Fifteen minutes ago.

Glass smashed. Sasha reached through the shattered door, turned the knob, and let them in to the building.

“I thought that was bulletproof glass,” Arelia muttered.

“It was.” Sasha plucked a few shards out of his knuckles as he led the way inside. A few drops of black liquid welled up in the slits. He clenched his fist. Stretched wide, steel bones showed through the cuts. Open. Shut. This time, the slits held, sealed by the black liquid. He wiped away the excess fluid and stretched, looking around the building.

Arelia followed him in, tense. Every muscle in her body stretched taut. Any second now, someone’s going to walk around the corner and find us. “Come on, let’s move. The stairwell’s right this way.”

Sasha nodded. He looked around him, curious.

Arelia turned as well. There was nothing particularly outstanding about this floor. Not everyone in Regis Tower belonged to Regis Group, and in fact, a good half of the building was populated by ordinary businesses. Mottled white ceiling tiles blocked out the ceiling, and generically-patterned rug repeated endlessly underfoot. Pale lights turned the white sheetrock sickly. In the distance, cubicles partitioned off a large space.

She shook her head and grabbed Sasha’s arm. “Come on.”

Sasha yanked free, but obediently followed her.

She glanced left and right, then ducked through a solid metal door. A concrete stairwell like any other concrete stairwell greeted her: metal handrail, spotty paint, nameless stains, the faint smell of old cigarette smoke. She stared up the shaft. Stairs spiraled up, up, endlessly rounding the square shaft. Thinking of the long walk ahead of them, she sighed.

Sasha walked out into the center of the shaft and raised his arm. “Let’s go.”

“Go where?” Arelia asked, furrowing her brows. She walked out beside him and looked up. Is there some rope he sees or something? A magical invisible elevator?

He frowned back at her. “Up.”

She blinked. After a moment, she realized what he wanted, and sighed harder. “Will it even fit?”

Sasha nodded.

Arelia flicked out her wings and hopped to test. It was a close fit, but when she held her wings at their tightest spread, she could manage it.

“This is stupid. We should just walk.”

Nodding, Sasha walked over to her and raised his arm again.

She took ahold of him, shaking her head. “One mistake, and we’re both ketchup. Splat. It’s not that much faster, anyways. It’ll only take a few minutes to walk.”

“Go.”

“I hate that I’m doing this. I just want to register that. Oh, and if we die, it’s your fault.”

Sasha nodded impatiently.

Arelia sighed one final time, then lit her engine and took off.

The rocket roared in the tight concrete shaft, echoing off the walls over and over again. Arelia winced, but didn’t dare try to cover her ears. In her arms, Sasha clung on grimly, eyes narrowed to slits.

Stairs rushed by. An office worker screamed and dropped his files as they passed. The backdraft from the flightsuit sent his papers flying. Like snowflakes, they drifted down the shaft.

A blaze of flame and gold, Arelia blasted upward. Eyes locked on the tiny square of ceiling she could see far above, she locked her entire body and held completely still. A single twitch, and she could smash into the stairs. Her heart raced. Her breath came short. Further. Further. Just a little further.

“Thirtieth floor,” Sasha muttered in her ears, over her suit’s radio.

Startled, Arelia flinched. She hurtled sideways, suddenly off-balance. The railing rushed up at her. There was no time to think. She released Sasha and grabbed the railing, simultaneously cutting her engine. Momentum flung her into a wild somersalt around the bars, legs whipping after her. Her back slammed into the railing. Arms wrenched behind her, Arelia bounced, let go of the railing, and plopped onto the stairs, legs sprawled wildly.

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Arelia stared at the wall, stunned. Lights flashed in her vision. She blinked and rubbed her eyes.

All at once, her eyes flew wide. She stared at her empty hands, then jumped up and leaned over the railing, half-expecting to see a blood splatter on the floor far below. “Sasha!”

There was nothing. No blood splatter, no small silver-footed boy.

A hand tapped her on the shoulder. Arelia whirled.

Sasha stood there, vaguely bored but no worse for the wear. “You dropped me.”

“Sorry,” Arelia said, ducking her head.

He shrugged emotionlessly. “We’re here.”

She glanced at the wall. A blocky three and zero stood out in white paint beside a metal door. There was no window, no way to see in. She drew a deep breath, but couldn’t steady herself. Her hands trembled. Her knees shook. This is it. This is the last chance to back out.

“How’d you talk in my radio? You aren’t wearing any equipment,” Arelia asked, more to distract herself than anything.

“It’s a secret,” his voice crackled over her radio.

She glared at Sasha. Deep blue eyes stared innocently back.

One last deep breath. She closed her eyes and pushed the door open.

To her surprise, no one shouted, pointed a gun, or even noticed their arrival. The door opened to an empty hallway. Faint shouts and the sound of bustling echoed down the corner. She glanced left and right, then moved to the wall. Pressing herself up against it, she peered around the corner.

“Clear,” Sasha said. He pushed ahead of her, mechanical feet padding over the thin carpet. He walked confidently down the center of the hallway, good hand held slightly behind him.

Arelia followed hesitantly. Every noise made her jump. Every flicker of light made her whirl. The innocent, familiar creak of the carpet sounded loud as lions’ roars. Just a day ago, this was my home. Now, if anyone sees me, I’m as good as dead. An intruder in her own home, Arelia hugged herself, uncomfortable.

Ahead, Sasha peeked around the corner and stopped dead. His eyes went wide, blank as a deer in the headlights, as if he couldn’t comprehend what he saw. Curious, Arelia crept up beside him. She leaned around the corner and froze, the same as Sasha.

The hallway opened up into what was meant to be an office space ahead. The space had long been used for storage, and even now, boxes piled in the corners, gathering dust. Dead ahead, edging off the office space, tinted windows gazed down on the city. The hallway swung to the left, toward her father’s office, and to the right, into smaller offices. Three men hustled around the room, moving boxes or searching for items, but that wasn’t what had caught Sasha’s eye.

A boy stood in the center of the room. Motionless, he might have been a statue if not for the way his hair shifted under the breath of the air conditioner. Dark blue eyes stared into the middle distance. Silky black hair hung short around his face. Pitch black clothes hugged a slender frame, contrasting pale skin.

Dumbfounded, Arelia could only stare. Another Sasha?

No. This one bore no silver limbs. His hair was shorter, too, and there was an iciness in his gaze that was missing from Sasha’s. A deadness in his eyes, as if there was nothing inside him. No soul, no heart.

If he sees me, he will kill me. It wasn’t a question. Without being told, without knowing anything, she knew. This boy was an unsheathed blade, sharp and cold. He cut without asking and fought without knowing why. Nor would he care if he knew. Death hung around him like a cloak, a stillness in the air that defied life itself.

Her hands shook harder than before. Move. Back away. Get out of here. She couldn’t. Her limbs defied her, frozen in place. I have to run. Go. Go! Move! Nothing. No movement.

“You came.”

The boy spoke with Sasha’s voice, even and calm, not a hint of emotion, neither happy, angry, nor sad. Arelia jumped, startled out of her paralysis. Her skin crawled. She glanced over. Did he find me? Does he see me?

Sasha stood in the center of the hallway, openly facing the other boy. He put his hurt arm between himself and the boy, as if the sling was a shield. His other hand hung behind him, hidden from the boy’s sight. “And here you are.”

Although Sasha had never spoken with much emotion, his voice now was equally dead as the other boy’s. If Arelia closed her eyes, she couldn’t tell which one was speaking. In all aspects, their voices were nearly identical. Not a single note separated them.

The men whirled. Guns appeared in their hands. “Stop right there! Hands up!”

Arelia’s heart lurched, and she barely choked back a scream, hands clasped over her mouth. With the visor in between, it didn’t help much. What are you doing, Sasha? They’re going to kill you!

Neither of the boys paid the men any attention. Their gazes locked onto one another, as if no one else existed.

The boy scoffed. “I was going to look for you, but Three was right: I didn’t need to bother. You’d come to us. Once an assassin, always an assassin.”

Arelia gasped despite herself, then clasped her hands tighter over her visor.

For the first time, the boy’s eyes left Sasha. He glanced at the corner she hid behind dismissively, as if he’d always known she was there. “The little Torre. Why did you think he came?”

Indignation sparked in Arelia’s heart at being called ‘little’ by someone younger and smaller than her, but fear swallowed it up in the next moment. She hesitated, but couldn’t wait any longer. Sasha’s in danger. I have to help, however I can. Maybe I can distract him. “We came to talk to my father, not kill him.”

The boy laughed. “Is that true, Four?”

Sasha said nothing.

“Sasha, tell him,” Arelia insisted. It was true. It was true, wasn’t it?

“You came to cut the head off the snake. Tell her.”

Sasha reached behind his back to the sling. Razors glimmered for a second, then vanished into his palm. His eyes never left the other boy’s. “I came to kill Laredo.”