After a pause, he gave a begrudging nod. “So we’re clear, I don’t trust you either. If you try anything, remember I’m the one with the kors.”

She let a small smile spread on her face. “The money is all I want, so don’t worry about me.”

It was so easy to tell a lie to someone who already believed it. His shoulders visibly lost tension as she confirmed what he probably thought of her—a money-hungry girl from the Stacks whose loyalty could be bought, like all the guards and servants in this mansion. She would put him in his place before this was over.

“My name is Aina. Now, how do we get out of here, since you’ve asked your guards to put up more security? I don’t want anyone here seeing me. Even if they don’t recognize me from last night, they have that very helpful sketch you made of me wallpapering half of Kosín to remind them.”

With a sheepish look, he moved to a nightstand near his bed and rummaged through it for a pen and paper. As he scribbled a note, she peered over his shoulder.

“I’m leaving a note that I’ll be gone for a few days,” he said, straightening and placing the paper on the nightstand. “I don’t want the Sentinel to start looking for me too.”

“A note? They’ll probably think you got kidnapped if you just leave a note. Don’t your guards follow you everywhere?”

“Kouta’s the one who manages the company,” Ryuu said with a shrug. “They don’t watch me as much. I’ve been going into the city alone for a few years now.”

Then he gestured for her to follow him to a corner of the room, next to an armoire. He took a jacket from it and drew it over his shoulders. Then he pushed a portion of wall that didn’t look any different from the rest of the wall, and it swung inward to reveal a secret passage with no light except for a slit of a window cut into the wall halfway down.

Narrowing her eyes at him, she said, “If you try anything, remember I’m the one with the knives.”

She kept a short distance between them as he led her down the hall and past a heavy tapestry into the same stairway she and Teo had used to escape last night.

Either the Hirai brothers or she would be lying dead in an alley at the end of this. Ryuu and Kouta had already had their chance at wealth and success. Now it was her turn.

16

The lights of Rose Court shone more than the stars in the sky. Aina kept close to Ryuu as they walked down the cobblestone streets lined with clothing stores, hairstylists, and high-end jewelry shops that would never accept her diamonds. Pedestrians walked leisurely past them, in and out of shops with their hands full of boxes and bags of purchases. Gold and silver electric lights hung brightly in every window, seeming to put her on display the deeper they walked into the city. Earlier, when Kohl had threatened her, had been like a dream, too terrible to be true. But now that she was back in the city, the danger became very real. She kept her face half hidden within her collar, but her eyes found every wanted poster of her, and she expected a Diamond Guard to jump out and handcuff her at any moment.