Xonier defeated me in the last match. I gave it my all, but that dude is massive and—quite frankly—he took it easy on me. Which meant nearly breaking my ribs when the blasted giant sat on me. I nearly blacked out before I could tap.

Tonight we’re going back underground. I needed to search the underground for the Orb. The Opes… a sick feeling rose in my gut. It was possible nothing would come of it… right?

Heck, I sure hope not. If it were in the Red Witch’s hands⁠—

I shook myself. I couldn’t think like that. I had too much on my plate to be stealing worries from other places. Tonight, I’d go find Lycus and the Opes.

Simple as that.

----------------------------------------

* * *

It wasn’t as simple as that. Of course not.

Arin may be fine with me gallivanting off into the black unknown… but he wasn’t sending me alone. He was too busy with the trials, so when I tried to sneak out, my four guards were waiting on me.

Blasted bond. Now he knew when I was planning stuff. I’d never get away with anything. Ever.

We couldn’t mentally speak like Ran and I—the bond was too new, still fragile—but he sure as heck could tune in to my emotions, and mine to his, even when he was up in his castle battling political stuff I wanted no say in and I was down here trying to sneak away from my snoring family so they wouldn’t worry.

A smile came to my face remembering the night we had. Papa was home. And although dinner had a different charge to it than when I was a kid—Papa spaced out sometimes, and certain things would trigger reactions in him which made his eyes go dark and muscles rigid—but it was still good just to have him home. He and Jack pulled a prank on Momma that had her picking pine needles from her hair the rest of the evening. She leveled Papa with a glare that promised retribution while swatting Jack’s hind end with her wooden spoon. Jack ran around, laughing. He’d let her get close enough to swat him and then run off again, wiggling his hind end.

By the end, I about died with laughter and Jill was red in the face with tears streaming down her cheeks.

It was like times of old, with new twists. But I wasn’t going to make the mistake of wallowing in the past so much that I missed today. Ran had taught me that.

And I had made a promise to Jill long ago that I would find Lycus. There was that boy, there at the end of our race from the tunnels when Papa returned and Arin nearly died, who looked an awfully lot like the kid I’d seen with Darshius when The King banished him and his kind from this place for the time being. They had found a way back, of course. But the boy--who I now knew to be Lycus--had wanted to come to The King. I couldn’t get his look of longing out of my mind.

And Jill loves him.

She was young. It could be a fad. Or it could be real. I sure as heck was going to find him to put them together and make sure it was real. And if it was, then great. But if he thinks about hurting her, then I’ll kill him myself—or maybe I’ll let Ran play with him for a bit first.

I'd be happy to, Ran whispers.

A tiny smile tries to cross my lips, even as a cough from Arin's welcome party brings me back to the present.

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The guards stand before me, all four of them with identical looks of mischief.

Sir Rowen has a grin on his freckled face, green eyes twinkling. “Think ya gonna be leavin’ without us, eh?”

“Can’t leave us out of the fun,” Sir Beck said, his eyes twinkling as his white beard stood in stark contrast against his dark skin in the moonlight.

Madame Abbey merely stared at me, and Sir Jameson never took his eyes off our surroundings except to send me a look that was one-part smug and two-parts amused.

“Arin?” I asked them.

“Yep. He knew you’d try something tonight so sent us to where you sneak out,” Sir Rowen said, his grin widening until Abbey slapped him on the back of the head.

“You’re gonna make her find another way out if you keep talking, you dunce,” she said.

Rowen stared at her. “Huh?”

Abbey growled low in her throat and threw her hands in the air. “I’m stuck with a bunch of boys in men bodies,” she hissed.

She glanced up and caught my eye. I couldn’t help the broad grin stretching across my lips. “Finally, a woman who understands my pain,” I say with a wink.

Her cheeks tinge red and she looks away. My grin slowly dies. What’d I say to make her shut down? I cough to try and cover up my awkwardness and look at the four of them. “If I order you to stay, will you?” I ask.

“No,” Sir Jameson says, his voice low but strong.

“Prince Arin would kill us. Slowly,” Rowen says, shaking like Ran when she gets a whiff of peppermint.

I huff out a breath. “Fine. But two of you are staying here to protect my family while I’m gone.”

Jameson and Abbey split off to flank me while Rowen and Beck slide back into the shadows. I stare between them.

“You won’t know we’re here,” Madame Abbey said, still not able to meet my eyes for long.

“Wha—?” They stinkin’ planned that!

Jameson has a tiny smile that reaches his eyes, but he immediately looks away.

“Have fun with the silent ones, Aria!” Rowen says. “Ow! What was that for?”

“While she is in the cloak, she is Guardian, not Aria,” Beck says, his deep voice barely discernible as they walk back into our yard for patrols.

“But you just called her Aria! Why can I not call her that but you can?”

Another thwack followed by another ow.

I look back at Sir Jameson and Madame Abbey and try to stop myself from rubbing my forehead when neither of them meet my gaze.

So I walk off into the night, daring them to keep up.

When I make it to the library, my two shadows flank me. I groan, rubbing my forehead. “Stay silent and don’t engage unless something attacks—” I cut off, my ears picking up a scream.

Both of them stare at me and then turn to watch the corners of the alleyways. Smart. But this scream was farther than that.

“Please stop, please!” a man’s voice says, on the cusp of desperation.

“Detour,” I say, and then I take off at a sprint. This is Mid, so typically there are patrols to stop this type of stuff from happening. Most times, I patrolled Lower to keep the riffraff down where there wasn’t many patrols.

I skid to a stop outside a jewelers shop. “Please, this is my only livelihood⁠—”

“Shut up, or you may lose your life,” a high pitched voice says, a tiny tremble in the words.

I dart around the side of the building, seeing a second story window. Most shops like this have a living quarters upstairs and shop downstairs. His family—if he has any—should be upstairs. Also, who expects an attack from upstairs? Most patrols would hear and come in the front or back door.

A hand on my shoulder makes me flinch and I have a knife poised at their kidney.

“Where?” Jameson says, not even glancing at the blade I know he feels pricking beneath the plate armor.

I retract my arm but leave the black blade in my hand. My mind goes blank. I’m not used to working with people.

“Triangle? Pin them in the middle? Distraction?” Madame Abbey says.

Her options help my brain unfreeze. “Jameson, mess with their heads. Abbey, check for any family, get them to safety.”

They nod. Jameson melts into the darkness. Abbey goes around back. I climb up the side of the building to the window, flicking the lock up by jamming my knife beneath the seal while I cling to the side of the building like a Bamshee.

The window screeches as it raises, but that’s when the first scream begins below, covering the little screech of my window. I grin, knowing I sent the right man for the job.