The fight on the room’s other side was slowing down. Anji scrambled to her feet, flexing her fingers as she watched Kit advance, eyes bright, her body tensed. Gina fell back, knocking a side table clattering to the floor. A moment of tense silence rang through the room before the two women launched at each other once more in a flurry of sword strikes and grunts. Kit yelled and pressed forward, feinting to her left side, then drove up in a stab just as Gina raised her blade.

A sickening punching sound rent the air. Gina gasped, still swiping her sword—but even Anji could tell all the woman’s strength had been sapped. The blade tumbled from her hand onto the carpet below with a defeated thud.

Kit took a step back and wrenched her sword free from Gina’s sternum. She caught Gina with one arm around her shoulders and cradled her to the floor, letting the blade rest on the planks at her side. Anji stepped forward, still fighting for a breath.

Kit lay Gina down on the carpet, smoothing her hair out. Blood was already pooling into the moldy fabric. She made cooing, shushing noises and stroked Gina’s cheek. “You were honorable to the last,” she said, her voice low, reverent.

Gina’s chest heaved, blood bubbling from the wound at its center. She closed her eyes tight and opened them once more, their whites rimmed with red.

“Peace,” said Kit, and the woman rattled her last breath, limp in the Hawk’s arms.

Anji snatched the bottle of wine, still intact, from the floor and took a greedy swig. She wiped at her mouth and looked around the decimated room.

“What in the fucking million hells was that all about?”

Kit said nothing, just folded Gina’s eyes shut and stood, brushing off the dust and blood from her thighs. Devas had stopped his death twitches on the room’s other side, blood ringing his still form. Kit spared him a glance, then locked eyes with Anji.

A wave of pure terror flooded through Anji as Kit rushed forward, arms raised. She held the bottle ready like a hammer and stammered as Kit’s boots thundered across to her.

But Kit only wrapped Anji in a tight hug.

Anji was so surprised she dropped the bottle.

Kit leaned back, her hands still on Anji’s arms. She smiled then, and Anji realized she’d never seen the woman grin like this. She could see nearly every one of her straight white teeth. She had a single dimple on her left cheek. Kit’s wrinkles bunched at her eyes, and though Anji looked for a word, she couldn’t find one as they stood together among the wreckage.

There was no disturbance or sound of rushing steps in the hall outside. Anji wondered whether anyone would have intervened if they had heard anything.