Anna and Sebastian moved up alongside me.
“Wagons and electricity?” I queried.
“Most underworld realms are like this,” Sebastian said, keeping his voice low. “Tech costs money and requires cooperative infrastructure. The underworld’s wealth be held by only a few, and cooperation is not their mandate. In fact, they seem to prefer to keep things simple.”
I contemplated that as I scanned the street. There weren’t many residents walking it at this time of night. By the scents wafting off the stone sidewalk, they were a real mix of species.
“Is it strong enough to track along the street?” Sebastian asked.
“We’ll see,” I said, adjusting my hood before stepping out.
It was more difficult, but the trail was still relatively fresh, and the foot traffic light. I lost it every time it crossed the street, something it did so often that it had to be deliberate.
They knew, of course, that we would come after them. You can’t take someone’s kids and not expect the wrath of hell to descend upon you.
They’d traveled through the central commercial district, something that gave me pause. We knew they were shifters, because Anna had seen their naked hides through Trix’s eyes. But they must be clothed now, or they’d have raised a stir wandering along the streets. And the pepper scent was much weaker than it had been.
Sebastian and Anna hugged the shadows as I cast along the street. Faint. The trail was getting faint. Unless I could identify their real scent and follow that, we might lose them.
I kept following the pepper, and it led us down a narrow alley behind houses that appeared largely derelict. The lane eventually intersected with three others to form a courtyard strewn with debris. In the center was an ancient well.
The scent led to the well and ended. By the plethora of other smells around the edges, the well was still used by the locals as a water source. The stones were wet, as though someone had recently hauled water up. And washed.
I cast around, increasingly frantic, for any sign of the pepper scent, but it was gone.
“They washed it off,” Sebastian surmised as I circled back to them. He didn’t sound surprised.
“More than that,” I growled. “For me not to pick up what they are, they had to have disguised their scent again afterward.”
“How would they do that?” Anna asked.
“They likely dressed in clothes that smell like the locals,” I ground out. How were we going to find them now?
Sebastian’s eyes glowed silver. “This be no opportunistic caper.” His voice was hoarse with contained rage. “They planned this out. Every detail.”
I stared at him. He was right, of course. The entire operation had gone so damned smoothly. “Just how much are those girls worth?” I asked.
The Bellati’s long mouth twisted. “Enough.”
“Even so, I can’t believe Talakai would do this.” Anna’s frustration echoed in her voice.
“He had more reason than most,” Sebastian said. “He be using the academy to hide from an underlord who has a contract out on him. With what he gets for the twins, he could buy his freedom.”
It hit me like a fist to the gut, and I heard Anna’s breath hitch. “How do you know that?” she demanded.
“We looked into his past,” the Bellati stated. “He be Black Guild, or was, until he went rogue and killed the underlord’s son.”
I stood, frozen, with ice climbing up my spine. Black Guild?
Anna’s mouth opened, and closed again. Her eyes glimmered, as though tears welled up, but she blinked them away. “What is Black Guild?”
Sebastian wouldn’t look at her, but rather continued scanning the surrounding buildings. “A brutal organization that trains killers. They hire them out to anyone with the right amount of currency.”
The infamous league of assassins, only this wasn’t a bleedin’ game. I’d heard of them. Rumors, mostly. Tales told back home around a bonfire when we were miles from home, mustering cattle. But they all had one thing in common—they were scary as hell.
Strewth! Even in the middle of nowhere, we knew that no one messed with the Guild. Now I understood what I’d sensed from Talakai when I’d fought him. The bloke could have cleaned my clock if he’d really been trying. I was good, but I wasn’t that good.
Dammit.Our chances of finding those twins diminished with every minute. “What do we do now?”
