke rings and blown-glass sculptures on their way to the back corner of the market. Even this early, people still gathered to trade goods and secrets.
While Ryuu purchased their supplies with Teo’s help, Aina stood off to the side near a large quilt spread on the floor where people smoked from tall, colored-glass tubes. The different scents of smoke reached her: peppermint, black licorice, pomegranate, coconut. The smoke covered her a little, making her feel safe and hidden.
She caught Teo’s eye while Ryuu slid some kors to a vendor. A nervous smile flickered on his face. Maybe he was beginning to feel the same guilt she was for continuing to betray Ryuu.
Raurie, who stood a few feet away, nodded toward the corner of the market where she usually worked. “You know how I’ve been buying
smuggled liquor here for the past eight years? I started when I was a kid. But it’s still not enough. It’s never enough. They want us to stay poor.”
“Of course, they do,” Aina said in a flat voice. “How else would the Steels stay rich? They wouldn’t be elite anymore if we were all on the same level.”
Raurie crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side. The light from an orange blown-glass sculpture highlighted the brown skin of her cheeks.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of playing by their rules. They’ll try to put us down no matter what we do, so what choice do we have but to fight back? Teo has the right idea, you know.”
Aina paused, wondering if she should tell Raurie what she and Teo really intended to do once they found Kouta, but decided not to—the less people who knew the full plan, the better.
But she knew that Teo would still want to fight the Steels even after helping her with this job, so Raurie might not be alone in her goals after all.
“I admire you, Raurie,” Aina finally said. “Your parents were killed for their beliefs, yet you’re still faithful to the Mothers, and you’re ready to fight for what you believe in. I’ve always looked after myself first.”
“Well, I still had my aunt and uncle to take care of me, didn’t I?” Raurie asked. “You had no one, so surviving was the only thing you could do. Besides, I’m not really someone to admire. It took Ynes’s death for me to really start thinking bigger than myself. I’m glad my aunt and uncle are in hiding, somewhere they’ll be safe, like I’ve always wanted them to be. Now, I can try to do something my parents would be proud of. I can try to make a difference, and I think we’re on the right path to doing that.”
Diamond City Page 21