My blood went cold. “I want to kill him.”
“Then, get your ass in the fucking game.”
I looked down at Hiroko and the blood-soaked petals framing her face.
I have to leave you.
The thought made me sick. Made my stomach turn and my vision blur. But I couldn't carry her and fight. Couldn't protect my crew and mourn at the same time.
I'll come back for you. I swear it.
Hot rage roared through me.
I looked down at my guns and switched the mode toboth—bullets and fire. “I’m back. Let’s go.”
Hiro stayed on my side. “That’s what the fuck I’m talking about.”
The Scales used their knives to quickly tear through the curtain, slicing the velvet fast. Gold fringe snapped. The heavy fabric split with a violent rip.
We burst through the rupture.
The performers spotted us. Men and women in elaborate Kabuki costumes with painted faces frozen in exaggerated expressions of anguish and fury and wearing ornate robes in red, gold, and black.
They screamed when they saw us with our guns out and death in our eyes.
They scattered like startled birds into a blur of color and flapping robes.
One tripped over his own robe and quickly crawled toward the wings.
The audience saw us.
For one second, nobody moved. It was just a thousand faces staring with mouths open and hands in mid-air from clapping.
Then a woman screamed. All at once, the dam of calm broke.
People shoved each other away, climbed over seats, and trampled toward the exits.
We raced forward and hit the stage lights.
The whole theater opened up below us. Hundreds of seats. A panicking crowd. And somewhere in that chaos—Akiro.
The orchestra pit was directly below. Horrified musicians screamed and raced away. A cellist scrambled over his own chair and ran with his bow still in his hand.
We jumped off the stage.
The drop stole half a second of air from my lungs.
For a heartbeat, I saw the entire theater from above—red seats, rising smoke, gold balconies, bodies in motion—before gravity took me.
We hit the orchestra pit.
I landed on a violin. The neck shattered beneath my boots. The strings snapped upward.
Hiro crashed through a music stand beside me, breaking it under his feet.
Reo landed on a cello and put his foot through it.
The twins dropped in together—one's blade caught a stand on the way down and sent sheet music spiraling into the air like paper birds.
