I flicked my gaze to the wet blade and then back at her. “I’d think very carefully about where you’re pointing that thing. Especially since I was just starting to like you.”

  The words hung in the air for several breaths before Yen finally spoke again. “Please, just let him go. He hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s only here because—”

  I barked out a laugh, interrupting her pleas. “I don’t intend to kill him, Yen.”

  “You…” Genuine confusion stretched across her face. “You don’t?”

  Her extended hand wavered for a moment as I shook my head. I wiped my dagger on my pants and then stuffed it into my belt before leaning down and motioning for the boy—who was still peering around Yen’s waist as if hiding from someone scary—to step closer.

  “I’m not going to hurt you. Come here a moment.”

  Yen kept her blade held up for a time longer before finally lowering it and turning to the boy. “It’s okay, Seth. I think we can trust her.”

  “Are you sure?” He asked, gaze jumping between the two of us.

  “No,” she admitted. “But I think she would have killed us already if she really wanted to.”

  Seth hesitated another breath before finally taking a step around Yen and moving closer. “Are you here to hurt people?”

  I offered him a smile. “Unfortunately, yes.”

  “Why?”

  That caught me a bit off guard. I hadn’t expected the kid to ask such a simple question. “Because they deserve it.” I said, telling the truth. “Because they’re standing in my way.”

  He nodded, though I was almost positive he didn’t understand.

  “Are you going to hurt my sister?”

  I glanced up at Yen, who still looked as if she might jump forward to protect the boy at any second, and then I shook my head.

  “No, I don’t think so. She’s been very helpful tonight. Do you think you could be helpful, too?”

  He glanced back at his sister and then at me, a look of relief washing over his features before a small smile tugged across his face.

  “Of course!” All hesitation had faded from his voice.

  “Okay, here’s what I want you to do…”

  *** *** ***

  Several minutes later, Yen and I crouched beside one of the first-story doors that led into the alley between this building and the warehouse.

  Out in the alley, little Seth was approaching a group of boys and girls with clubs who had been patrolling the wide avenue that ran behind the place. There didn’t appear to be any of the other thugs visible in the alley, which was good for us.

  “Are you sure about this?” She asked for the tenth time since Seth had walked out the door.

  “You two are his, right? Shouldn’t be an issue.” I assured her.

  I wasn’t sure at all, of course. I’d underestimated Aurelion at least once, but I did have faith that the boys and girls working under him wouldn’t cut down one of their own. Not without good reason. Hopefully.

  We watched as Seth approached the group, said something to them, and then pointed directly at the door where Yen and I were huddled.

  “Moment of truth,” I murmured as one of the boys patted Seth on the back and then led the way toward us, the rest of the group following him.

  The plan was to get the group inside and then take them out as nonviolently as possible. Yen had already tucked and cleaned her dagger, and I’d even agreed not to use mine unless I absolutely had to.

  We moved back from the door, spreading out on either side. I wasn’t exactly excited to go against multiple people with clubs without even a club of my own, but Yen had argued extensively that we not kill any of the kids.

  “They’re just as much victims of Aurelion as you are,” she’d told me.

  I’d hated agreeing with her. But she wasn’t wrong. The five kids clambered through the doorway loudly, their clubs held up. We waited until the last of the group had moved into the room, and then we struck.

  Using [Swift Strike], I dodged forward, bringing my fist up into the stomach of one of the boys. He let out a rush of air as he doubled over, and then I twisted, crouching as I did, so that my leg swept his out from under him.

  He hit the ground with a smack, my fist connecting with his face one last time before I was forced to dodge away from the club of one of the girls in the group. She was larger than the boy had been, and her movements were slower. She brought her club down again, the side of the wooden weapon slamming into my arm as I brought it up to fend off the attack.

  I groaned with pain, but my arm held, and I used the moment it took her to recover from her strike to put a well-placed [Swift Strike] into her chest. She howled as something crunched where my fist met her body, and then pain shot through my arm and up it. She fell back, hitting the wall hard and then slumping to the ground as she groped where I’d hit her.

  Next to me, Yen worked to take down the second of the group that she’d gone for—the first was shoved against the wall, his butt in the air—and I watched as she jabbed her dagger at the other girl in a feint before coming up with her other hand and punching her in the face.

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  Stunned, the girl stumbled backward, giving Yen a chance to get behind her and lock her arms around her neck, cutting off her air. She fumbled to fight back against Yen’s grip as the last boy—the biggest of the group—readied his wooden club and turned to me.

  “I remember you. You stole Ophelia from us,” he said, his voice deeper than I’d expected. His gaze shot over to Yen. “And now you’ve taken Yen, too?”

  His eyes flooded with anger, his mouth scrunching up as he bellowed, moving toward me and bringing his club down in a heavy swing.

  I shambled backward, the pain in my fist a distraction that almost cost me, the wooden club slamming into the stone floor right where I’d been. The swing was so hard that the club cracked, splinters of wood spraying into the room.

  He moved for another swing, and I twisted out of the way at the last moment, skittering along the floor as my foot slipped from under me. It hit the wall hard, knocking the air from my lungs. My attacker pressed forward, forcing me back into the corner until my back pressed against the wall as he closed in on me, his eyes taking in the damage that he’d done to the club.

  “Come on, Eian,” Yen said, stepping between me and the boy. “She’s on our side.”

  His eyes narrowed. “How can you believe that? After everything Felix and Aurelion have said about her? She stole Ophelia from us.”

  Yen shook her head. “No. Listen to me; she didn’t. She wants to help us. Aurelion just wants to enslave us all. Remember your promise?”

  “Yeah,” I chimed in. “Whatever he did to Felix isn’t good. He wants to do that to all of you”

  Eian’s gaze flicked from Yen to me and then back to Yen, the anger still broiling like flames within them. He shook his head slowly, deliberately taking a step forward.

  “I promised I’d protect you and Seth,” he told Yen, shoving her out of the way. “Killing her is the best way to do that.”

  He leaped forward, bringing the club down again. I braced myself, bringing my arms up to block the attack. The pain from my earlier punch still resonated like a drumbeat in my arm.

  But the attack never reached me.

  Eian’s body shifted, and then the club slipped from his fingers, clattering against the floor loudly.

  Blood leaked from his lips. He brought his hands up to his neck, as if feeling for something there, his eyes staring into mine.

  “I’m sorry, Eian.” Yen said from behind him. The apology came out with a sob. “But I can’t imagine a life for Seth under Aurelion…”

  He let out a sputter and then stumbled forward. I slid out of the way as his body collapsed to the ground, the dagger I’d given Yen sticking out of the boy’s neck.

  I lowered my arms and stepped up, placing a hand on Yen’s shoulder. She didn’t look at me. Instead, she simply stared down at the floor, where the blood was slowly leaking out of Eian’s body.

  Shaking my head slowly, I turned to find the dagger that I’d dropped.

  *** *** ***

  Killing was easy.

  Some people lied and said it wasn’t. But it was. Killing people you knew… that was the troublesome part. The moments after when you saw their faces and heard their whispered voices in the silence.

  I’d managed to lead Yen away from the room where she’d killed Eian before Seth returned.

  We’d set up in another room—this one a few doors down—where she could take a moment to clear her head. I knew she wasn’t going with me any further. Not only did she have Seth to take care of now, but she also hadn’t really spoken a word since her apology to the dead kid.

  I shook my head again as I looked at her and the young boy. This was a bad place to be in this state. The city guard was out patrolling and we were too close to Aurelion’s for my own comfort. I debated getting them both out of here, but I was in too deep now.

  If I left and then tried to come back, it would be at least three times as hard to get in. I had to do this tonight.

  “Come here,” I said, motioning Seth over.

  He stepped up to me slowly, casting a worried glance at his sister.

  I pointed at his sister. “Your sister is a very brave person. When I asked her for help tonight, she didn’t hesitate. Do you know why? Because she knew that people needed her. They needed her to step up and put her life on the line to make sure they were safe. To make sure you were safe.”

  He nodded as I spoke.

  “She just did something she’s probably going to regret for a long time. It wasn’t wrong, not really, and I might not be alive if she hadn’t done it. I won’t forget that. But she needs someone to look at her for a bit, and I can’t do that right now. I have business I need to finish.”

  “I can do it,” Seth chimed in, hurriedly looking between the two of us. His voice carried a mixture of both excitement and terror, and his mouth quivered into a smile that quickly shifted to a frown, as if he couldn’t decide how he should look in that moment.

  “Good.” I patted him on the shoulder and offered him a soft smile. “I bet she’d like that.”

  I stood up and pulled a stamina tonic from my satchel. Uncorking it, I caught a whiff of the liquid. It smelled like death. I suppressed a gag and then chugged it down, letting the warmth the liquid sent spreading through my body refresh me.

  After I’d drained it, I tucked the empty vial back into its place and turned back to Yen and Seth.

  “Wait ten minutes. If she hasn’t started talking by then, you’ll need to get her somewhere safe. Okay? Take the back alleys a few buildings over and find a room to hole up in. Once daylight arrives, and you can travel the streets safely, you’ll need to make your way to The Slumbering Drake. It’s an inn on the other side of the Eastern Quarter. If you can get there, tell them Aria sent you. They’ll take care of you. Get you some food and a bath, too.”

  He smiled at the mention of food.

  I tousled the kid’s hair and then left out the door to the alley, leaving the only advantage that I’d had sitting in a dark room and in the hands of a kid I wasn’t even sure knew how to get to the main road from where he was.

  I knew I should have just taken the kids and run. But I couldn’t. Not with Aurelion so close.

  I palmed one of my daggers and slipped down the alley toward the front door of the warehouse. Light spilled from the windows above, and I watched as shadows crossed in front of them, bathing parts of the alley floor in darkness. I used that, moving with the shadows as I sneaked down the alley to a back door that Seth had told me about.

  “It’s where they drop off the food,” he’d advised as I asked him as many questions as I could about the warehouse.

  He, unsurprisingly, had known little.

  The door was locked, but I used one of my lock picks and had it open within a minute. I tucked the metal rod back into my satchel and smiled to myself. I was getting better at using those.

  The door opened into a wide hallway which led to a storeroom packed with crates and bags of grain. I let out a soft sound as I took it all in. There was enough food here to feed at least half of the Eastern Quarter for a week. How had Aurelion managed to get it all together?

  Who exactly did he have in his pocket?

  I moved through the storeroom and out into another hallway. I kept my dagger ready as I slipped past closed doors with sounds coming from inside. I didn’t meet any other people as I turned the next corner and then made my way up the first set of stairs I’d found.

  I’d only been into Aurelion’s warehouse a few times, but I knew that the room we’d met in was on the highest floor. It had once been Ophelia’s room.

  The trek up the stairs and through the lower floors reminded me of my first attempt to sneak through the warehouse. When I’d taken a girl hostage and forced her to show me ?where Ophelia kept her stash. It had been quiet like this.

  Too quiet. And Aurelion and the others had been waiting for me when I reached the room. I held tight to my dagger, trying to stay that gnawing worry as I reached the top of the stairs and looked out over the long, empty room that I’d have to cross to reach Aurelion.

  Except it wasn’t empty this time. Instead, the room was full of various groups of thugs, all talking amongst themselves and seated around tables that had been erected in the space. A long table of food and drinks lined the wall to the right, underneath the large windows that covered the ceiling, and even Aurelion was out in the crowd, seated at a table with several other men.

  Seated directly next to the King of Lions was a man I had not expected to see there. A man whose presence here was going to change a lot of things.

  “I’m going to kill you,” I muttered.