They reached the door. Standing on her toes to peer through it, Aina looked out into the prison for the first time and couldn’t help the shudder that stole through her.

They were on the fourth level. Six stories extended above, but their heights disappeared from the view out of the small window. The three floors below were visible but mostly hidden in shadows with dim orange lights hung at intervals between cells. This center of the prison was set in a square fashion, with four walls of cells facing each other. A narrow walkway lined the walls.

From her position, she saw the edge of the walkway beyond her door, then twenty feet of empty space separating them from the opposite wall. Staircases were set in two of the corners, and doors were at the others.

No guards were visible, but footsteps sounded nearby beyond her line of sight. Though there was minimal lighting on each floor, a pair of floodlights shone down from above, highlighting parts of the prison structure. She watched for a few minutes, noticing the lights moved in a random pattern, but that they changed roughly every three to five seconds.

“Nothing but to go for it,” she whispered to the other two as the footsteps faded away. Fear flashed through Ryuu’s eyes for the briefest second, but he smothered it and tightened his grip around the handle of Teo’s gun. Raurie’s expression was unreadable, but judging by the sharp dagger she’d withdrawn from her pack, she was ready to fight.

Without wasting another word, Aina pulled open the door and stepped onto the walkway.

A sharp intake of breath to her left. She spun, but Ryuu had already grabbed the Diamond Guard who stood next to the door. He slammed the guard into the wall of the corridor they’d just left and placed Teo’s gun to the back of the man’s head.

“Someone gag him,” he hissed while fighting to keep the guard in place.

Raurie worked quickly, as if this weren’t the first time she’d ever made a gag in her life. She tightened the cloth in the guard’s mouth and around his head. Aina peered around the door again, checking the ends of the walkway where it turned the corner and curved along the other three walls of the prison structure. In seconds, Raurie had finished tying ropes tightly around the guard’s hands and feet.

“There are a few guards posted along the walkway between cell doors,” Aina whispered to the others. “If we’re quiet, we should be able to sneak along without being seen. But if those floodlights land on us, we’re as good as dead.”

“Sounds just as risky as any other day with you,” Ryuu said.

She glanced at him sharply, about to retort, but then noticed the slight upturn of his lips.

Leading the way, Aina measured her breath in time with her steps to stay calm. As soon as the two bright floodlights whipped their beams in a different direction, she moved, in that split second between each change. With a steady rhythm, they made their way across the narrow balcony, past darkened cell doors, and reached the shadowed corner.