Shadow City

by Francesca Flores

  Raurie nodded once, as if Aina had confirmed something she needed to know, and Aina realized what she was doing two seconds before she did it. Raurie took one of the diamonds she carried and spoke the same spell Aina had used in the cavern, “Cayek inoke,” the spell to crumble earth, and faced the stone balcony surrounding the ballroom.

  They jumped out of the way, rolling toward the center of the room as the balcony crashed down onto the glass. Aina shielded her face from the flying shards and the broken stone. Raurie, Ryuu, and Lill ran toward the sparkling gems under the floor even before the crash subsided. The Inosen surrounding Mariya on the stage jumped off to take the diamonds from the newly opened floor.

  Just then, someone kicked Aina in the back. The breath knocked out of her, she fell onto the broken glass, scraping her hands and face. Flipping onto her back, she jerked her head out of the way as the Jackal standing above her slashed across her with a dagger. It cut into her collarbone, missing where her neck had been a moment ago. Hissing with the sharp cut, she raised her own dagger to block his next strike.

  Raising herself to a crouch, she pushed upward and shoved his blade aside. Another dagger appeared in his hand a moment later and it swept toward her, but right before the knife met her neck, the man gasped. A tip of silver shone through his neck, pierced from behind. Blood spilled from his lips and a choking sound rose from his throat. He collapsed, and Teo stepped into place behind him.

  41

  Teo pulled her aside and they hid in the shadows of the stage to avoid getting caught in the battle again. Aina stared at him the whole time, thinking he was an apparition, just like the Mothers.

  “Teo,” she breathed his name, placing a hand cautiously on his shoulder and stiffening when she finally touched him. “Are you—”

  But the words wouldn’t come out; she had no clue what she wanted to ask.

  Are you a ghost, like the Mothers who appeared to me?

  Are you going to disappear, like they did?

  “I’m here,” he said, taking both of her hands in his and stepping in front of her. The rest of the ballroom fell away—the shouting, the clash of weapons.

  Not taking her eyes off him, she whispered, “I thought you…”

  “I know.” His head hung a little, dark waves of hair draping around his face. “With the poison, for a moment, I thought I was already dead. But I stopped feeling pain from the wound on my side, and when you used your knife, you, um…”

  She blinked. “Did I miss?”

  When a smile quirked at one side of his lips, she felt that maybe this was real. He wasn’t going to leave her again.

  “I remember you using a spell before I passed out,” he said. “Maybe it actually worked.”

  She shook her head slowly, the memory coming back to her quickly. Had she actually managed to heal him, when before, she’d only been good at killing with the magic? She’d felt nothing, no sign of the Mothers answering her prayers or the magic working when she tried to heal the wound on his side or stop the poison from spreading. The diamond she’d tried to use had already been spent, and when she’d stabbed Teo, she’d didn’t try any spell or draw any of her own blood. Unless …

  Ryuu’s words came back to her then, the day they’d first practiced healing spells and she’d failed miserably: that there were rumors of people able to heal without diamonds or blood. No one really knew how it worked, but Raurie had said it happened after some kind of divine experience. The Mothers appearing to her in the cavern … maybe they hadn’t disappeared at all. Maybe they’d always been there.

  “I had the antidote in my system,” she said slowly. “I didn’t know it at the time, but Kohl gave it to me before we even got on the train. So when I kissed you, that must have saved you from the poison. And the spell saved you from your wounds. How did you get out of there alive, though? The ship was already on fire when I left.”

  “Raurie and Lill were still on the ship, searching for the weapons, and they found me a few minutes after you left. We jumped into the harbor and had to swim. I thought I’d die again,” he said, shaking his head and staring somewhere over her shoulder. “We couldn’t find you or Ryuu, but we waited for Mirran to come in. The Kaiyanis solders arrived, and we all left back to the city together. I headed to the Tower first with a few of the soldiers to get a start on taking it back. I had no idea where you were.”

  “I’m here now,” she said, and then drew him into a tight hug. She could still hardly believe it—she’d actually saved someone rather than doomed them. Looking over his shoulder, she could see the fighting once more. They still had work to do. Pulling back, she said, “We have to get to Bautix.”

  After a quick scan of the ballroom, she spotted Tannis, Raurie, Ryuu, and Lill fighting together. She waved them over and, when they saw Teo standing there alive next to her, Tannis gasped and Ryuu almost tripped over a broken part of the floor.

  “What? You’re alive?” Tannis stammered.

  “You could act more excited about it,” Teo answered with a raised eyebrow.

  “We’ll explain later,” Aina cut in, then gestured toward the exit of the ballroom. “Right now we need to find Bautix.”

  They traversed the rest of the ballroom, finding it easier to avoid fights than when the battle had started; Bautix’s men were much fewer in number now. They left the carnage and made their way through the Tower’s corridors.

  By the time they reached the upper floors, the Tower had grown quieter. Statues were knocked down and paintings hung in tatters. Bullets had shattered walls and doors. Some office doors were flung open and inside, diplomats and governors lay slumped over their desks or drowned in their own blood. Screams and gunshots still reached them, the sounds penetrating through the walls and echoing off the marble and stone. But with Teo here, she didn’t feel as afraid; they’d both faced the worst and the only thing to do was to keep going.

  The whole time, she searched for some sign of Bautix, and as they reached the top floors, more sounds of fighting reached them. Beckoning to the others to follow her lead, she peered around a corner of the stairwell into the open floor of the second-highest floor.

  A group of Bautix’s men fought the few loyal Diamond Guards left. The Guards were outnumbered here, even though they were winning in the ballroom below. One hand trailing to a knife, Aina debated joining to take down Bautix’s men here or continuing on to the last floor.

  Footsteps pounded up the stairs below them. Teo turned at once, firing a shot into the head of a Jackal who approached them. But more men followed, and Aina’s group faced them, weapons drawn.

  They broke into small groups, fighting the Jackals in the stairwell. Aina disarmed one by slicing through his wrist so his gun toppled over the railing to the floors below. As he screamed, she crouched and slashed her blade through the backs of the knees of another Jackal who had been about to shoot Ryuu.

  A flash of red hair passed by Aina’s vision. At first, she thought it was Lill, but when she looked over, she saw Lill had been boxed in by two Jackals and one of them had struck her in the calf with a knife. The men were cut down in seconds, though—Kerys, knives and red hair flashing, had cut through their necks. She stared at her daughter for one moment before running back in the direction she’d come—up the stairs and to the last floor.

  Aina raced after her up the staircase, her steps echoing on the stone steps as she left the rest of the fighting behind. If anyone knew where to find Bautix right now, it would be Kerys.

  But before either of them could reach the landing, two Jackals stepped out of the hall leading to the top floor and blocked their path.

  Aina drew a knife and thrust it into the heart of one of the Jackals. She turned to face the next one, but before she could strike, a knife flew past her and into his throat.

  Spinning around, she saw Kerys, her hands raised to show she wouldn’t attack.

  “Changing your loyalties again?” Aina scoffed, her voice echoing in the stairwell.

  “I�
�ve spent my whole life jumping to the side of whoever could offer me a chance at safety, and this time, I told myself I’d stick it out, stay by his side and not look back.” Kerys swallowed hard. “I did it. For once in my life, I stayed when things got hard, even when all I wanted was to stop. He told me he would leave the mines alone, that he wouldn’t touch anywhere Lill was—he knew I still cared for them, as much as he hated it. I believed him. Needless to say, I no longer do. Follow me if you want to get to him.”

  She turned and walked away without waiting to see if Aina would follow. But after a moment, Aina did, following her to the landing of the top floor and peering around the edge. Six men and women, a mix of ex–Diamond Guards and Jackals, guarded the door to Bautix’s quarters.

  “I’ll help you take them down,” Kerys whispered, nodding toward the guards at the door. “You get inside.”

  Aina withdrew her blowgun. She only had one poison dart left, but it would do the job. As she fired it into one of the guard’s throats, Kerys threw a knife at another. It pierced him through the throat, and before the other guards could even react, she and Aina ran toward them from behind the corner.

  After cutting down one of the Diamond Guard traitors, Aina moved toward the door they’d been guarding. She sidestepped one more strike and stabbed the attacker in the stomach. As she pulled her dagger from his flesh, footsteps came from down the next corridor: more ex–Diamond Guards ran toward them, guns raised. Kerys stepped into the middle of the corridor and faced them.

  In a quick flash, Aina saw what would have been her future had she stayed addicted to Kohl; fighting alongside him until the end, when he would trick her and ruin her until she had nothing left. And then she would have died for him.

  As Aina slipped into Bautix’s quarters, Kerys stood surrounded by three of the guards with more coming from the stairwell, her knives drawn and eyes fierce.

  When the door closed behind Aina with a soft click, effectively shutting out all the sound from the corridor beyond, she heard only her own breath. She scanned the room, which was decorated in gold and deep brown tones. A large oak desk stood near the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out at the city from a height of thirty stories.

  Bautix stood with his back to her, hands folded as he stared out of the window at the city he’d ruined.

  Without turning around, he said, “Hello, Aina Solís,” and lifted his eyes to meet hers in the window reflection.

  She approached slowly, stopping just short of the desk.

  “Do you think you’re watching your victory or your defeat?” she asked.

  The side of his lips she could see tilted upward in a smirk. “Would you have gotten all the way here if your side was losing? Would you have survived the attack on the ship if the traitor Kohl hadn’t let you?”

  “I have my ways,” she said with a shrug. “Even if my side was losing, I would have found my way to you. And I’ve killed Kohl.”

  He turned then, a quick pivot of his body that made her tense up. The brightness in his eyes wasn’t the look of a man ready to die.

  “And I have my ways too, Miss Solís. Would you like a drink?”

  She eyed him slowly as he poured a glass of wine for them each. Did he think she was stupid enough to drink something that was obviously poisoned, or was he so confident that he thought he could make her do whatever he wanted? Or perhaps this was his final desperate move when he already knew his men had lost the fight below.

  Subtly sniffing the air, she found that hint of her poison: the smell of Kosín, the city burning beyond the windows. Her mind raced as she took the glass from him, slowly closing her fingers around the stem. He didn’t seem to know that she was the one who’d brewed the poison. Otherwise, he would know that she would have recognized the scent of it. Bautix probably had an antidote on him, but so did she.

  Since Bautix hadn’t used the poison on the Sentinel, she assumed he had instructed Kohl to use it all on Aina and her friends while he took out the Sentinel on his own. It would have been something they’d planned together, when Kohl was still pretending to be wholly on his side. But Kohl had only ever fought for himself. He’d wasted two poisons on the ship, kept one for himself, and gave another to Bautix—knowing he would come back to face Bautix eventually. Aina didn’t know where the other antidotes were—perhaps Kohl had left them at the Dom—but he’d shown her this one on purpose. He’d wanted her to have it.

  The only question was whether she or Bautix had the fake antidote, and which of them would survive.

  After staring into the wine for a moment, her thoughts settled into a calm state. She lifted the cup to her lips and drank.

  They waited two whole minutes, staring each other down. Aina’s pulse raced, like it knew its time was limited. A bitter taste rose in the back of her mouth and she didn’t know if it was her imagination or the flavor of death.

  As if reading each other’s minds, Bautix withdrew a vial of milky liquid from his pocket at the same time Aina reached into the pouch at her belt for her own antidote. In the crease of Bautix’s forehead at the sight of her vial, she could practically see his thoughts racing and trying to put it all together. A small smile tilted at the corners of her lips as they both drank their antidotes.

  Once it was all gone, she looked at Bautix. He choked on air, one hand gripping his chest. His eyes widened as blood trickled down the side of his mouth, his other hand moving to clutch at his throat.

  Aina felt nothing.

  After a moment, she walked toward Bautix, then forced him to a kneeling position and turned his body so he faced the window. The skin on his face paled, veins standing out purple on his neck.

  “Watch, Bautix,” she said, pointing the burning city. “Watch as your forces are destroyed. Watch as your plans crumble around you. You should know something: Kohl would never kill me with poison. He owed me more than that. But with you … consider this the end you deserve.”

  As he choked slowly, his breath stalling and blood flowing from his lips, Aina approached the window to look out at the city. It spread away seemingly forever, toward the river and then the fields beyond that met the horizon. Her eyes trailed toward the south, the Stacks—her and Kohl’s domain. She knew he would have done anything to protect that part of the city, up to the point where he nearly destroyed everyone around him—but he’d only wanted it if he ruled it.

  “Tell Kerys something,” Bautix choked out, his face paling even further with his last breaths. “Tell her I did what I had to do for the good of this country, and I’m sorry if her daughter was caught in it. It had to be done if we were to win.”

  She could have told him Kerys was likely dead, so it didn’t matter—or she could have told him that his plan to get all the Inosen at the mines killed didn’t come to fruition. But no matter what she told him, he’d still think what he did was best, even if he used and hurt hundreds of people along the way.

  “You’re no hero, Bautix,” she said instead in a low voice. “You’re just as bad as me.”

  He gave her one more scathing look that she saw through his reflection in the window, probably the most energy he was able to summon at the moment. Then his face relaxed, defeated, calmer somehow.

  Bautix fell facedown, finally dead, one hand outstretched toward the window as if he could reach the city by grasping for it.

  But that wasn’t how Kosín worked. You didn’t reach for it. It grabbed on to you and held you fast, sending its darkness through your veins until you either thrived alongside it or choked underneath it.

  The only ones who survived were those ready to embrace it, shadows and all.

  42

  Bright afternoon sunlight shone through the windows, casting a rainbow pattern on the carpet of Ryuu’s library. Through the window, Aina could make out the highest buildings in the city. Smoke from pollution curled above them, casting a gray cloud over it all. She much preferred that to smoke from flames.

  Aina had spent most afternoons here after Bautix’s failed t
akeover of the Tower a week ago, whenever she wasn’t working at getting jobs for Mirran and her new employee, the boy she’d recruited from Thunder. Here, she could stare through the window and hope to see Teo, Tannis, and Raurie return. Every small movement on the path ahead made her look up, expecting to see them, but it was usually a security guard pacing in boredom. A few days after Bautix was dead and the fighting ended, the three of them had left the city, refusing to tell her where they were going. She curled her hand—her good hand—into a fist around the arm of her chair. After thinking Teo was dead, the last thing she wanted was for him to disappear with no indication of when he’d return.

  The squeak of a chair nearby made her jump. In the reflection of the window, Ryuu and Lill sat next to her at the table in front of the window.

  “You know,” Aina said with a sly grin, turning to face them. “If you tell me where they are, you won’t have to deal with me hanging around here all day waiting for them to show up.”

  Lill shrugged. “We don’t mind the company.”

  “You’re quite entertaining when you’re impatient, actually,” Ryuu added.

  She let out a grunt of frustration, but after a few seconds, her frustration subsided. Ryuu and Lill knew where the others had gone, but they didn’t seem worried, so everything was probably fine.

  Probably.

  “We have something to tell you, though,” Ryuu said, leaning forward and folding his hands together on the table. Lill scooted her chair closer and placed a hand over his, sending him an encouraging smile. This close, it was hard to miss the burn scars on Ryuu’s shoulder and Lill’s left hand, sustained at some point during the fighting. Then Ryuu took a deep breath and said, “We’re moving. To Kaiyan.”

  Aina blinked. “You what?”

  “We’re moving to Kaiyan,” Lill repeated, her smile only growing wider.

  “Yes, I heard you,” Aina said, shaking her head in disbelief. When neither of them started laughing to indicate that it was a joke, she knew it was real. Voice softening, she asked, “When did you decide that? Why?”