We pulled up at an alley in Southside and took great pains to avoid as much of the crowded street as possible. Even in a district like this, the party was in full swing. All around the city were shouts and cheers for the festivities—the whole city seemed drunk. I itched to be a part of it, wished that my problems would just fade away, that I might wake up and find out this whole hellish experience was one awful nightmare.

But no, that wasn’t how to world worked. I didn’t get to roam around downtown with my friends, drinking the night away. We were on strict business. Suzaki handed James a water bottle; I watched the twitchy man lean against a brick wall. His eyes kept jumping between us like he judged each tick we made. But, other than that, he seemed happy enough. We were the guys who kept springing him from one fucked up situation to another. I imagined the thrill at least helped to break up the monotony of forced lab work.

Kayson’s phone kept blowing up. He got more and more calls from the gang and his contacts as word of what we’d done spread. They wanted to know why we attacked another Division in the middle of the Lantern Festival—I sighed, leaned back against the brick wall opposite James, and took out a cigarette.

Then the call came.

Kayson went stiff, looking at his phone and reading the number twice. There was a terse exchange of words as Kayson answered in brief and concise responses. He was directing the conversation towards a trade—James for my brother.

I heard Tristan mention “Who?” when Kayson used my brother’s name, which nearly sent me into enough of a rage spiral to stomp over and rip the phone out of Kayson’s hands and cuss out the bastard. How fucking audacious? He kidnapped Alex and never bothered to figure out his fucking name. I wanted to choke him out and bury his corpse in a waste pit.

Bruno slapped an arm over my shoulder and sighed. “Luca, is it possible I’m not enough?”

“Huh?” I asked the big guy; the sudden question utterly shattered my swelling anger. That and the fact I didn’t have the head space for this now, I was trying to eavesdrop on the details of the exchange for my brother.

“I worry. I see you, and I see Suzaki. And I think to myself, ‘as these two grow, they will become glorious warriors.’ Quod tu es, ego fui, quod ego sum, tu eris…”

I did a double-take, looking at Bruno like he’d grown a second fucking head. “What the hell does that mean?”

“What you are, I once was; what I am now, you also will be. It is a popular expression! Don’t give me such a strange look!” He looked away from me, and I could’ve sworn I saw red creep on his face. “I cannot shake the feeling that one day I’ll wake up and find that you two will have surpassed me—you’ve gotten further on the path. Suzaki’s capacity is… terrifying. If I am not the most glorious warrior among us, then what am I? Will I return to being alone again if I cannot keep up?”

“Bruno, ya knocked out three of those bastards pretty much single-handed. I think it’s safe to say that ya don’t gotta worry about me and Suzaki coming for your role now or ever. Personally, I aint find much interest in being a sponge to take hits. Much rather find a nice place to slide in during a fight. Where in the hell did ya even hear something like that anyway—“

Before I could puzzle over this new self-doubting side of the big guy, Kayson hung up the phone and cleared his throat to draw our attention.

Eve dug into him first. “We’re not giving up James are we?” I glanced at the man hunched near the wall as we made a deal about his future. He shivered in an alley. A bit of guilt ran through me as I asked myself if I’d be fine with condemning him back to his forced servitude if it meant I got Alex back. I was not too fond of the answer.

“We gotta if we need to; I’m sorry, James. We don’t have a lotta options here.” There was a sick twist in my gut. But if I were willing to commit to this solution, I’d look the man I was selling out in the eyes. I could blame Tristan if I wanted, but that didn’t seem right. This whole situation had spun out from my lack of thought and the dangerous risks I’d taken. No matter how I shook it, this shit load of trouble was largely my fault. James was another innocent that got dragged into it. I wished I could contact Romeo, but he was gone.

“No, Tristan is setting up a trap,” Kayson replied.

“Hahaha! There is no trap that can stop I!” Bruno slammed a fist against his chest and stepped forward. His stance and posture were almost… too much? I tilted my head. Now that I’d seen under the mask, it was slipping.

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“Really? I seem to recall you, Luca, and Eve getting your ass handed to you by the Getsu Sect this morning and sparking this whole dumpster fire. Or was that not a trap?”

That false swagger on Bruno dried up, and the big guy sighed, pulling back and looking at his feet. I didn’t like where this was going; we wouldn’t reach the finish line if morale kept dropping. Though, Kayson seemed too cheery for a guy who just declared our meeting to get my brother back was a trap.

“How do ya know he’s planning a trap? I mean, he’s a rat bastard, but…” My head was starting to ache. I wanted Alex safe and back with Ma in her home. Even if I never stepped foot in that house again. We might be family, and Ma may say she’d forgive me if I got him back, but the moment I looked in her eye in that busted home, I knew she’d never forget what I’d done.

That place might no longer be my home, but I’d be damned if I didn’t make up for the mistakes I brought to her door.

“Simple. It’s what I’d do. We’re the ones coming to him with the offer to the trade. We broke the rules of the Brass Kings to get our only bargaining chip, so if he lied to us to get us under control and his alchemist back, he’d attempt that first. There’s no reason not to try to get everything he can out of the situation. We’re at a disadvantage.”

“Then we’re riding into a trap?” I asked.

“We’re going to turn it around on him. I looked through that Lieutenant’s phone. Tristan’s been holding private meetings at a property in Seaside. We’re going to investigate it.”

“The fuck’d anyone in our gang be doing there?”I asked as Bruno let out a quick, nervous laugh, and I gave him a careful look. I could only hope he’d pull it together, but it made me nervous with Kayson mentioning Seaside. On an average day fucking around in that part of town was a recipe for getting the Sects to crack down on your gang. During the Lantern Festival? I’d supposed we’d already pissed off a ton of people—why not add to the list.

Kayson shrugged. “We’ll see. I’m not familiar with that part of the city. But since Tristan will distribute a squad or two at our meeting point for the trade—potentially go there himself—now is the perfect time to investigate this place and see what we find.”

“So ya set up a meeting, one where my brother will be, and we aint even going to go to it. All to see if this Seaside place we’re headed to is gonna pan out. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like we’re headed in the wrong direction.” I ran a hand through my hair. I wasn’t sure if I was just tired or Kayson had lost it. “We should go there and get my lil bro.”

“Luca, it’s a trap. I doubt he’d even go through the effort to bring your brother there if he intends to ambush us.”

“Ya don’t know he’s for sure going to double-cross the meeting. What if he wants this to end? Thinks he can outplay us in the long term?”

“I don’t know for sure.” Kayson cleared his throat. “I’ve learned from you that sometimes to win, you need to take risks. Take this risk with me. We’re betting he’s trying to string us along. If I’m wrong and we lose, I swear I’ll work out what to do next. But if I’m right? This might give us the answer to his next move.”

I let myself seethe in the anger and frustration. If I could rip Tristan apart with my bare hands, I’d have done it in a heartbeat. Those raw emotions were the only things keeping me going at this point since, long ago, my exhaustion had hit an all-time high. However, the energy drink helped a bit.

More fireworks popped in the distance, the smell of sulfur and smoke a damn blight on the city. An awful reek of booze that seemed to lace every corner made me want to go and shake a party-goer and yell at them to sober the fuck up. Each moment that ticked by was another that Alex was in the hands of a psycho, and despite all the trouble we kept getting in, I didn’t feel much closer to freeing him.

Looking at Kayson’s pleading face set me off. I screamed, grabbed a rock, and threw it as hard against a wall. “Fine! Fuck it!”

“We’ll get your brother back.” Kayson bowed his head. With that, Kayson began to outline what he knew of this place in Seaside. I couldn’t help but notice James shifting around in unease, which made sense since he was in the most precarious circumstances out of everyone.

After Kayson covered our information, he pulled out a pouch of a hundred spirit chips and set it in James’ palm. “This is to make up for our mistake earlier. Go, we never intended to take you and bring you into more trouble.”

James paused, weighing the pouch with surprise and distrust. He broke as he realized that Kayson was sincere. “Uhm. Thank you. But uh, one thing. That Tristan guy? Don’t piss him off, alright? He… He’s had me make some serious pills, the type I can’t mention in a place like this with the chance of the Immortals overhearing and coming down on us. Be… careful around him.” James gave a slight nod before half-sprinting away from us, almost as if to prevent us from asking our questions about that ominous statement.

I almost ran after any way to see what the fuck he meant with that, but Kayson stopped me. And went into annoying detail about how we should ‘not treat words like that lightly’ as if an Immortal would actually overhear a snippet of Street Rats conversing and actually give a fuck. No, they were far too busy either drinking the night away with other hotshots in their expensive homes or closed away cultivating like the freaky Daoist monsters in the movies.

But I’d trust Kayson, even if we just cut loose our bargaining chip. Maybe someone had to look at this from a moral standpoint, and I didn’t exactly have that internal compass in me at the moment, given the situation.