25

They raced out of the apartment and in the opposite direction of Teo’s building. Aina led the way through the narrow streets between the apartments that brought them out of the Wings and onto Lyra Avenue within minutes. Pushing through the evening crowd, they reached an alley next to a casino, near the storm drains set into the curb. Leaning against the wall, they paused to catch their breath. Evening gamblers gathered in front of them, waiting for the casino to open.

Fighting down the urge to run back and save Teo immediately, Aina scanned the crowd for a sign of any Diamond Guards chasing them. The red and silver lights from the casino flashed in her vision as she searched. Her chest tightened each time she recalled Teo’s hands tied behind his back and how he was dragged away from his mother’s body, all so Aina could get away. The image of her parents standing in front of her while bullets were fired at them seared through her thoughts.

“We have to save him somehow,” Raurie said, her voice cracking as she spoke.

“Of course, we have to,” Aina snapped. “I am not wasting another minute looking for Kouta until we get Teo away from the Diamond Guards. He saved our lives by staying behind. Now we have to save his.”

She pushed away from the wall, ready to run to the Tower’s prisons and massacre every guard who stood in her way.

“We know that, Aina,” Ryuu said, placing a hand on her shoulder to hold her back like he had in the apartment. She jerked away, sending him a murderous glare, but he didn’t step aside. As if he were making some kind of decision, he took a deep breath, then said, “But we won’t be able to help him if we get killed in the effort. They want him alive to interrogate him about you, don’t they? We have time. We can still save him and find Kouta, but charging after the Diamond Guards with a few knives is not smart, and you know it. That would only get you killed. We don’t have time to figure out some elaborate, foolproof prison breakout, but I think I have a plan.”

The thought of Teo being interrogated, and holding out on revealing any information, made her nauseous.

Because of her, his mother was dead, and now he was alone in his grief. She knew too well what that was like.

Her parents would have told her to take comfort from faith in the Mothers, but the Mothers hadn’t done anything to stop them from being killed, and Aina didn’t trust them to help Teo either. They had to help each other. They were all they had left in this world, and she couldn’t let brashness and recklessness ruin that too.

And she had promised Ynes she would be there for him.

“So, what’s your genius plan?” she asked Ryuu, trying to inject venom into her voice. It came out shaking instead.