Dodging the guard’s next bullet, she jumped onto the grappling hook’s rope and climbed as fast as she could.

The rope rocked wildly, nearly dislodging her. Looking down, she cursed. The guard had jumped onto the rope too, and climbed toward her just as the flame struck the dynamite.

The explosion went off, sound shattered around her. She froze, ears ringing, her muscles bunching up as she clung to the rope. The booms echoed off the walls of the prison, grating against the guards’ shouts to each other and their footsteps pounding down the stairs—down, away from the fourth floor, where Teo, Ryuu, and Raurie were meant to escape. At least that part of the plan had worked.

The force of the explosion had rattled the hinges of the walkway and the next two above, if their sudden shaking and bucking was an indicator. The balcony her grappling hook hung to swayed dangerously. Her pulse pounded as loud as the explosion, but she forced herself up the rope. If she didn’t reach the balcony before it collapsed, she’d fall two stories to the diamond courtyard below.

But as she climbed, the rope swung again, making her legs and arms clench around it as if the rope alone could save her. It wouldn’t support the weight of both her and the guard for long. Kohl’s voice rang through her mind, telling her to do whatever needed to be done. She’d already failed one job. She couldn’t fail this one too.

When the guard was a foot below her, climbing hand over hand at a rapid pace, she let him reach up to try to grab her ankle—and then slammed her steel-toed boot into his face.

He slid, losing several feet before catching himself on the rope, making it sway drastically once more. Shouts rose up around them from guards and prisoners. A gunshot, probably fired in her direction, pinged off a wall. There was no choice but to get rid of the guard now.

She slid down, hissing as the rope burned her hands.

He tried to shift out of the way, probably expecting her to kick again, but this time she reached into her boot with one hand, grabbed a dagger, and sliced through the back of his hand. He let go of the rope, his screams joining the din as he fell toward the courtyard below.

She turned back to the rope, her back and neck clenched with tension, but while she didn’t watch the guard’s body slam onto the courtyard floor, she heard it. She imagined Kohl nodding in approval.

Resuming her climb, she reached the edge of the fourth-floor balcony just as it swayed.

Teo, Ryuu, and Raurie raced along the walkway, their weight shaking it even more. Raurie flung open the door to the corridor, and Ryuu followed her inside.

For a moment, she feared Teo would run after them without looking back for her.

But then he reached over the railing, grabbed the rope of Aina’s grappling hook with both hands, and hauled her up as the walkway lurched one final time.