Lucanis yanked on his boots, jamming the heel down hard enough to split the leather. "Dagger," he barked, and Viago tossed it to him without looking. They were both moving fast.
No armour. No time. Steel at his hip, a throwing knife at each wrist. Viago was already at the balcony doors.
"She scaled the fucking wall," Viago muttered as he stepped out.
Lucanis followed. "Far too easy," he said grimly as they dropped to the grass below. "What's the point in having them if they're this easy to climb?"
Viago let out a quiet huff of amusement. "You sound like Caterina."
"I feel like Caterina."
They were off, boots barely touching the cobblestones as they cut across the quiet city. Rooftops offered the best view - shadows stretching long and deep, wind catching at their clothes, their breath puffing faintly in the cool air. Lucanis didn't speak again. He was furious. And beneath that fury, fear had begun to coil like a serpent.
She'd lied. Again. Or at least withheld. And whatever she was tangled in, it was escalating. Crossbow bolts through windows? Running off into the night like she wasn't theirs to protect?
If she got herself killed… Lucanis gritted his teeth and launched himself over the next alley gap. Up ahead, a flicker of movement, a silhouette dropping from a rooftop into the street below. Quick. Agile. Viago saw it too. They ran harder.
Over chimneys and gutters, vaulting between roofs like they were back on their own training grounds. Laundry lines snapped in their wake, and windows shuddered from their weight. But the figure was still distant. Too far.
Lucanis clenched a fist. They were losing time. Losing her.
Viago angled toward a lower roof to gain speed. "If this is what it looks like…"
"It's worse," Lucanis snapped.
Because this wasn't a mess and it wasn't just chaos. It was movement, planning. Someone was trying to tie loose ends by the look of it - and Starling was at the centre of it.
And she hadn't trusted them.
He shoved that thought down. Now wasn't the time. First, they caught up. Then they protected her. Then... then they dealt with it.
--
It wasn't supposed to be like this. Starling ducked, Vasha's blade hissing through the air where her head had just been. She rolled and came up on her feet, knives flashing in both hands, chest heaving.
"You fucking snake!" Vasha snarled, circling. "We were all watching Alis like idiots, but it was you. You took the deal."
Starling bared her teeth, deflecting a strike. "I haven't told a fucking soul, you daft bitch."
Vasha's eyes blazed. "Maybe not yet. But you will."
"I won't." Starling's foot slammed into Vasha's knee, forcing her off balance.
Their blades met again, steel sparking. Pain cracked across her ribs from a punch she hadn't seen coming. Then fire tore through her back - Vasha's dagger slicing deep. Too deep. White-hot agony bloomed, and her legs faltered.
She twisted, teeth clenched, and buried her knife in Vasha's thigh. Vasha screamed. Starling yanked her knife free and stabbed again, lower this time, into the muscle of her calf. Another cry and then Starling was slammed into the ground. The impact drove the air from her lungs. Jacek. His weight pinned her down, knee on her spine, pressing into the fresh wound.
"Get off me!" she hissed, slicing at him with the knife in her hand.
He swore as her blade cut into his arm but didn't move. "You stupid little-"
Bootsteps came sharp and rapid across the tiles above. Jacek's head snapped up. So did Vasha's from where she staggered against the wall, blood seeping from her leg. Starling didn't need to look. She knew that gait, that pace, that timing.
Lucanis and Viago.
Jacek bolted. Vasha limped into the dark, vanishing into a side street. Starling lay there a heartbeat longer, fingers sticky with blood, back burning like fire. Then she pushed herself up and ran. She couldn't let them find her like this. Couldn't let them see.
--
Blood.
There was too much of it. A dark pool soaked into the edges of the cobbles near the alley mouth. Another long smear across the stone as if someone had dragged themselves or someone else had. Drops led further down the street, uneven and erratic.
Lucanis crouched near the largest stain, fingers hovering but not touching it. He could smell it even before he saw it, sharp and coppery.
"Fuck," he muttered, straightening.
Viago was already tracking the drops like a hound on a scent trail, pausing to glance back at him.
None of that had better be hers. None of it.
He clenched his fists to ground himself, to not imagine her bent over, bleeding, gasping. He'd seen her bruised before, cut, worn down. But not like this. Not like this silence and blood and absence.
Viago flicked his gaze to the rooftops. "Rooftops," he said, voice low.
Lucanis nodded, and they scaled the wall easily, practised, like second nature. From up high the world spread out beneath them - crooked rooftops, twisting alleys, flickering lanterns in the streets. But no shadows moved, no silhouettes lingered. They were either gone or hiding well.
Lucanis turned slowly, scanning the dark horizon. She could have run anywhere. The bleeding would slow her if it was hers. And she would never go to the Hall like this. Not if she wanted to keep the truth buried. She didn't trust easily, not even them.
Viago stopped beside him. "Starling's."
Lucanis didn't argue. They moved fast, darting across the city like ghosts, rooftops whispering under their boots. A few windows lit the streets, but none showed signs of her. When they reached the little loft above the tavern, they took their place at the dormer window and peered in.
Empty. Lucanis let out a tight breath, jaw flexing.
"She's not here," Viago confirmed, voice clipped.
Lucanis's thoughts were already ahead. "Cade's."
Viago looked over.
Lucanis's lip curled slightly. "She trusts him."
He didn't like that. He didn't like the idea of her bleeding in some other man's hands, of anyone else seeing her that vulnerable. But Cade was loyal and steady. And she had gone to him before.
Lucanis didn't wait for a reply, he was already moving. They ran harder now, hearts hammering with too many questions. Blood like that meant something serious. A fight. An ambush. Or worse - something internal, something from their own. If someone inside the Crows had hurt her…
Lucanis didn't let the thought finish.
They reached Cade's building in minutes. Slipped down the side, staying in the shadows, and crept up the narrow stairwell. The windows of Cade's place glowed faintly. Lucanis stepped in front of Viago, motioning for quiet. He peered inside, and his gut twisted.
She was inside. Shirt off, sitting with her chest to the chair back, her spine a mess of torn skin and forming bruises. Cade knelt behind her with a stitching kit, hands bloody, face drawn. Lucanis caught a glimpse of her jaw clenched against the pain, but she was still. At least she wasn't dead. But she was wounded and not in their care.
Possessiveness surged like wildfire in his chest. He was already moving for the door.
--
She had never run so fucking fast in her life. Her lungs burned, blood pulsing in her ears like a war drum, and she didn't stop running until she reached the familiar door tucked behind the tailor's shop. Her knuckles hit it twice - sharp and fast - and Cade opened it immediately.
"What the fuck?" He blurted the second he saw her. "What happened?"
"Fucking Vasha and Jacek." The words came out clipped, breathless.
His expression darkened like a storm rolling in. "Get in."
She slipped past him, adrenaline the only thing keeping her upright. She didn't bother explaining further. Her back burned - blood had soaked through the back of her tunic, the fabric clinging wet and heavy.
Cade pulled a chair from the small table and turned it around. "Sit. That needs stitches."
She sank into it, her chin resting on the backrest, grateful for the chance to stop moving. He was already gathering clean water, bandages, a needle and thread. The little kit he always kept in the drawer, just in case. Maker, she loved him for being prepared.
"Shirt off," he said gently but firmly.
She winced as she peeled it over her head, still clutching it against her chest once it was off. Cool air licked the bloody mess of her back, making her shiver despite the heat rolling off her skin. Cade knelt behind her, carefully dabbing at the wound. She hissed as the water stung.
"We're going to have to do something about them," he said, voice low, controlled, seething.
Starling barely bit back a moan of pain as the needle pierced her skin. "I know," she rasped. "Jacek dropped on me out of nowhere. I got Vasha good, though. Twice."
His hands were steady, threading the gash shut. "We don't move fast; one of us is going to end up dead."
She didn't disagree. She also didn't want to talk about it. Not right now. Then the door slammed open. The sound of it cracked through the space like thunder. She twisted too fast to look, a new sting bursting down her back. Cade shot to his feet, bloody needle still in hand just as two shadows filled the doorway.
Lucanis. Viago. How the fuck-
Her blood turned to ice. They were both dressed for movement, and they were staring at her. At the bare skin of her back. The bruises. The still-open wound. Cade between them like some kind of protective wall.
Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. Lucanis's jaw ticked as he stepped inside, eyes locked on hers. Viago looked like someone had just punched the air out of him. Neither said a word. She clutched her tunic tighter against her chest. How did they know about this place? Had they followed her?
Shit.
--
The smell of blood hit first. Then he saw her - bare from the waist up, save for the tunic she clutched tightly to her chest. Her back was a mess of red and bruising, one long slice trailing like a map of violence down the left side of her spine. Cade's hands were stained from where he'd started stitching her up, but what clawed into Lucanis most was her face.
Startled and pale. Like a fox cornered in its own den. She came here. Not to them. Not to him.
Viago brushed past him without a word, jaw tight as he reached for the bloodied needle in Cade's hand. He didn't snatch it - but just barely. The look he gave Cade was blistering. Possessive and unapologetic.
Cade stepped back a half-step, blinking. Starling hadn't moved. She still hadn't said anything either. Her knuckles had gone white where she clung to her shirt.
Lucanis walked forward slowly and crouched before her, lowering himself until they were level. Until she would have to look at him. Until her world narrowed to only him.
"Time to come clean, little bird."
Her eyes flicked to Cade. To fucking Cade. Lucanis didn't flinch, but something burned low in his chest.
"I got into a fight," she said, voice soft.
"I can see that," he said, tone like silk over broken glass. "With whom, and why?"
"A disagreement," she said, still maddeningly calm. "With some colleagues."
He let out an amused breath, not because it was funny, but because of course she'd do this - dance the line of truth, never lying, never telling either. So careful. So guarded. And so damn close to ruined if she didn't stop.
He reached up, gently brushing her hair back from her face. The gesture was tender - intimate in a way that made her freeze.
"Tell me the truth so I can help you," he said softly. "You're in a mess. We can clean it."
Cade stirred. "Fuck, Star, we're done either way at this point."
Lucanis's gaze snapped to him, sharp as a blade. Star. He called her Star. That easy, familiar shape of it. That little nicknamed claim. Close enough to stitch her wounds. Close enough to bleed with her.
Lucanis turned back to her, his eyes dark and steady. "You had something to do with Linus, didn't you."
Not a question, not anymore. She deflated, the fight going out of her all at once. The resignation in her breath hurt more than the blood.
"You'll just hand me over to Caterina," she whispered.
Lucanis closed his eyes briefly, the betrayal of that assumption curling deep in his chest.
He exhaled. "You have my word that is not going to happen."
He opened his eyes again, letting her see the truth in them. The promise. The fury. The devotion. He was many things - but hers most of all.
"Tell me everything, Starling. Let me clean this up."
And Maker help whoever stood in his way when she did. The words landed like lead.
"Yes. We killed Linus and took that chest."
Lucanis didn't move, didn't breathe. Somewhere in his chest, something twisted hard. His stomach sank like a body dropped into the Waking Sea. She said yes. He'd known. Somewhere inside him, he'd known it already. But hearing her say it, watching her lips form the shape of the truth still hit like a blade to the gut.
He asked the question anyway. "Why?"
And she answered, calm, steady, like it was all so goddamn reasonable.
"Elihu gave us a contract, briefed us, sent us on our way. We didn't know it wasn't sanctioned. We killed him, we took the chest, left it at the drop-off point, came back to give Elihu the ring and get paid, and he wasn't there. We waited until the next day, and he never showed up. And then... everything else happened."
Lucanis's jaw flexed. The ache in his chest sharpened. Not just from betrayal - but because she had been used. Played. And now she sat in front of him with blood drying down her back and her eyes dull with resignation, like she still didn't believe he wouldn't sell her out.
"Elihu set you up," he said, low.
"We think so," she answered. "We broke into his place and he was gone. Things missing. We assume he ran."
He looked at her. It wasn't just pain in her eyes. It was shame. For hiding it, for being tricked. Maybe for dragging this mess to his doorstep. But it wasn't guilt for Linus. That was the thing. That was the part that struck something feral in Lucanis. She hadn't known. She hadn't meant to cross a line. She hadn't even known the line was there.
She was too smart to be careless. Too sharp to be fooled easily. And yet.
Viago's voice broke the silence. "Who else was involved?"
Starling's voice stayed even. "Us, Tenna, Ridge, Jacek, Alis, Vasha, Brin, Neri, and Ledo."
Lucanis stared. Ten. Ten young Crows. Ten bodies wrapped up in the death of a protected diplomat, a stolen cache of artefacts, a witness. A brewing storm Caterina could already smell.
"And who did this to you?" Viago asked softly, still working the needle through her skin, slow and careful.
Starling didn't hesitate. "Vasha and Jacek."
Lucanis's breath left him like a punch. He stood slowly, needing to move, because if he didn't, he might snap. They had touched her. Cut her. Marked her. His hands clenched at his sides. Possessiveness howled low in him, wrapped in something deeper and darker; he couldn't shake it if he tried. She had been bleeding - bleeding - and she'd gone to Cade. Not to them. And still. Still. He would burn down the Hall for her. Lucanis stepped forward, close enough that her knees brushed his legs.
Viago didn't speak. He just listened. The needle moved in practised rhythm through her skin, each stitch precise despite the weight building in his chest. Her blood stained his fingertips - warm, sticky, and far too much of it.
Lucanis stepped in close, towering over her like a dark sentinel. "Why are you all turning on each other?"
Starling exhaled, ragged and tired. The truth, when it came, was low and unadorned. "Alis believes Caterina's offer of leniency. Vasha, Jacek, and Brin think she might take it. They want to... silence her."
Viago's hand stilled for the briefest moment before continuing, the thread tugging gently through her flesh. Silence wasn't a metaphor with Crows. It was a burial.
"The rest of us disagree," she added. "But they're getting paranoid. They're clearly following us now. They saw me with you and thought I was taking the deal."
Lucanis let out a sharp breath, his hand brushing lightly against her hair again as if grounding himself. Viago said nothing, but he felt the burn of it in his chest. The ache of it. She thought they would hand her over. She thought he would hand her over.
She had come to Cade. Let him clean her wounds. Trusted him with her pain. All while Viago had been sitting in the estate wondering if she was with someone else, wondering if she was pulling away - not because she was cheating, but because she thought they might betray her.
That hurt more than her absence. More than the wound he was stitching. They hadn't earned her trust - not fully. But they would.
Viago swallowed, kept his voice smooth, almost too smooth. "And what? They think you'll betray them because you spent the night with us?"
Starling didn't answer. She didn't need to. They all knew what paranoia could do to frightened young killers with too much to lose and no way out. She was already bleeding because of it. They could have killed her with that crossbow bolt.
Viago tied off the last stitch and sat back, blood on his hands and fury curling beneath his ribs. He met Lucanis's eyes.
"This is going to spiral."
Lucanis nodded grimly. "It already has."
Viago looked back to her - shirtless, wounded, still gripping the edge of the chair like she was waiting for the blow to fall. The distrust still lingered in the corners of her eyes. Viago could see it plainly now, etched beneath the pain, beneath the stubborn way she held herself upright despite the fresh line of stitches across her back. Despite how pale she was, how tightly she gripped the edge of the chair like it was the only thing holding her together.
He wiped his hands clean on a cloth, stained dark with her blood, and asked quietly, "Why didn't you come to us?"
Starling's gaze cut to his. Flat. Cool. Unamused.
"To the Fifth Talon," she said, like the words tasted sour, "and the First Talon's grandson?"
Viago didn't flinch, but her tone was sharp enough to draw blood. Like she couldn't think of anything more suicidally stupid than that.
He leaned back slightly, letting the cloth drop into the bowl with a soft plop, water blooming red around it. He studied her - not just the bruising or the stiff lines of pain, but the guarded steel behind her expression. She thought they were dangerous. Not in the way everyone else did. No, Starling knew exactly what kind of dangerous they were. She just didn't trust them to use that power on her behalf.
"You really think we'd turn you in?" He asked, softer now. So very tired.
Starling's lips twisted into a tired half-smile, something dry and self-deprecating. "Yes," she said, tone flat and almost amused. "I doubt I'm so good in the sheets it eroded your loyalty to the Crows."
Cade let out a snort behind her, trying - and failing - to stifle it. Even Starling's mouth curved further for a heartbeat before it flattened again. Viago stared at her. So that's what she thought this was. Some pleasant affair she was indulging in until it cost too much. A gamble she'd never actually thought she could win. A game played with people she still believed served something bigger, colder, and sharper than she could ever be.
"You're such a little shit sometimes," Viago said mildly.
Lucanis made a low noise of agreement behind her. But Viago didn't look away from her. He wasn't smiling anymore.
"Do you really think I'd care about Caterina's opinion if it meant losing you?"
That made her still. Not visibly, not much, but Viago had spent too long watching her to miss it. The shift in her breath. The way her eyes flicked to his for just a second too long before darting away again. She was always ready to run, even now.
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "We told you we were keeping you. We didn't say that lightly, no matter how you chose to take it."
Lucanis shifted in front of her, silent but present, his hands still curled loosely over his knees. The look in his eyes was as dark as Viago had ever seen it. They were a long way past playful seduction and quiet loyalty. This was territory where promises were blood-wrapped, and survival was conditional on faith. Viago leaned forward and rested his hand on her thigh. She didn't flinch, but she didn't lean into him either.
"We'll take care of it," he said.
He didn't need to look at Lucanis to know they were in agreement. There'd be no debate, no delay. Starling had bled for this mistake already, he would make sure she didn't have to bleed again.
His gaze cut to Cade. The boy looked stiff, his hands still damp with Starling's blood, her needle and thread lying forgotten on the table.
"Get her a shirt," Viago said. It wasn't a suggestion.
Cade nodded once, standing and heading to do just that. Viago's eyes returned to her, blood drying at her ribs, at her spine, lips parted just slightly as if unsure whether to speak or stay silent. Her gaze bounced between him and Lucanis like she still hadn't decided if she'd made a mistake.
"You both stay here," Viago told her, quiet but firm. "Until we come back."
Her brow lifted, not in defiance but wariness. Like she wasn't sure what coming back meant. He gave her a long look, then stepped back, drawing in a breath through his nose. The scent of iron and cheap soap clung to the room.
Lucanis was already at the door. Viago paused just long enough to glance over his shoulder again, fingers brushing the hilt of his dagger.
"She trusted the wrong people," he murmured once they were outside. "She's not going to make that mistake again."
Lucanis didn't answer, but the look in his eyes said enough. Between the two of them, they'd find Jacek. Vasha. Maybe more. And when they were done, the rest of the Crows would learn exactly where Starling belonged. At their side. Under their protection.
And woe to the bastards who thought otherwise.