Tannis cried out suddenly and fell back a few steps from Kohl. A knife was buried in her abdomen. Her gold eyes widened, her face paling as she gripped the blade’s handle. Blood leaked from the wound and coated her hands. Kohl moved toward her like a vulture circling its prey.

“No,” Aina whispered under breath, and in two quick strides, she reached them. As he lifted his blade to deal a killing blow, Aina kicked him in the back.

He fell, but twisted around and swept his feet across her ankles, so she went down with him. Tannis had scrambled toward the open window, clutching her wound and leaving a trail of blood. Kohl knocked Aina’s wrist to the side, and her knife skidded across the floor.

His knife flashed in the moonlight. The blade fell toward her chest. She rolled away at the last second.

But as she did, a sharp pain reached her arm. His knife had cut right through it.

When Aina pushed herself to a stand, blood poured from her arm, making her head spin.

Then Kohl’s fist collided with her jaw.

Her teeth clashed together as she fell back and slammed into the nearest wall. Her knees shook, and she dropped to the floor, blacking out for one long second.

When her vision wavered back in, she tried to roll away, but stopped in place when Kohl raised a gun and pointed it at her head.

All thoughts, rational and otherwise, fled to be replaced by a numbing fear. All she saw was her mother’s head turning red in front of her and her father’s body knocked back by the bullets striking his chest. Nausea rose through her. She was going to die the same way they had, by the same man.

The Blood King’s voice softened as his finger settled upon the trigger. “I’m just doing a job, Aina.”

45

She counted down her last seconds, the cold barrel of the gun the only reality she was reduced to.

With a clatter, the gun landed on the ground ten feet away. She blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of what had happened. He’d thrown the gun to the side. He hadn’t shot her. The breath returned to her lungs in one ragged inhalation that sent a searing pain through her head.

Kohl shook his head slowly. One of Tannis’s throwing stars was buried in his shoulder, but he didn’t bother to remove it. Sweat poured down his face and blood trickled from the wound, but he didn’t even seem to notice it.

“I tried to give you what you wanted, Aina. Don’t you understand? I got you off the streets. I taught you everything. I agreed to let you open your own tradehouse. I was hired for the hit on your parents, but I didn’t know you—”

“And you’re still working for the same man who hired you back then!” she spat, gesturing toward the ballroom where Bautix was sure to be.

Kohl faced her with a pained expression, as if he truly didn’t understand why she was so angry. “I’ve given you so many chances, yet you can’t see why your mistake almost cost me everything. I need to protect my own interests too, Aina, and I thought you were smart enough to understand that, but here you are fighting me.”