The guards responded immediately as Ryuu sprinted into their view. At the same moment, Teo pushed Raurie out of the line of fire. Bullets flew, and Aina rolled to the side behind another train that ran perpendicular to the one Kouta must be inside.

She scraped her hands and knees bloody rolling on the rocky ground, but got to her feet immediately once she reached cover behind the train. She ran down its length, peering through windows as she went. Her pulse pounded in time with the shots being fired, but she couldn’t tell who was being hit.

As she reached the end of the car and crouched there, she caught sight of two guards who’d taken up posts behind the train.

All of Kohl’s lessons ran through her mind. Speed, decisiveness, and skill were what she needed. She would become a weapon, take out the target, and reap the reward. Her guilt and doubt melted away, leaving her as the Blade she should be.

With quick, practiced motions, she took out both guards with her blowgun one after the other.

Then she darted out into the space between the cars, checking the fight ahead quickly to see that Teo and Raurie were still standing, then disappeared behind the train.

Boots crunched into the rock behind her and she flung herself to the side. A bullet pinged off the train exactly where her head had been.

The guard who’d fired the shot stepped out of the cavern’s shadows and raised the gun again. She jumped to the right, but the shot hit her thigh this time.

Biting hard on her tongue, tasting blood, she glanced down quickly to check that it was just a flesh wound, then moved out of the way. Her vision swayed, but she managed to kick the guard’s wrist to the side. The gun went skidding across the ground. Her next strike was a punch to the throat.

As he fell back, Aina moved. She smashed through the back window with a strong kick. Pushing her sleeve down to cover her hand, she cleared away the glass until there was a space big enough for her to slide through.

Lifting herself up, she tumbled through the window, hissing in pain when the glass shards scraped against her. One of the shards cut into the new bullet wound on her leg, but she was a Blade; she had no time for pain when there was still a job to be done.

Pushing herself off the ground, she saw this car was empty except for the wooden seats arranged in rows. Bright lights were spaced along the wall, casting the room in a yellow glow. A small gold chandelier hung in the center of the tapered ceiling.

Kouta must have been in one of the next two cars. Withdrawing a dagger, Aina ran down the length of this car to reach the next one, the small windows flicking past her vision. She’d find him in seconds, slit his throat, and—