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Back Diamond City Save as PDF
Contents ( 54)
  1. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  2. PROLOGUE
  3. SIX YEARS LATER
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
  16. 13
  17. 14
  18. 15
  19. 16
  20. 17
  21. 18
  22. 19
  23. 20
  24. 21
  25. 22
  26. 23
  27. 24
  28. 25
  29. 26
  30. 27
  31. 28
  32. 29
  33. 30
  34. 31
  35. 32
  36. 33
  37. 34
  38. 35
  39. 36
  40. 37
  41. 38
  42. 39
  43. 40
  44. 41
  45. 42
  46. 43
  47. 44
  48. 45
  49. 46
  50. 47
  51. 48
  52. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  53. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  54. CONTENTS

She glared at him. “They’re not for me.”

“Then they’ll work for whoever you sell them to,” he said with a wink.

Smiling, she dropped the diamonds into a hidden pocket of her jacket and walked away—tossing her bloodstained scarf over her shoulder as she did.

Anyone except a certified jeweler caught with a rough diamond would be executed in the street, as was the law since the war. And if her boss ever found out about her diamond sales, he’d kill her for not giving him a cut of the earnings. He’d saved her and turned her from a helpless street kid into a feared killer, but she wanted more.

This was her one way to dupe him in a city he owned through blood and bribery. He held freedom over her head. Telling her one more kill, one more bribe, one more job, until she was free to be her own boss.

“One more diamond behind your back,” she whispered, her breath turning white in front of her.

When the Blood King had sent her on her first kill years ago, Aina had made a promise to herself and to all the kids without a roof who still yearned to stand on top of the world. She would be the one everyone feared, the girl who made politicians, slavers, gang bosses, and mercenaries tremble.

She would be the Blood King’s equal. And one day, she would rank even higher than him.

2

Her next steps brought her back into Kosín as the sky shifted from pale blue to navy. She passed grime-covered, block-style apartments, then took narrow roads north of the Center until she reached a hill leading into Rose Court.

When dealing in diamonds, there was a pecking order not to be disturbed. She collected the goods from the mine and sold them to various vendors, who later distributed them at fair prices to magic practitioners through gangs, mercenaries, and kids with hunger in their eyes. Out of the roughly one hundred jewelry shops in Kosín, only one store at any given time would buy the uncut diamonds she carried. It rotated every one to four days, and the chosen shop was only announced through whispers spoken in dark alleys. Luckily, she was always down the right alley and knew exactly where to go.

The lights grew brighter, and laughter and gossip reached her ears as she ascended the hill, a stark difference from the whispers and shouts littering the south of the city. Between two buildings ahead, she could make out the glint of electric lights from the mansion-dotted hills in the distance. Beyond that still, the Tower of Steel stretched toward the clouds, all black spires and forbidding height under the light of both moons.

People said the Mothers had created the moons, one red for Kalaan and the other silver for Isar, to illuminate the path to happiness and light, but Aina thought they might be too shrouded by pollution to do any good.