Aina pressed the tip of her dagger into the guard’s flesh, making him gulp. “Lead me to Teo Matgan’s cell,” she whispered. “He was brought in last night to be interrogated. Utter a sound or take us to the wrong place, and I will rip your throat apart. Move.”

He nodded at a door near the corner. Ryuu opened it, peered inside to make sure no guards were waiting there, and waved for the others to follow. As they slipped inside, guards ran down the staircases lining the center of the prison, missing them by moments as the door swung shut behind them. They ran down two flights of stairs to the second lowest level of the prison.

The guard nodded at the door on the second-floor landing. Aina gestured at Ryuu to check outside it. Holding his gun ahead of him like a shield, he peered through the door, then gestured for them to follow.

They exited the stairwell two levels above the diamond floor of the courtyard. Shouts from guards running to the sounds of the gunshot returned in full force, but most were from above, where they’d left the body of the other guard. This floor was now empty except for the cells.

“Go,” she hissed as the guard hesitated, making a small nick on his jaw with her knife. He winced, then moved.

Ryuu and Raurie walked slightly behind them to watch for any guards who might come their way. With Aina forcing the guard forward every few feet, they soon reached the cell.

Her chest tightened as Aina took in Teo through the bars, his wrists shackled to the prison wall behind him. His hair had fallen in front of his eyes and the top half of his face. Cuts and bruises lined his jaw and shoulders.

She elbowed the guard hard in the back. He glanced down to his belt, where a set of keys was attached. She unclipped the keys and rifled through them until he nodded at the correct one. The cell door creaked open inward after she inserted and turned the key.

Her grip tightened around the handle of her knife. Every instinct in her body told her to slice through this guard’s neck so he would never speak.

She’d made too many mistakes, hesitating before kills, letting people like Kouta and Tannis get away. Kohl’s voice shouted in her head, telling her to never waste a single moment. An unsteady breath left her, and she watched the hair rise on the back of the guard’s neck as he trembled in her grip. He knew what was coming next.

But she also heard Kohl telling her to be judicial in her kills. Only the target mattered.

Assassins were a means to an end, a way to avoid massacres in a city where blood was so valued. Fury could never get the best of her. Neither could revenge or fear.

Frustration prickled through her at the thought. She could kill this man, or not. Either way, Kohl’s voice was the one telling her what to do. No matter what she did, her actions followed Kohl’s will somehow. She bit her lip so hard, she tasted blood.