Shadow City

by Francesca Flores

The cut on her arm began to glow as well—a very thin, barely noticeable line of golden light. It shimmered for a moment, then faded away.

  “There you are,” Gevann said with a kind smile. “I hope you use this gift well, to be the beacon of the Mothers’ hope in this misguided land and remind people the Mothers have never really left. You may clean up in the washroom down the hall.” He looked at the others and rattled the diamond around in the chalice. “I’ll wash this before moving on to the next person. We should finish quite soon.”

  The blessing worked the same for Lill, but when it was Tannis’s turn, the diamond in the chalice remained dull. The whole room seemed to grow darker as they watched and waited, but after a full minute passed, Tannis handed the chalice back to Gevann with a grimace.

  “No surprises there,” she said with a shrug. “This religion isn’t popular in the region of Kaiyan I grew up in.”

  Aina gulped as he moved on to Ryuu and Teo, not sure why she suddenly felt nervous. She’d spent most of her life trying to shove the Mothers’ teachings out of her mind, knowing they’d condemn her for having taken so many lives. She’d never wanted their blessing until now, so why care? Suddenly, she imagined her parents’ faces, filled with disappointment at who she’d become.

  But whether her faith simply existed was another question … she’d seen magic work. She’d seen what happened to the people who believed in it. She’d spent hours in underground worship hideouts with her parents, weak candlelight illuminating the Mothers’ words.

  The blessing worked for Ryuu, but for Teo, the diamond remained dull.

  He lifted one shoulder in a shrug, slight disappointment in his eyes. “It was worth a try, but my family is from Linash—I grew up hearing about a different god.”

  Gevann approached Aina then, and part of her wanted to tell him it would be a waste of time to try. But then she reminded herself why she was here: to gain a new power, something Kohl didn’t have … yet another way to protect herself.

  As she made the small cut on her arm, a chill spread through her. It suddenly felt like everyone in the room was watching her.

  Her blood slid down the inside of the chalice, marking the diamond inside. Gevann’s prayers filled her ears and seemed to grow louder as he drew the mark on her forehead with her blood. It was cold to the touch, making her tense up until his finger lifted away again.

  Then she looked back at the chalice and gasped in disbelief. Like with Raurie, Ryuu, and Lill, the diamond glowed, reflecting in rainbow patterns through the glass. She took the chalice, forcing down her revulsion at the idea of drinking her own blood, then tilted it back. The coppery taste was wretched, but she forced herself to swallow it, pulling a face as she did.

  “Were the Mothers taking a nap?” Tannis joked from across the room. “Are they aware of who they just blessed?”

  Nobody had an answer. Aina shrugged, having no idea why the Mothers had agreed to bless her. She glanced down at the scar on her arm, shining with a brief light before fading away.

  Maybe that was what they all were. Brief lights, shining with hope and making a mark on the world before they died. If there was anything she believed in, it was their ability to change the world their parents had left for them. Maybe that was why the Mothers had blessed her.

  They finished then, thanked the Sacoren, and left. Night had fallen over Lyra Avenue, and with it came more heat and the ominous bank of slate-gray clouds overhead. Lill chatted casually with Ryuu, but Aina noticed how her gaze flicked to every corner, as if expecting a Diamond Guard to spot the small cuts on their arms from a distance and run over to arrest them.

  While they shopped for the supplies that Raurie and Lill had promised to bring back to the safe house, Aina spoke with Raurie under the shadowed awning of the shop. They finalized a plan to meet the next evening to learn the spells they would use, quieting their voices whenever someone walked by them.

  Fear charged the air, and Aina felt the hair rise on the back of her neck whenever a Diamond Guard walked near them or the wind blew sharply, long after everyone else went home and she and Tannis walked back to the Dom. She glanced at her healing cut, and a sense of power drowned out the fear.

  A few minutes later, she and Tannis turned the corner and the Dom came into view.

  Across the street, all the lights in the manor were on, illuminating figures on the roof. Two people were being dangled over the side. The exhilaration she’d briefly felt flickered out. She and Tannis slowed and, not taking their eyes off the Dom, withdrew their weapons. “Go,” Aina whispered.

  Tannis melted into the shadows, passing Aina a throwing star on the way.

  6

  Holding a scythe, Aina stepped out into the street. It was empty, the air tense and still. Everyone who lived in the area must have cleared out after they saw what was happening.

  Mirran and Kushik had gone off together on a job for a client, so they weren’t there. Johana and Markus were the ones being dangled by their collars over the roof of the manor with knives at their throats. When they saw her, their eyes widened and they squirmed in the grasps of their captors.

  The heels of Aina’s boots clicking across the pavement was the only sound as she approached the manor. Three other people stood on the roof; the two who held Johana and Markus, and another behind them. All bore the tattoo of a Jackal on their forearm.

  Her eyes flicked to the windows then, pulse racing as she wondered if Kohl was already inside—if he’d burned her belongings, whetted a blade just for her.

  A jolt of fear went through her, but she shoved it away and sharpened her anger to the point of a knife. Keep drawing blood, show no weakness, or you’ll be the one who’s bleeding.

  She recognized one of the Jackals. A tall, red-haired woman who held Johana in an iron-tight grip—she’d worked with the Jackals for years, maintaining a longer life span than almost any other gang member Aina had ever met.

  “Good evening,” Aina called up. “Your name is Kerys, isn’t it? I didn’t know we’d have visitors tonight or else I would have made you tea.”

  “We’re not here for games,” Kerys said, tightening her grip on Johana’s collar so the girl began to choke, her face reddening as she kicked in midair. Aina gripped her knife tighter and willed Johana to hold on a little longer. “We have an offer for you, but not from Alsane Bautix. Do you think all these new people would have joined the Jackals on empty promises from someone who changes his hiding place every day? Someone who sends notes from the shadows when he’s lost his power in this country?”

  Aina froze, careful not to show any reaction on her face—did that mean Kohl wasn’t waiting inside? Whatever they were here for, whatever this offer was, they clearly meant to threaten her into agreeing.

  It made sense that Bautix’s ranks weren’t as fortified as he wanted them to be, especially with how Kohl had contributed to ruining his plans in the Tower last month. Kerys’s words told her something else, though: Bautix was hiding, and he hadn’t even shared his location with the Jackals.

  “So who is this offer from?” she asked in a flat tone. There was really only one other person it could be, but it was hard to imagine him offering her anything, or sending anyone else to do it for him.

  He never made compromises. He never showed mercy.

  “The Blood King.” Kerys’s whisper was the only sound in the quiet night. “If you take his job, your friends and your tradehouse will be safe. Do you think he wants to be seen as second to Bautix if the disgraced general manages to take back power? Not a chance. Help him take down Bautix, and you’ll both have everything you want.”

  Aina’s breaths came shallowly as she tried to imagine Kohl’s logic. He would never settle for second best, and if he stayed on Bautix’s side, that’s what he would always be. The Dom was his priority, as it was hers—they were each other’s target. If he wanted to take down Bautix though … Images of the bodies she’d seen all over the Stacks flashed through her mind, getting closer and closer to the
Dom every day. The note Bautix had left threatening her if she didn’t join his side, his promise to take back the city, the poison he’d used in the warehouse almost killing her and all her friends. He was too dangerous to be left alive.

  But Kohl was too dangerous to trust.

  Her gaze flicked toward the Dom. She’d fought for this on her own, taken control of her own future. That was more than enough to prove she’d never needed him. “I’ve had enough of Kohl’s promises and threats to last me a lifetime,” she snapped. “He’d never let me walk free after I chased him out of the Dom, nearly killed him, and scared him into giving up Bautix’s plans. And now you’re telling me he’s useless and can’t take out Bautix without my help? Tell him that someone once told me to throw away things that don’t work.” She spat out those words, ignoring the sting as she remembered Kohl’s voice calling her a useless Blade he had to get rid of. “You can tell Kohl to shove his offer up—”

  “If threatening your employees isn’t enough to show you how serious we are, we have collateral,” Kerys spoke over her, her voice seeming to echo from the roof of the Dom. “Your friend, that handsome Linasian boy who lives north of Center. Teo, is it? Agree to work with the Blood King, or a messenger will run to a sniper with a rifle pointed at your friend’s head, and tell him to shoot.”

  Aina squeezed the handle of her knife. Teo. They had Teo. His bright smile flashed in front of her eyes, and she imagined it disappearing forever. Her throat went dry.

  A gunshot broke the night, and Aina flinched, imagining Teo under gunfire.

  But then the Jackal standing behind the first two fell forward, a bullet hole in his head with Tannis behind him—she’d climbed onto the roof, blades and throwing stars gleaming, and now Tannis turned her gun on Kerys.

  “Bring those two safely onto the roof and I’ll reconsider killing you,” came Tannis’s harsh voice.

  The other Jackal dug his blade a little deeper into Markus’s neck, but Kerys shook her head once. Slowly, they brought Johana and Markus onto the roof, and Aina wondered why they weren’t putting up more of a fight.

  “Looks like you don’t have a messenger anymore,” she called up.

  Kerys laughed, a chilling sound in the quiet night. “You think we only have one messenger? We thought you’d learned your lesson about backups at the Tower, but it looks like you’re still making the same mistakes.”

  Aina locked eyes with Tannis, who gave her a barely perceptible nod. If Aina wanted to stop Teo from being killed, she’d have to do it herself. She took a deep breath before bending her knees into a slight crouch.

  “You better hope your messenger can run faster than me.”

  She aimed the star Tannis had given her, its sharp, small blades glinting in the moonlight, and threw it. It slashed through the neck of the Jackal who’d been holding Markus. He grasped at the slit in his throat, then tripped over his own feet and tumbled off the roof.

  Aina turned and ran. She sprinted up the hills that led out of the Stacks, her eyes on the roofs to check for a messenger to kill, but she saw no one. She had to rely on her speed and her knowledge of these streets, and trust that Tannis would be fine on her own against Kerys.

  Now, Teo’s life was the only thing that mattered.

  She ran toward the Center, hearing Teo’s voice telling her they could stand up to their enemies together.

  What game was Kohl playing with her? He’d sent the Jackals instead of coming himself, and now she had to run through the city to stop Teo from being killed. Was it to make her panic and scramble so he could take the Dom, or would he step out from an alley and shoot her himself?

  Streetlights glinted on windows and towering buildings as she shoved past pedestrians in the Center, ignoring the ones who yelled or pushed back. The streets grew narrower, more people pressing together. For the first time that night, with hundreds around her and the shadows of the buildings cloaking her, she allowed her fear to show on her face. All the nights she and Teo had spent together—drinking alone and laughing at their jobs, bandaging each other’s wounds, sticking together even after Kohl kicked her out of the Dom and Teo’s mother died—flashed through her mind.

  She burst out of the crowded street and onto a row of apartments, gasping for breath—but there was no time to waste. When Teo’s two-story apartment building came into view, she tucked away her fear again, scanning the area for a place where a sniper might be waiting.

  Then she spotted it: a metallic glint on a balcony on the third floor of a restaurant across the street.

  Bounding inside, she found a dining room on the first floor. A few stuttering candles on tables lit up the room, but there were no customers or employees. Incense burned somewhere out of sight, and all the walls were draped in red curtains. She blinked to adjust her eyes to the darkness, then moved toward the stairs leading to the second floor.

  Just then, a man stood from his hiding spot behind a booth and shot at her. She pivoted, drawing in a quick breath as the bullet pinged off the wall next to her. As another bullet fired in her direction, she ducked and raced toward the stairs, the scent of smoke filling her lungs.

  She took the steps two at a time, a rush of adrenaline pushing her forward, but halfway up, two more men stepped out from behind the curtains on the walls. Running at them in a crouch, she crashed into the knees of one of them, then disarmed the other and kicked him in the stomach. The first one stood again and his bulky arm wrapped around her throat—his sleeve slid up, revealing the Jackal tattoo on his forearm.

  She slammed her head back into the Jackal’s nose and wrenched herself free of his grasp. Blood rushed from his nose, spilling onto her neck and shoulders as she scrambled away from him. Racing up the stairs, she reached the next landing, the stairs to the third floor right in front of her—and then the click of a gun sounded behind her.

  She ducked, the only thing she could do, but a dull pain coursed through her calf a moment later. Blood flowed down her leg as one shaking hand reached down to touch the wound. The bullet was lodged in deeply. Blood slicked her fingers when she drew her hand away.

  Her eyes flicked up to the third floor. The sniper was going to kill Teo; there was no time to recover.

  Wincing through the pain, Aina raced up to the third floor. Footsteps pounded up the stairs behind her. Any second, someone was going to shoot her again. All thoughts fled her mind except the need to get to the sniper before she was taken down.

  She stumbled through the partially closed door onto the top floor of the restaurant, a dining room and bar with open glass doors that led to a balcony. It was quiet and empty except for the low howl of the wind and a shadowed figure standing at the balcony aiming a rifle toward an apartment window across the street. Her hand went to her knife when the man’s head tilted toward the side, letting some of the moonlight hit it. All the breath left her body.

  The man who’d killed her parents, left her on the streets to become destitute and addicted to glue, and then took her in to remake her into a weapon who owed him her life.

  The man who’d told her she was worth something and then ripped away everything she’d been proud of—who’d taken her home from her twice and would stop at nothing to keep doing it.

  Aiming a gun at Teo was the man who’d only ever hesitated to kill when it was her on the other side of the gun.

  “I’ll work with you!” she shouted, the words spilling out of her before she even knew what she was saying.

  Kohl Pavel turned then, that smile she knew so well tugging at one side of his lips.

  “I knew you’d see sense eventually, Aina.”

  7

  The door slammed open behind her. The two Jackals who’d followed her up the stairs stormed into the room as Kohl stepped in from the balcony, set down his rifle, and walked toward her. She threw off one Jackal who tried to grab her, but the other latched on to her elbow. As she moved to grab his arm and break it, Kohl held up a hand.

  “Stop,” he said in a quiet tone. The Jac
kals relinquished her, but before they could leave, Kohl lifted a handgun from his belt holster and fired two quick shots to their heads. As their bodies thudded next to Aina, Kohl continued, “You really thought you could take my tradehouses from me and not pay a price.”

  The hint of amusement in his voice sent her over the edge. She stepped forward, one scythe swinging toward him. He caught her blade with one of his own, so quickly, she hadn’t even seen him draw it. As she ground her weight into the floor, her knees buckled—the pain from the bullet wound finally catching up to her. Her vision wavered and, noticing her weakness, Kohl pushed back so her scythe flew out of her hand. She lifted her fists, but then her vision spun so badly, she nearly blacked out. Kohl grabbed her and shoved her into the nearest chair. She bit her tongue to draw the pain elsewhere, then looked down at her leg. The bullet was lodged in the back of her calf, blood spreading around it. It had struck at an angle and not gone completely through. It hadn’t hit bone from what she could tell, but it still hurt like hell.

  “Remember that your friend is sleeping in the apartment across the street, I have a rifle, and you can’t run,” he said, his voice scathing. “Stay there.”

  He closed the glass doors to the balcony, blocking off the howl of the wind, then walked toward the bar. As he rummaged underneath the counter, she watched him, wondering why he hadn’t shot her yet. Since she was twelve, she’d seen Kohl nearly every day. His hair had grown in the past month, hanging toward his chin. His voice was still the cold, steel-like timbre she’d always known it to be. She wondered if his weaknesses were the same—if their month apart had made him more or less formidable.

  She bit her lower lip to stop from screaming in frustration. He’d so easily disarmed her and thrown her across a room; like she was defenseless. Like she couldn’t beat him. Her eyes flicked to the balcony, wishing Teo could sense what was happening from across the street, but a long minute passed, and she was still here with Kohl.