His bitter tone already gave away the answer. But she asked anyway. “He said no?”

“He said bribing wouldn’t work anymore, that things had gotten stricter with the Diamond Guards after the war. We’d have to break my parents out with the help of a contact he had in the Tower. We would meet at secret tunnels leading into the Tower and break my parents out together. I was stupid enough to believe him. Turns out, he thought I was a loose end that needed to be cut off. I knew too many of his secrets, especially how he was passing information to both sides during the war, and he just wanted to get out of Kosín with the money he’d earned. Diamond Guards were waiting for me at the meet-up spot and threw me in a cell. Boss was nowhere in sight. A few days later, I found out my parents died a few months after they were arrested. Some illness they got in the prison.”

She was suddenly glad his boss was dead.

“How did you get out of the Tower?” she asked. “Start a prison riot or something?”

“Sometimes you have to be subtle. I used a little stealth. A little poison.” His eyes hardened again, a complete contrast to the smile spreading on his face. “Things you need to improve at before I throw you back on the street.”

The next day, he’d told her it was time to do her first job. She’d been frightened, but had agreed, determined to become the best at whatever would help her survive: killing, spying, brewing poisons, telling lies. Anything except firing the pistols that made her fingers shake.

Now, with the Sentinel’s reward for her capture hanging over her head, she still knew there was only one option—keep going, keep fighting, keep defending herself. That was what had gotten her where she was now, with Kohl’s support in opening her own tradehouse, and it was what would keep her here.

She turned off Lyra Avenue and onto one of the narrow streets of the Wings. White apartment buildings towered over her as she picked up the pace. At an intersection, she finally caught sight of Teo across the street.

She hissed his name, looking around to check if anyone was watching them. The street was empty except for a man sleeping on the corner.

Teo’s eyes widened when he saw her, and he jogged across the street to reach her.

“Teo, we’re rich!” she whispered.

He took a few deep breaths, like he’d been running. The sun brightened his golden-brown skin, his copper eyes, highlighting the sweat on his forehead. His gaze flicked to the street again as if expecting an attack at any moment, then he took her hand to pull her into the shadows of the nearest alley.

“Thank the Mothers you’re safe,” he said. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Oh, did you hear about the Sentinel?” Her brow furrowed. “They do have a good drawing of me, but I’m not really—”