That’s not possible, is it?I asked Auwei.
Auwei?
Auwei?
But she wasn’t there.
I tried veering, but couldn’t.
Hale laughed. “I never thought my gift that much use, until I was assigned as an assassin. Then… it made things a lot easier.” He grinned at me. “Now, keep quiet and follow me if you want your sister to live,” he said, hurrying down the path toward the edges of the estate. We came to a wall and… a gate. Not the one we’d come in through, but perhaps a servants’ entrance? It looked much smaller, meant for pedestrian traffic, not carriages.
“Open that and step out,” Hale said to me.
He was moving too quickly, everything was happening too fast. I needed to free Dove, but I didn’t know what to do. I had fought people bigger than me before, besting Ant a few times while sparring, but not every time. And this man was huge and still holding my sister. I couldn’t do anything or he’d kill her.
Think! I demanded of my own mind.
I fumbled with the gate for a long moment, not really sure what I was doing before realizing it needed a key and I didn’t have one.
“Bash it open,” Hale said.
I wanted to say:you do it! But instead, I just took all my anger and frustration and planted a nice hard side-kick on the latch area. With a screeching snap, it swung open.
I hoped someone had heard that.
Wait.
“Midnight?” I whispered.
No response.
“What was that?” Hale said. “Never mind. Move out into the lane, now!”
I did.
But I’d only taken half a step when I was grabbed from the side, pulled by one large man — though thankfully nowhere near as large as Hale — into a group of three brutes waiting in the alley. Beyond the estate were the huts and hovels of a slum at the fringes of the capital. What a disparity from the riches we’d just left, but I wasn’t really pondering that. I struggled for a moment before Hale was through the gate. “Stop fighting or she dies!” he hissed.
Reluctantly, I did.
Blackened, bloody bones in The Deepest, Darkest Pits! What could I do?
“Midnight?” I whispered again. But again… nothing.
“No, it’s not midnight, it’s not even— That doesn’t matter. Listen up, as I’m only going to say this once. You’ve escaped death too many times already. You’re going to submit and let these men kill you. If you do, you die quickly and I’ll let Dove go. If you don’t, you die painfully and I’ll also take my time with my dear little Dove here. I’ll do things you can’t imagine before she finally dies screaming and alone. So, what will it be?”
I was in full-fledged panic. I didn’t want to die, and my spirit-gift wasn’t going to let that happen either. But I couldn’t let my sister die either!
“I submit!” I said, stilling my body. I wasn’t submitting, but I needed a moment where he thought he’d won, to think.
Think!
The one brute who had an iron grip on my arm pulled me back, so my back was against the wall of the estate. Another brute grabbed my left arm and made sure I wasn’t going anywhere as the third pulled out a long knife. My arms were pinned, but I could kick out at that third man to keep him back. Yet, if I did, I didn’t know what would happen to Dove. I looked around frantically, hoping Midnight would show up. Instead, what I saw, was not good. A carriage was parked a little way down this lane, dark in the night, but I could see at least two shadowy figures around it.
That’s where Hale was heading, still holding Dove, who struggled in vain.
Hale looked away for just a moment as the man with the knife stabbed at my chest.
I kicked hard up between that man’s legs. He grunted and doubled over, but not before sliding the knife into my shoulder. I think he’d been aiming for my heart, but he’d shifted when I’d kicked him.
