The air was humid and putrid, making her hair stick to her face as they climbed. She wrinkled her nose and pushed onward, simply glad to be leaving the tunnels with the spiderwebs.

Maybe she hadn’t encountered any spiders, but she’d gotten through their webs unscathed, and she hadn’t run away from the dark enclosure of the sewers. She tightened her grip around the ladder rungs and ascended, feeling bolder than before. Light shone through small air holes in the door above, illuminating the thick clouds of dust from all the construction in the tunnels.

When they were nearly twenty feet above the sewer floor, the sound of the rushing water picked up, stronger and faster.

Ryuu froze above her and Raurie, then called down, “I don’t think that’s a good sound.”

Aina cringed against the ladder as water flooded through the grate above in torrents on its way down to the sewers. She covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve, but the water still soaked her head and clothes. She tightened her grip on the ladder rungs, but already, her hands were slipping under the falling water.

They kept climbing, pausing to wipe their wet hands on their clothes every few feet, but soon they were completely soaked, and there was no use.

As they neared the top of the ladder, Aina lifted her hand to push hair out of her eyes.

Then a scream sounded from above. Aina immediately clung to the ladder, her only thought that one of the giant spiders must have found them and was clawing its way down to devour them.

But when she glanced up, she saw that Raurie’s foot had slipped. The water continued to pour down, and when Raurie tried to get a better grip on the ladder, she fell.

For the briefest moment, Aina hesitated, frozen on the ladder. As long as she clung to the ladder, she could avoid the darkness of the tunnel surrounding them.

But at the last moment, she moved. She reached out and latched on to Raurie’s wrist, both their hands lost in the shadows. She cried out as the weight nearly pulled her arm out of its socket, but she used the momentum to swing Raurie back toward the ladder where she could grab on to it. She was suddenly grateful Kohl had made her practice scaling buildings one-handed, or else she and Raurie both would have fallen twenty feet to the sewer floor.

As Teo helped Raurie resettle herself on the ladder rungs below, Aina’s hands shook so badly, she nearly lost her grip.

She rubbed her now sore shoulder and looked upward again, letting the rainwater hit her face. Then, her eyes moved to the darkness on both sides.

Her parents believed life was precious, and for once, she’d saved someone instead of doomed them. A twinge of pride worked through her at the thought, and some of her fear ebbed away.

Ryuu had reached the top of the ladder. He shook the wet hair out of his face, then pushed open the door that would lead into the subway tunnels.