“How are we going to get into the subway tunnels?” Aina asked.

“We could go through one of the old tunnels used for secret worship services,” Raurie suggested. “The Steels think they managed to close them all up, but they haven’t, and some of them run close to the new subway tunnels. I know of one that we can access through a sewer entrance.”

They worked fast as night fell outside the windows, smuggling explosives and emergency flares into packs that Ryuu split between them. Aina made sure to grab extra weapons, as well as grappling hooks and rope. If she had time, she would have brewed a poison to use on the guards in the Tower, but every passing second might be a countdown to the end of Teo’s life. There was no time for extra precautions.

Once both moons had risen high in the sky with midnight’s approach, they set off.

Teo’s words came back to her as they walked: Decide what’s important to you, and put your mind to it entirely.

Aina was deviating from her plan to find Kouta in order to save Teo. She didn’t know what to make of that, since looking after herself had always been her priority. Setting aside her own goals was anathema to every step she’d taken for years and made her feel like she was walking blindfolded on a tightrope.

Tannis might kill Kouta before she could. Kohl might kill her for all her failures.

But none of it mattered if Teo died because of her. Nothing would matter, then.

26

In the shadow of the Tower of Steel, they walked quickly to the eastern shore of the Minos River. Under the gravel that fronted the river was the handle to a sewer opening, the country’s sword-and-pickaxe seal engraved on the metal.

Ryuu pulled on the handle and lifted to reveal a black pit in the ground. Aina’s shoulders tensed up at the sight. The moons’ light failed to reach the bottom. She gestured for Ryuu and Raurie to go first, then stood alone, breathing in the cool night air for a moment to gather her composure before descending into the dark. The memory of her parents’ bodies lying in the dark with only a thin strip of moonlight revealing them filled her thoughts.

She held her breath as she descended the ladder, double-checking her grip on the rungs each time she took a step farther down. By the time her feet reached solid ground, sweat coated the back of her neck and her hands shook. Ryuu lit one of the flares, flooding the tunnel with a circle of orange light, and they began to walk down the sliver of concrete running alongside the stream of water in the center.

Ryuu and Raurie kept up a conversation about their knowledge of the tunnels and the prison. Aina trailed behind them, trying not to imagine what the Diamond Guards might be doing to Teo right now.

They soon veered off the path, down a service tunnel with a concealed entrance to one of the passages the Inosen used. After another half hour of walking north, Raurie leading the way through twisting tunnels, the path widened ahead of them like the one they’d used to escape the shoot-out with the Jackals. But it seemed more stable, the construction closer to completion than the tunnels in the south of the city. The ceiling curved, dome-like, and rectangular pits were dug in the center with a half-completed rail track.