She replayed the events of Kouta’s death in her mind, trying to figure out where exactly she’d gone wrong.

The only thing that stood out in her mind was the young heir, Ryuu Hirai.

Her thoughts fixed on him, blotting out everything else until a buzzing sound built up in her ears. She imagined the color of his blood on her blade.

Kohl’s advice that she should kill anyone who saw her rang true, though this had been the first time she’d ever failed to follow his words.

The idea sent a tremor of fear through her. Without him on her side, she wouldn’t just be at risk of capture or murder. She could easily picture herself sliding back into old habits. Her hand went to her nose, searching for traces of glue. Nothing, for now. If it was a choice between going back to the streets or dying, she’d gladly let Kohl stab her in the heart.

She assessed her injuries and decided she was in good enough shape to get right back to work. She’d worry about the bruises after Kouta was dead.

She could ask Teo for help, but right now, she didn’t want anyone else to see how desperate she was. It had been easy enough to break into the Hirai mansion before, even without knowing how many guards would be there. But to do it without Teo’s help, and likely face more security after the attempted murder, she needed to get supplies fast.

In seconds, she was off to the bank, and managed to keep her voice from shaking as she asked the teller to withdraw money from her account.

“I’m sorry,” the woman said with a well-practiced, courteous smile as she looked up from the ledgers. “The account in question has a zero balance.”

Aina laughed unsteadily. “Do you have the right number? Try again.”

But the woman shook her head after a few minutes of renewed searching. “It looks like the funds were withdrawn twenty minutes ago. Is it a shared account?”

Without answering, she stepped away, left the bank, and drew in shallow breaths in the bright sunlight outside. Kohl had opened her account in the first place, so he had access to it. Since he’d gotten her the jobs, he’d probably claimed it all as his money now, even though half of it had been earned from her diamond sales.

She clenched her fists so tightly, her nails nearly pierced the skin on her palms. The familiar helplessness settled on her like cloying smoke, making it difficult to draw breath. She was back where she’d started, on the streets with more fear than kors. As much as she’d shoved those memories away, they returned now as easily as donning her scarf each day.

Her first instinct was to head to the mines and get diamonds to sell so she could have money, but she needed to pay the supervisors a cut and she had no kors to do so with. The drawing of her that Bautix had held up flashed through her mind’s eye. Any of the workers at the mines might report her, especially since the mines were run by the Hirai family. It was too risky.