“First, we need to get out of the open. Let’s go to the mines. We can use the warehouses there to look at the blueprints.”

The buildings seemed to grow taller on both sides, hard-packed concrete closing in as they neared the edge of the city. After crossing a bridge, they soon entered the forest, their footsteps and breath mixing with the sounds of birds chirping overhead. After a few miles, they stepped out of the forest into the light of the moons, and the Hirai Diamond Mine spread out in front of them.

Smuggling diamonds from here seemed so long ago, as if it were a part of someone else’s life rather than her own. Even the fear of Kohl discovering her diamond sales had faded away completely, replaced by the fear that he’d kill her if she didn’t get back to her job soon.

Ryuu led them to a small warehouse off to the side of the giant pit, about a half mile around its edge. On the way, Aina saw the supervisor she usually bought diamonds from.

Quickly, she tugged her scarf over her nose and mouth, so he wouldn’t recognize her if he looked over. It had been stupid of her to let her face be seen in public, with the wanted posters hanging all over the city. Anyone could have seen her, from the fight with Tannis in the alley, to walking through the Stacks, to leaving June’s house.

When they entered the warehouse, Ryuu pulled a string on a dusty light bulb. Fluorescent light flooded the cramped room. There were mostly boxes, tables, and chairs piled together. After stepping around the clutter, Aina spread out the blueprints on a table with free space.

There were so many numbers, measurements, and intricate drawings that she had no clue what she was looking at, but Ryuu traced his hand along the drawings without hesitation and muttered under his breath. He began to sketch in the margins of the blueprints, shading in details so quickly and clearly, it was obvious he was accustomed to this. For a moment, Aina wondered why he had so easily agreed to help her rescue Teo when his priority was to find his brother, but then decided not to question and risk him changing his mind.

She and Raurie stepped back to give him room to work. As Raurie sat carefully on the edge of a box and drew her shawl tighter around her shoulders, Aina searched the small room for anything that could work as a bandage. The blood from Tannis’s throwing stars had mostly dried, but she couldn’t risk any infection. After a few minutes of searching, she found alcohol to clean the wounds and a few workers’ shirts that she tore strips of material from to bandage herself.

After, she perched on another box near Raurie. It struck her, then, how odd this was—Ryuu, someone who stood in the way of her goal, was helping her, while Kohl, the person she worked the most to impress, had abandoned her. Teo was in jail, and there was a one-hundred-thousand-kor price on her head. A week ago, she never could have imagined this scenario.