Ria sagged against the wall. Too close. The assassin looked vaguely familiar but she couldn’t quite place him. There were far too many in the Guild for them all to know each other. What she could see was that he had that focused intensity of the die-hard assassins who lived to kill.
This was her life now. Running. Hiding. Changing disguises. She wrapped her arms around her middle. Then she thought of Zayn. The taste of him, the feel of his strong arms around her. Her heart ached.
The elevator slowed and when the doors opened, she straightened. Time to think about survival, not the things she could never have.
She stepped out into a giant glass-encased room. Although it wasn’t the tallest building in the district, it still showed death-defying views of the neon city below. She headed toward the large balcony. Outside, a brisk wind ruffled her hair.
The ding of the elevator had her turning. The assassin exited. As he strode toward her, he pulled a sword from the scabbard on his back. Now she recognized him. One of Master Ronin’s apprentices.
Ria looked over the railing. It was seventy stories down to the hectic street below. She looked back at the assassin.
He followed her onto the balcony. “You are a traitor to the Guild.”
“The Guild betrayed us all. Didn’t you hear about the regeneration lab? How you, how we all, were created?”
The assassin’s clean-cut face remained unchanged. He sliced his blade through the air. “You are also the murderer of my master.”
Okay, she probably wasn’t going to get through to this one. She wrapped her fingers around the balcony railing.
When the assassin lifted his sword, she jumped onto the railing and crouched like a gargoyle. When he swiped the deadly blade at her, she leaped out into space.
The wind rushed past her as she fell. She touched the button on the strap of her backpack. Small, aerodynamic wings exploded from the pack. Her descent slowed, but was still terrifyingly fast. She used the wings to guide her plunge, eyeing a patch of concrete that would make the best landing spot.
The ground rushed up at her much faster than she would have liked. Her feet hit and she somersaulted. The impact jarred through her and pain burst in her shoulder. But she rolled back onto her feet and pressed the button to retract the flight wings.
She didn’t know if her hunter could see her, but she tossed a jaunty salute upward, and then blended into the crowd.
After three blocks, she ducked into a side alley. She needed to get to the space port and catch her ship out of here. The more distance she put between her and Zayn, the safer he and his family would be. The more distance between her and the Guild, the safer she would be.
A movement in the shadows had her slowing. Two dark robed figures pulled out of the darkness.
Great. She yanked her blades from under her skirt. These two didn’t waste time with words. The taller one came at her holding blades of his own.
Steel met steel. Ria pivoted, ducked, and swung upward. Her blade sank through fabric and into the flesh at his side. With a hiss, he spun, swiping out with his own knife.
She felt the kiss of the metal on her bare arm. She ignored the pain, readying herself. The assassin moved in again. She jumped upward, planted a foot in his belly, and used it to launch herself up. She brought her second blade down, straight into the back of his neck.
He fell to his knees, a gurgle escaping his throat. She leaped off him and landed in a crouch.
Before she could draw a breath, a thin, silver garrote wire flashed in front of her.
The second assassin yanked back. Ria managed to get two fingers between the wire and her skin, saving herself from a quick beheading.
“I will kill you,” the woman whispered. “Just let go. End your miserable existence.”
Ria’s existence was pretty miserable right now. But she wasn’t giving up. The Guild had already taken her life not once, but twice. She sure as hell wasn’t making it a third time.
But as the female assassin yanked back harder, one of Ria’s fingers slipped off the wire. The metal dug into her last finger and part of her neck. Blood started a steady flow down her skin.
She couldn’t hold the woman off much longer.
With her free hand, Ria tried to reach back and grab the assassin. But she was well-trained and kept out of reach.
The blood made Ria’s fingers slippery. In those moments, she thought again of Zayn. His lean, handsome face and his voice as he told her he loved her.
Her hand slipped. She cried out as the wire met the flesh of her neck.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
