The steady scratch of Ryuu’s pencil against the paper helped calm Aina’s nerves at first, but the sight of stars gathering in the sky through the window put her on edge again.

Is he in chains? Is he being tortured?

Would they ever sit on a rooftop again, holding hands and speaking of things only they could understand together, their hearts beating as one? And what did it mean that she wanted to?

She tapped her fingers nervously on the windowsill, trying not to imagine every terrible thing the Diamond Guards would do to Teo if he withheld any information on her.

To distract herself, she cleared her throat and said to Raurie, “You don’t have to come with us, you know. It’s dangerous. You saw what happened to Ynes just for being around us.”

Raurie shifted uncomfortably, holding tightly to her shawl again. “It’s more my fault than yours, isn’t it? Aunt June and I agreed to do the tracking spell for the Diamond Guards.”

“I’m the last person to judge you for doing what you had to do to survive,” Aina said with a long sigh. “They would have killed you if you didn’t do the spell. You shouldn’t come with us just because you feel guilty.”

“I’m not going with you because I feel guilty. Teo doesn’t deserve to be in this mess, and I want to help him, but that’s not completely the reason either. Let me ask you something, Aina. Did you have family or friends who died because of their beliefs?”

“My parents,” Aina said instantly. “You said yours did too.”

Raurie nodded. “Did your parents hide, or did they worship out in the streets where everyone could see?”

“Only in our home and at worship services underground.”

“Then you know that hiding didn’t help them.”

Before Aina could reply, Ryuu cleared his throat and looked up from the blueprints.

“Here, a section of the subway tunnel abuts the lower corridors of the prison in the Tower,” he said, tapping to a drawing he’d made. It was of a corridor juxtaposing the tunnels still under construction, with another sketch of a grate halfway down the corridor. “That’s a ventilation shaft they installed recently. We can go through the vent into the prisons.”

“So, there’s an unlocked entrance from the prison into the subway system?” Aina asked. “I thought Steels were supposed to be smart.”

“Not unlocked,” Ryuu said with a smirk. “But unlockable. We can get explosives here to blow up the grate blocking the vent and enter the prison. Hardly anyone else even knows the subway tunnels are being built so close to the prison, so they won’t see us coming until we’re already there.”

“But won’t someone notice an explosion?” Raurie asked.

“Good observation,” Ryuu said with a quick nod, “so we go now while construction is off for the night. In the morning, it’ll start up again, and the noise from the drills will cover the sound of the explosion. We can’t wait longer than tomorrow morning in any case. As soon as the clock in the Tower chimes noon, they’ll start interrogations of any new, valuable prisoners. We’ll break in at dawn and get Teo out before then.”