Hadjia's whole body trembled. She couldn't think. Couldn't move. My family, she thought. I've killed my family.

Her legs gave out beneath her. She dropped to the ground with a thud. Her stomach emptied itself on the ground, spilling until there was no more. She heaved, her body convulsing. The world spun around her, black as night, creeping in from the sides of her vision like a ghostly wraith.

Anzai's voice came, as if from a distance….

"Hadjia didn't pass. You killed the final one, Kaneko."

"Shut up! Hadjia passed her test. If you want to survive the school, you won't say anything about it. You better not! I have the power to destroy you."

In the ensuing silence, Hadjia longed to fall into blackness and never return. To forget the horrible things staining her soul.

"Someone is coming," Kaneko hissed.

"Villagers."

"Yes. We have to get out of here. Right now."

"What about Hadjia?"

"She'll be fine once we get her moving, trust me. She's one of the strongest students in the school. Help me carry her. They sound like they're almost to the door."

Something jerked Hadjia to her feet. The waiting darkness covered her like a blanket, grabbing her from reality, and pulling her someplace where she could forget…everything.

* * *

Hadjia woke slowly.

Something soft was stroking her hair, tucking it behind her ear.

A quiet voice murmured the same thing over and over to her. A chant, one that she'd heard the villagers chanting to their babies once.

Was that her own mother calling her name? The soft voice. The gentle lilt. Her mother . . .

"Hadjia?"

Her eyes slowly fluttered open to see Kaneko. She was on the edge of Hadjia’s bed, a slight smile on her face.

"You're awake."

For a moment, Hadjia blinked, lost. Why was Kaneko there? Why did she smell the sharp acidic scent of vomit? And why –

Suddenly she remembered. Everything.

Family.

Sister.

Dead. All dead.

Kaneko put a cool hand on her face, one that instantly quelled her panic.

"Yes, yes. It was a long night for you. But all is well. You have completed the requirements, and will now go into your ceremony soon. Within an hour, you'll have a kunjar blade and be part of The Mother's most loyal group. Are you not pleased?"

The tension in Hadjia's body doubled, then tripled, until she couldn't look into Kaneko's face any longer.

Kaneko had killed that little girl. And she didn't have to: During Renji’s test, they had let the little girl go.

Like a coiled cat, Hadjia sprung. She pounced on Kaneko, shoving her off the bed and sending them both rolling across the floor.

"I don't want the knife! The ceremony. Mother Sigunta. I hate it all!" Hadjia wailed as she rolled over and over again.

Kaneko didn't make a noise: They all had been trained to be silent when something took them by surprise. But she perpetuated their rolling motion until Hadjia lay on the floor beneath her, pinned to the floor by Kaneko's hand's.

"Hadjia, calm down," she instructed quietly.

"No!"

"You must."

The firmness of her tone brought Hadjia from giving in to any more of her unrestrained anger. She panted, weakening, and stared into Kaneko's dark, comforting eyes. "If we're really sisters, the way you've always claimed, then you'll go away with me."

"Hadjia, take a breath. There's no reason to jump into doing something crazy before you find out all the information. Let’s discuss this. "

But Hadjia had stopped listening. Again the thoughts in her head whirled around and around, one after the other, dragging her deeper and deeper into a chasm from which she feared she'd never escape.

A vision of her blood sister gurgling as she bled to death replayed itself over and over in her mind.

Hadjia clenched her hands into tight fists. "I will not stay, Kaneko."

"You must."

"I won't."

Hadjia folded her arms across her chest and tilted her head back in defiance, daring Kaneko to counter her.

Kaneko sucked in a sharp breath through her nose, but her face remained expressionless. "I understand."

"You don't." Hadjia looked down at her hands, certain she could see blood slipping through her fingers and staining the skin it touched a hot crimson. Her family. That’s who they were. She knew it to be the truth; she was as certain of this as knowing the sun, the moon, and the stars appeared in the sky every day and night.

Mother Sigunta was the exact monster that Hadjia hadn't dared believe she would be. Hadn't wanted to believe. And now her family lay dead.

Hadjia's throat thickened. "I killed them, Kaneko. With my own hands."

Kaneko reached out and touched Hadjia's shoulder. "I know. I was there. I've been through it as well. I had to kill my family as well, Hadjia."

Hadjia shoved her arm off and stepped back.

"I'm going to leave the school. Tonight. I must. There's no way I can stay here another moment."

"Hadjia – "

"I won't stay!"

The finality in her words rang through the room like the chime of a bell.

Kaneko hesitated, starting deep into Hadjia's eyes, then nodded once. "Very well. I see that you can't be convinced." She hesitated. "Perhaps you should go."

For a long moment, Hadjia didn't dare breathe. "What?"

"If you don't want to stay, why stay?"

"You believe me? That I’m going to do it?"

Kaneko's expression softened. "Of course. We're friends. No, we're sisters. We always have been. Thanks to Mother Sigunta, we're all each other has, aren't we? I've always promised that I would stick by you, and I'll keep that promise."

"Yes."

"Then we'll go. Tonight. Together. We'll escape from the school and plan a new life."

Hadjia hesitated. Kaneko cared about Mother Sigunta as much as she had herself. Would it be so easy for Kaneko to let the world of the Red Moon School go? It had been Kaneko who convinced Hadjia to trust The Mother again when she felt so uncertain. Yet now the truth was as apparent as the blood that had covered Hadjia’s young hands: Mother Sigunta had been a murderer all along.

Now Hadjia was a murderer as well.

The fear that raged in Hadjia's chest began to settle. She exhaled a sigh of relief. She had a friend. Someone who believed her, and in her.

"Thank you, Kaneko."

Kaneko smiled with the corners of her lips. "Of course, Hadjia. We are here for each other. But I cannot just leave; The Mother watches me too closely. I need to prepare my room so she doesn't notice it's bare if she looks in." Kaneko nodded at Hadjia's bed behind them. "You should do the same. Pack lightly – only a few clothes, and your knife. Make it so you can strap it to your back: We'll be traveling and killing our food as well go."

Hadjia stared at Kaneko in surprise. "You know where we'll go?"

They knew so little of life outside the school and the woods surrounding swamp. Except for practicing their spying on a few villages here and there, most of the students had never left the school. But they couldn't go back to the villages—Mother Sigunta would look there first. Likely, she had spies who lived there anyway.

Kaneko hesitated. "I have an idea. If it doesn't work out, we'll do something else." She backed up to the door, her eyes locked with Hadjia's. "We can do this together. It won't be easy, but perhaps it will be good to be free."

"Together,” Hadjia said.

The door slid shut behind Kaneko, leaving Hadjia alone with only her thoughts for company. She cast her gaze around the room. The floor was bare, and even the corners of the room were clean: Mother Sigunta never tolerated cobwebs or a speck of dirt.

Nothing here had ever been warm. No dolls. No dinner where they discussed the day as a family. They never even talked with any neighbors, the way her real family might have had. Just ongoing, ruthless, relentless work, day after day after day.

Something hot welled up in Hadjia's chest, and spilled into her throat. She swallowed it back and turned to her bed. She had to focus on the next step: packing. Running free.

The fear in her chest subsided as she thought of Kaneko. A sister, she thought, rummaging through her simple wraps. I do have a sister after all, even if my real one is . . .

Hadjia let that thought trail away.

The door to her bedroom opened. Hadjia jerked to attention, an old shirt in her hand, until she saw it was Kaneko eyes. She relaxed. "You're back. That was so fast."

Kaneko smiled. "Didn't take me long to get what I needed."

Hadjia's heart leapt into her throat when two other boys – proven assassins just like Kaneko –stepped into the room behind her. Kura and Sidoh. They were another pair of Mother's favorites, known for their raw strength and tenacity.

Hadjia sucked in a sharp breath. Kaneko's smile, she now noticed, was a little too fixed, a little too tight.

"Kaneko, n – "

Both Kura and Sidoh lifted a tube up to their lips and blew into it. Seconds later, a sharp sensation stung Hadjia's neck in two places. She reached up to pull the darts away, but it was too late.

A cold sensation crept up and down her neck. Kaneko widened her grin.

"Oh, Hadjia," she murmured, stepping closer. "You poor little girl who thinks she knows better than the rest of us."

A heady darkness overcame Hadjia, plunging her into thick clouds of unconsciousness.

* * *

Numbness tingled in her spine, extended out into her limbs. She could just feel the tips of her fingers, her legs from the knees on down, and her bottom lip, but little else. She tried to move, but couldn't, as if something heavy weighed her down.

She managed to open her eyes so that they were slits, but she was barely able to see through the thick tangle of her eyelashes. Slowly, the world came into focus: She was looking at a ceiling marked by long shadows and dim light.

"I shall take it from here, thank you," The Mother rasped from what seemed to be a far away place.

"Yes, Mother."

"It was our pleasure to serve you, Mother."

Three shadowy figures were standing near a door. That door…it was familiar.

Only then did Hadjia realize she was lying in the Ceremony Hall.

Memories of Kaneko, Kim, and a masked man flooded her mind all at once. She had no ability to contain the fear she now felt: It streaked through her in raw, unbridled waves.

"Go into the far hall," The Mother said. "I shall call for you if you're needed."

Hadjia immediately recognized the broad angles and cut of Kura and Sidoh's shoulders as the two slipped out into the hallway. Mother Sigunta remained, carrying her walking stick, as she usually did.

Hadjia tried to pull herself together, to escape her fear and panic and just think. Mother Sigunta had trained her in this skill herself. What a sweet justice that Hadjia might be able to use it against her.

The floorboard creaked beneath Mother Sigunta's weight as she crossed the floor toward Hadjia. Hadjia peeled her heavy eyelids open as far as she could, which was a little bit farther this time. Mother Sigunta came into sharp relief amongst the shadows of approaching evening. The windows behind Mother Sigunta showed a sky on fire with the sunset.

"I am very disappointed, Hadjia."

Hadjia attempted to mumble something, but she could not form any words. Mother Sigunta didn't seem to notice. Instead, she folded her hands behind her back and stared out the windows on the other side of the room.

"An assassin is a highly trained person. Because of all we have sacrificed for the love of our trade, we must remain loyal and faithful to those who know more than us. I have asked much of you in your young life, Hadjia – but I have given you even more."

Hadjia's nostrils flared, but she remained silent.

"Your loyalty to me has wavered. I cannot tell you how this saddens me. It cannot be forgotten. Not until you've proven yourself to me again."

Hadjia's foot jerked. It was a reaction, she knew, from the paralyzing agent, which she had used before on unsuspecting animals while attempting to learn its strength.

Even though her movements were painstakingly slow, Hadjia managed to curl her fingers into her palm. Then she bent her elbow a little, as the paralysis began to fade. Mother Sigunta watched, her face impassive.

"You are angry with me, Mother?" Hadjia whispered, uncertain whether Mother could understand her mumbled words.

"Very."

Hadjia dropped her gaze, but glanced to the windows. All closed except the one in the middle. A sliver of color along its edges betrayed that it lay slightly open whereas the others were tightly shut.

"You have not only turned your back on me after all I've done for you, but on all those here who care for you. We have been your family. You have rejected us."

"My family – "

"Is here," she cut in with a chilly voice. "You make assumptions you know nothing about."

Hadjia couldn't meet her eyes.

All she could see was her little sister. Hear the dying words on her mother's lips. See the terror in her father's eyes. The Mother was not right: Hadjia didn't make assumptions about anything. Mother Sigunta had told her what to think and believe all her life, but she couldn't do that anymore. Mother Sigunta officially held no more power over Hadjia's mind.

"Yes, Mother," she murmured in seeming capitulation.

The paralyzing agent retreated quickly from her muscles now, leaving a strange tingling sensation in its wake, but restoring the movement into her muscles. Mother Sigunta motioned for her to stand. Hadjia obeyed with shaky feet, slowly straightening until she stood almost as tall as The Mother.

Hadjia met Mother Sigunta's gaze head-on, seeing evil in the woman's eyes. There was no doubt about it anymore, even though some corner of Hadjia's heart had been hoping this couldn’t be true. But she could see in The Mother's ruthless, cold gaze that they had been killing innocent people all along, and The Mother knew. Counted on it. Lied about it.

"Hadjia, you are one of my greatest pupils. Your talent and penchant for doing the work that no others are brave enough to do has no bounds. It pains me that you don't trust me and my word anymore. But I am willing to forgive because you have already proven yourself. You should be a Red Moon Assassin – and you are. If you’ll have us."

Mother Sigunta extended a hand that shook slightly. Hadjia stared at it, then looked back to her. "What would you make me do to earn my place back?"

"Time. Chores. A lot of one-on-one counseling with me. I don't want to reward you for what you've done, so what you will have to do for a time won't be pleasant. The truth is, you deserve far worse, but I am not willing to lose you."

Hadjia swallowed, staring at the trembling hand with a lump in her throat but not taking it.

Hadn't The Mother mentioned something like this to the masked man? Spoken of an outstanding pupil whom she wanted to test? She had been speaking about Hadjia all along.

Mother Sigunta spread open both her arms now.

"Come, Hadjia. Let us embrace and agree to move on to greater things. You are far safer here, with me, than in the wild world out there that you know nothing about."

Kim’s death flashed through her mind with terrifying speed. Uncertainty and heartbreak bubbled up inside her, spilling from her chest into all her muscles.

The Mother owned her no more.

In a flash, she reached down, withdrew a knife from her boot, and advanced, raising her hand and slashing it down towards Mother Sigunta's neck. The Mother leaned back into an agile backbend, avoiding the blow. The Mother finished her move by swinging her legs over her head, landing on her feet, and straightening with a victorious smile.

Hadjia sucked in a breath. No old woman should be able to manage such a move!

Mother Sigunta tossed her walking stick into the air and griped it like a dagger. A snick preceded the sight of a knife flicking out from its bottom.

Hadjia knew, with cold certainty, that she'd never win against The Mother. Despite Hadjia's apparent skills, Mother Sigunta was no frail old woman after all. There was a quick, sinewy strength in her that belied all reason.

Hadjia spun around to run, but Mother Sigunta lashed out with her walking stick. The stick hit Hadjia in the calf, tripping her. Her body flew through the air until she lay sprawled on the wood floor. The air rushed out of her lungs in one giant breath.

Mother Sigunta lifted her walking stick high. "You've made your decision, Hadjia. Now I have made mine."

Hadjia thrust herself to her feet, crossed the room in three steps, and threw herself into the slightly open window. Two panes of glass shattered; one cracked. The old frame gave way, admitting Hadjia into the darkness of night – and her only chance at freedom.

* * *

Hadjia scrambled through the forest as fast as her legs could carry her. Yet her body, still feeling the lingering effects of the paralyzing agent, was sluggish to respond at first.

She stumbled over tree roots and rocks and smashed into branches until finally, she got her equilibrium back. Once her muscles and balance were restored, she tore swiftly through the forest, nimbly avoiding the heaviest areas of the swamp. But she was running blindly through the night.

Nowhere to go, she thought in a panic. The Mother will find me. I have nowhere to go.

As if demons from another world were reaching for her, Hadjia continued to run. Although she fled as quickly as she dared, at every moment she thought she felt Mother Sigunta's breath on the back of her neck.

Minutes passed. Tens of minutes passed as she ran, searching for something – she didn't know what – in the midst of the trees and the shadows.

Finally her running feet slowed. She gasped for air as her ribs ached. Her heart thudded in her ears.

A building just ahead of her loomed out of the darkness, the sight of it nearly arresting her breath.

Her home.

Not the Red Moon School. Not Kaneko. Not the putrid swamp that made the world smell like rotten eggs. The home she would have had if Mother Sigunta hadn't taken her. The home she could have had if she hadn't . . .

Hadjia let the thought trail away.

Drawn forward as if by invisible strings, Hadjia stepped into the house. None of the neighbors were here now; all had departed after finding the family murdered earlier.

She slipped inside, silent as a shadow, and stared at the floor. Her mother was lying here now, along with her father.

Instead of laying in the same spot outside, her father lay next to her mother on the floor. Someone had cleaned the blood off her mother's neck. Her father’s clothing had been tidied up, his hair combed; he looked as if he could have been sleeping.

Hadjia swallowed past the heavy lump in her throat. She was filled with a deep sadness that penetrated all the way into the marrow of her bones.

The house seemed different to her now. Instead of barren, it seemed rich, filled with small knickknacks that signaled life. There were pieces of food. A doll. Cups, glasses, silverware carved from wood. Dishes, although many were broken now.

Hadjia took it all in, memorizing everything. This was her last chance to know something about them—and what she could have had.

Silently, Hadjia moved up the narrow, rickety staircase.

They'd moved her sister to her bed too, cleaning up her throat and placing a blanket on the floor on the spot where the blood had pooled when she died.

Hadjia stayed in the doorway to the room for several minutes.

What would we have been together?

But her sister didn't answer.

A small doll in the corner caught her eye; it rested next to a knife. Hadjia stepped toward it, crouching down. She picked up the knife with surprise; had she dropped it? When she tried to think back, everything was a black blur.

Pain and rage bubbled up inside her. She threw the knife at the wall with a growl. It stuck, embedding itself in the wooden slats with a twang.

The doll’s dress, made of light blue linen pieced together from scraps, hung off one shoulder. Hadjia picked the doll up, straightened its dress, and pressed a fingertip to its porcelain cheek. An image popped into her mind immediately: one of a young woman with dark hair and umber eyes.

The dark-haired woman had set the doll inside a wooden cradle with a squalling baby. The baby had its tiny hands bunched into fists as it wailed.

The vision shifted.

The same young woman held twin babies tucked into her arms, one on each side. Her hair fell down her shoulders in a loose braid with escaping black tendrils. Weariness was etched on her face, even though she was smiling. She was lovely, Hadjia thought in surprise. The young woman was lovely and radiated happiness, even when tired.

Each baby had the same shock of black hair. Similar scrunched, flushed faces. Both wore simple gowns of a soft blue linen.

Right then, the woman glanced up. She caught Hadjia's eyes, blinked, then smiled softly. With small steps, the woman advanced, shuffling forward with both babies in her arms.

Hadjia reached out, killing the woman with her knife and a fast slit of the throat.

The woman fell to the ground with a thud.

Hadjia didn't even have the time to breathe before a little girl approached her, put a cold hand on Hadjia's arm, leaned in, and whispered, "Assassin."

Blood oozed from the child's mouth, dripping down her throat and staining her teeth a horrifying crimson color.

Hadjia jerked away, screaming. The knife plummeted to the ground.

Hadjia jerked back to the present moment as she heard a thud.

Hadjia's racing heart slowed one beat at a time. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. She cocked an ear. A slight sound, barely more than a breath, sent her stepping back until she was pressed against the wall. Hadjia reached for the knife in her boot, but it was already gone.

The door to the bedroom creaked open, revealing Kaneko. She slipped into the room, her eyes never leaving Hadjia's. "Ah, there you are, sister. We can fix this, Hadjia."

"Don't call me your sister. And don't come any closer."

"I only wanted to let you talk with The Mother."

"The Mother wanted to kill me."

Kaneko tilted her head back and laughed, but her glittering eyes never left Hadjia's. "You imagine such things! The Mother may have been angry, but she wouldn't have killed you. You're one of the best."

"She killed Kim."

"Kim wasn't you. He didn’t have your talent, your skills."

"You're a liar," Hadjia hissed. "We both know The Mother would never permit me to live, not after I displayed such open rebellion and ran away. If she allows me to live, she'll have to fear outright rebellion from other children too. Besides, you can’t be my sister. You knew," Hadjia seethed. "You knew what The Mother was doing."

"What are you talking about?" Kaneko asked, sounding confused.

"We were killing innocent people!" Hadjia cried. "You knew, and you didn't tell me. You lied to me."

Kaneko dropped her gaze. "I know now, yes, but I didn't at the time of my test. To me, they were evil. Bad people that the Mother needed to rid the world of. I did what any loyal, trusting assassin should do: what they're told."

Hadjia straightened, pulling her shoulders back. "That's where we're different."

"What difference does it make, Hadjia?" Kaneko cried. "You're an assassin now, don't you see? You're even going to try to kill me!"

"You're not innocent," she snarled.

"No, but murder is in your blood. It's in my blood. It's what we do and who we are. Even if you run away, you will never escape that reality."

"I didn't know!"

"That doesn't change anything."

The two assassins stared each other down. Kaneko's jaw tightened.

"Our families abandoned us; that's what happened, Hadjia. Mother Sigunta took us in. She fed us. Cared for us. She did what they wouldn't do. They don't deserve us, Hadjia."

"That's a lie. We're monsters, Kaneko. Don't you see that? Only a beast would spill the blood of its own family. We were betrayed, Kaneko. Mother Sigunta is using us as instruments for her vile ideas, whatever they are. Mother Sigunta lied to you, and still you're choosing to work with her. You're no better than she is."

Kaneko pressed her lips together tightly. "Hadjia, I'll ask you one last time. Come back with me."

Hadjia's mouth open and closed. She didn’t say anything, and the silence that hung in the air was damning silence.

"Hadjia, you can't prove it’s the truth. That’s why it's best to just come home."

"No. I'll never return."

Kaneko sighed, her shoulders slumping. "So, you leave me no choice."

"I know."

Kaneko attacked first, lunging across the room and landing the heel of her foot in Hadjia's ribs. There was the sound of a crack as Hadjia flew back into the wall, her head slamming into the wood.

She twisted her body away with a grunt and darted across the room. Kaneko advanced on her again but Hadjia ducked; Kaneko's knife missed its mark. Hadjia ran a few feet forward, grabbed up the blanket from the floor, and threw it at Kaneko's face. She had to bat it away, and her knife was momentarily entangled in the fabric. It was enough to buy Hadjia another chance.

Hadjia ran to the wall where her knife lay, embedded in the wood. Kaneko followed, kicking a knee out from under her. Hadjia dropped, ducked, and rolled away.

Then Hadjia leapt toward her like a tiger towards its prey. Kaneko ducked, kicked out a leg, and swept it in an upward arc. It caught Hadjia in the knee, knocking her onto her back. Hadjia sprang back into the air with a nimble leap just as Kaneko slammed a fist into her face.

White spots broke out across Hadjia's vision. There was a jarring sensation that rang through her head like a bell. Hadjia fell to the floor.

"Hadjia," Kaneko panted. "You've betrayed me." Kaneko pulled back her arm, ready to strike a death blow.

With lightning speed, Hadjia jumped up, grabbed onto Kaneko's wrist, and wrenched it to one side. Kaneko screamed and dropped her knife. Hadjia kicked Kaneko in the ribs just before Kaneko reared back and tackled Hadjia to the floor.

A bright white broke out across Hadjia's eyes when her head slammed into the ground. Kaneko's fist slammed with full force into Hadjia's face.

The edges of Hadjia's vision blurred. She reached up blindly with her legs to wrap Kaneko in a lock, but Kaneko dodged her weak attempt, slamming her fist into her face again.

Darkness descended once again; the pain slicing through Hadjia's bones rendered her almost paralyzed.

Kaneko knelt on one of her arms. The pressure nearly cracked her elbow.

Kaneko stood, giving Hadjia a moment of relief. She pressed a foot to Hadjia's neck with a snarl. Her chest heaved up and down in a pant. "You really . . . disappointed me, Hadjia."

A glint of light on the floor next to Kaneko's boot caught Hadjia's eye. The kunjar.

With the last of her strength, Hadjia reached her free arm out, grabbed the knife, and slashed it across Kaneko's leg. Kaneko fell to her knees with a scream.

Hadjia slashed her again across her face. Kaneko shrieked, putting one hand over her eye. Blood oozed out from between her fingers.

Hadjia threw herself on top of Kaneko with a growl.

"Do it," Kaneko hissed, blood flowing from her shredded lip as Hadjia pressed her forearm into Kaneko's neck. "Kill me like you killed them. Spilling my blood is no different than that spilling that of your family's, is it?"

Fire streaked through Hadjia's veins, igniting every instinct Mother Sigunta had trained into her. Yet Kaneko's eyes, half-pleading, half-ordering, brought Hadjia back to reality.

She released Kaneko’s neck. "No." Hadjia stood up.

"You're no assassin, Hadjia,” she hissed.

Hadjia glanced down at her dismissively. "I know."

She stepped away and rushed to the window, throwing it open. After one last glance over her shoulder, she dropped Kaneko's kunjar on the floor. She drew in another breath and dropped out into the night.

Leaves and trees dotted her path as she sped along, but this time the leaves seemed to be hurrying her along, as if whispering to her, “Run, run, run to your only chance at freedom!”

A full moon – crimson, the color of blood – guided Hadjia as she ran away from the swamp. Behind her, a scream of rage and warning tore through the air.

"Hadjia," Kaneko cried. "I will find you!"