“No you don’t,” Anji growled, swatting the Ox’s fingers away. The bloody stumps of her knuckles were now open wounds, smatters of red spotting onto the Ox’s slack face, mixing in with the torrent of blood now spouting in an ever-weakening stream from the woman’s ruined neck. The Ox gurgled, her eyes wide, the light and awareness in them fading fast.

“Stay with me,” Anji said through gritted teeth, eyes blurred with tears. “Is your ruination coming? I don’t see the dawn yet, you—”

Something crashed into her side and sent her rolling over the hard ground. A firm hand tugged her up by the elbow.

“On the horse,” the Hawk hissed. She climbed onto her own and already had it wheeling around as Anji looked for a final time at the Ox’s dying form.

Pain spiderwebbed through her jaw and she realized she’d bit a gouge in her own cheek. Her hands shook as she gathered the horse’s reins. She would have liked the Goat and the Bear to turn up right then, reeling as she was with the rush of saving the Hawk. But if there was anything Anji could still do well in this world, it was running away. She spat and wiped warm blood from her lips and clambered into the saddle.

They rode in silence but for the thundering of their mounts’ hooves. The cathedral atop the hill dwindled behind until it shone like a pebble left on the trail beneath the newborn, bloodred sun, and, finally, disappeared.

Chapter 24

24

Anji’s father gifted her a dagger on her thirteenth birthday.

Her mother had made a loaf of apricot cake and carved Anji’s name and age into its glossy top. She’d filled the recesses with white icing, made with sugar and cream that hadn’t come cheap. They’d wanted to surprise her.

Anji had barely had time to appreciate the cake as she pushed through the front door, her parents’ faces shifting from excitement to distress as they saw the black bruise already beginning to blossom on her right cheek. They’d rushed forward and wrapped her in a hug, pelting her with a mix of frantic questions, outrage, and condolence. Her mother had yelped when she saw the ragged gash in Anji’s forearm.