Adelina lifted the hood up on her cloak and made her way to the hatch inside the gymnasium showers. She and Giselle had found the entrance to the tunnels cycles ago. The hatch opened without a sound. The first time had been loud enough to wake the dead before she and her sister could oil the ancient hinges.

Adelina jumped the short distance down, ignoring the ladder. Even in the pitch-dark she remembered where everything was. The two of them had practiced enough it was second nature.

Tugging on her gloves she moved out of Giselle’s way. Adelina had needed this, this stolen freedom from her life as a princess. It had been too long since the last time she’d escaped into the city. The last time she had gone alone…until Alpha had found her. She had promised to warn him the next time she escaped, but after their temporary falling out she wasn’t so sure she wanted him tagging along; especially when she had a very specific reason for going to the Ladrole.

Giselle landed nimbly – more graceful strength than Adelina could ever manage. “You locked your rooms and warned your guard off?” Giselle whispered in the darkness. Since Alpha had walked away from Adelina her sister refused to say his name despite their familiarity, he had grown up with them and she had reduced him to his rank only.

“I told him Nadyah and I would be practicing the camerraleto and not to disturb us,” she whispered back.

They were so far from prying eyes and ears they had no need to whisper, but the fear and adrenaline made them both cautious. For almost five cycles the two of them had been sneaking out of the palace and not once had anyone suspected anything.

“And Nadyah will be meeting us?”

Adelina grabbed her sister’s hand in the pitch-black and placed her other on the wall of the tunnel. “She’s going to meet us at the palace wall. I had her take the tunnel we opened under the kitchens.”

They walked quickly. Adelina counted steps in the back of her mind. Giselle had gone through and marked the tunnels one night with a bioluminescent paint. The symbols told them which part of the city they were in and the directions to different landmarks and areas. In the dark everything looked the same. Her boots splashed through a puddle and despite knowing the sewage tunnels were long unused, the concept still made Adelina uncomfortable. She wrinkled her nose and reminded herself it was only rainwater.

The glowing paint showed a figure in front of them and Adelina felt a chill run down her spine. “Nadyah?” she called. For a fleeting moment fear flashed through as she wondered if the figure in front of them was Nadyah, or if they were even human.

“Princess?”

Relief flooded Adelina. The adrenaline still tingled in her veins from the irrational fear. The dark did strange things to her mind.

Draga Terra was only sunless for four hours and then two hours of twilight at dusk and dawn. The lack of light played tricks on her mind after so many cycles in the sun.

“Remember to call me Lina from now on and this is Elle.”

“Of course.”

They continued to make their way through the tunnels, farther and farther into the city. “Did you wear a disguise?” Adelina asked.

Nadyah’s seductively husky voice filtered through the darkness. “I did not. No one will recognize me yet, despite being assigned to you. Those who might from my courtesan work at the House wouldn’t dare say anything out in the open.”

Adelina nodded and then remembered Nadyah couldn’t see her. “I have a favor to ask of a friend. I hope you don’t mind if we visit a tavern or two,” she said with a smile.

Something brushed against her arm but Adelina knew it was simply the dark playing tricks on her mind. There couldn’t possibly be anything else down here. Spirits of the dead were not real.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the second-circle with her nerves pushing her forward. Adelina couldn’t quite convince herself there wasn’t something else down there with them. Giselle climbed the ladder marked with the glowing blue paint and lifted the cover after listening for a moment. She was up and over like a cat – all grace, power, and speed. Nadyah went up next and then Adelina followed, relief filled her as she breathed in the fresh air. The cover was back in place before anyone was the wiser.

Over a century ago all the covers to the tunnels had been welded shut when the sewage system had been overhauled and turned into power. When the two of them had discovered an open entrance in their exploration of the palace grounds, they’d spent long nights fixing that from the inside. They’d installed interior locks and scrounged up an old map of the tunnels from the library. It had been their little secret ever since.

Adelina glanced at Nadyah’s profile with her sapphire cloak and gorgeous blonde hair. Her courtesan could be trusted – she’d sworn an oath, but having anyone other than Giselle know of this secret put her on edge.

The three of them stayed close to the buildings and out of the actual street. Avoiding inebriated citizens with common sense absent was in their best interest. A row of taverns separated the second-circle from the third-circle. The second-circle of the capitol was mostly businesses and markets. It was where the well-off and the poor easily mingled. Some streets were nicer than others and the quality of the products varied from neighborhood to neighborhood, but it was clear from the name of each business and its symbol what was sold inside.

Hov-carriages were few and far between so late. Taxis were all that roamed the streets. The night was silent as they made their way to the largest tavern of them all, the Ladrole. Nadyah stopped dead when she realized where they were headed. The hov-tram passed overhead and bathed them all in a flickering light.

“Is something wrong, Nadyah?” Giselle asked. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Adelina studied her courtesan and wondered why she looked so afraid. Did she know about this place and the rumors surrounding it? “It will be fine, I promise,” Adelina said, trying to soothe her fears. “The Prince of Thieves is not as frightening as he sounds.”

Nadyah shook her head. “I don’t trust a thief with your life,” she whispered.

Adelina considered what that might mean for a second before shrugging and walking into the thieves’ court. Varan may not be the most trustworthy, but he was honorable. “I have known the prince for a few cycles now, Nadyah. He has not recognized me through my disguise in all the cycles I’ve known him.” She tugged on her silver-white hair and smiled at her courtesan.

“He has hidden retina scans, and print identifiers on every cup.” Nadyah still didn’t sound convinced as she trailed behind the two princesses.

Adelina wasn’t sure how to make her feel better. “I have lenses over my eyes with a hidden program that gives a false identity when scanned. They aren’t only to change the color. Same with my hands; there is a ring that is linked to the program on the retinal scan, giving my created profile as Lina, jeweler of the third-circle.”

Nadyah’s eyes flicked to her golden contacts and the gloves on her hands. “That should be enough.”

Adelina was intrigued the courtesan knew so much about Varan, she’d have to ask her about that later.

There was a crack of lightning and the skies opened up when they entered the prince’s courtyard. She and Giselle held out their arms to catch the sweet rain. Adelina breathed in the scent of night-blooming violets that only opened when the night’s rain fell on their petals. The scent intertwined with the spice of the winterflowers Varan grew. Adelina loved Draga Terra with her entire being. Everything about her planet was beautiful and exquisite in its own way, especially the people.

Laughter bubbled out of the tavern and into the courtyard. Giselle grinned at her. The blue hair and golden eyes made her nearly unrecognizable. Adelina kept her hood up as they entered. The skintight leather pants and waterproof cloak shed the rain like water on oil. Her boots didn’t make a sound as they weaved in and out of the crowd towards the back where Varan held his unofficial court.

A cheer went up as someone threw a knife so sharp the air whistled. It landed with a thud in the wall, narrowly missing the target standing there quaking with fear. Adelina didn’t want to know his transgression. Instead she turned to the man with golden blond hair and emerald eyes. He flipped another knife with breathtaking skill and then caught it, instantly throwing it as hard as he could. The answering thud came with a small shriek. Blood trickled from the man’s face, but it was barely a scratch.

“Your precision is astounding,” Adelina said with a smile. Her voice was quiet but it carried through the conversations like a lover’s whisper. Varan turned to her and his entire face lit up, shedding the anger like a second skin.

“Lina darling! Come here my lovely, I’ve missed you so.” The Prince of Thieves held his arms open wide with more knives in each hand.

Adelina walked into his welcoming arms and hugged him, kissing him briefly on the lips in greeting. “I’ve missed you as well, friend.”

“And you’ve brought your sister,” Varan’s grin widened as he then hugged Giselle.

He swung his arms around and addressed the crowd. “Would you all like to see our dear friends try their hand?”

She frowned. “No games today Varan, I need to call in that favor.”

“You brought another friend I see.”

Giselle frowned at her in question and she shook her head so slightly it was barely a twitch. She had never told her sister Alpha had followed her out into the city once. It had never come up and she hadn’t thought there was reason to worry. Perhaps she should have mentioned it before they’d gone out.

Adelina swept an arm out with a flourish. “This is Nadyah d’Lara, renowned courtesan from the House of Kismet.”

Nadyah curtseyed appropriately in deference to their equal rank. Interesting, she didn’t see him as the dominant. Adelina turned back to the prince and opened her mouth to ask him about speaking in a more private area. She was cut off by Varan thrusting knives into her hands.

“Throw them, Lina. Then we will talk about your favor.” He crossed his arms over his chest and the muscles bulged. Adelina arched a brow at him in question.

“The little worm helped the mercenaries bomb the palace six months ago,” he explained with a feral grin.

Adelina turned to the man shivering in fear against the wall. When her golden eyes met his he shrank under the fury of her gaze. This bastard held partial responsibility for that day? Thousands of innocents were killed and she had nearly lost her own life. Even Giselle with her iron-like control jerked at his words.

Giselle snatched a knife from her hand so quick there was nothing she could do in response even if she wanted to. Her sister threw so fast and so hard the knife embedded halfway into the wall. Blood streamed from a slice on his arm. “The goddess favors this one,” she muttered nastily. “I missed.”

Adelina rolled her eyes. Giselle didn’t miss. Tossing a knife into the air and catching it she studied the mouse of a man. His dirty brown hair and ripped clothes suggested there had been a chase and he had been the prey. One arm was already broken and the front of his pants soaked in piss. The stench of his fear reeked and covered every other scent in the room.

The fear sparked a desire to chase, to hunt, and to inflict pain. Adelina shook her head and tried to remind herself those altered genes were the animalistic instincts they borrowed from the wolves, not her own.

She tossed the knife again and he flinched. It landed with a smack in her palm. Adelina tossed, and caught, tossed and caught. Each time he flinched he grew smaller, trying to make himself a more difficult target.

“Tell me,” she whispered in a voice she hardly recognized as her own. “How did you justify the killing of innocents, the women and children who died that day and not the royal family as you intended?” Her words were seductive, but there was poison waiting for him; taunting him to excuse his actions if only to reveal his confession.

“The money was too good to pass up,” he stuttered. “Please, you understand what it’s like. We all have to fight and claw our way to survive, royalty simply can’t understand.” He begged for her to see why he did what he did.

“What did they pay you for?” she asked.

Adelina would never condemn a man before knowing if he was innocent or guilty. The oily little male grimaced. She threw the knife and it sunk into the wall right above his head, shearing a few hairs off.

The prince laughed loud and long. “Beware of the little cat you worm, she has nothing against eating something slimy for dinner.”

Adelina never looked away from her prey. She spun the next knife on her palm lazily; grateful Giselle had forced certain skills on her. She schooled her face into a bored mask. “Do not make me ask you again.”

“I served in the hov-carriage house as one of the mechanics. I gave the mercs my implant for the day.”

That was how those cula’ting mercs got into the palace. The investigator managed to find out who they worked for. The Neprijat had planned the entire scheme and hired the soulless mercenaries, but they hadn’t been able to find out how they’d even gotten through the palace walls before they’d died in their cells. The mercs deaths were still under investigation.

“Did you at least have the balls to remove it yourself?” she asked gently, almost soothing.

The room suddenly grew quiet as even she sensed the change in her scent. Varan, Nadyah, and Giselle stiffened. They were the only three who knew her personal scent enough to react. Adelina couldn’t control the change, but she felt the shift to fierce protector and the jasmine grew dark and wild until it choked the room and covered the stench of piss and fear. It was a cleansing smell that warned those who were too stupid to realize how angry she was, a cold fury that would burn away the stink.

“No, Mistress I didn’t, they cut the implant out of my neck.” His final word was punctuated by the thick sound of the knives landing so tight and close to his body blood puddled on the floor.

Then Adelina took out her own knife from her boot and stalked the little mouse. She held the point under his chin, forcing his head up to look at her. “There were children,” she hissed. “Babes died before they saw their first cycle because of your greed.” She pressed harder and the point of her curved blade sunk into his tender flesh.

The fierce protectiveness for her people controlled her and she knew if she could rid the galaxy of this one male they would all be a little safer.

“Lina.” Giselle’s dominant voice cracked through the room like a whip and had the submissives in the crowd flinching and bowing their heads whether they wanted to or not. Adelina shrugged it off like the rain on her cloak, an oddity she barely noticed.

She was not the hunter, and the prince would not understand her prior claim as princess. She flipped her knife back and slid it into its sheath. “Prince, do with him as you will, but I personally hope you make him suffer.”

Varan studied her through narrowed eyes and then spoke. His voice boomed through the tavern. “Take him to his cell and let him rot for the night. I will take his eyes at dawn. Then his life will be forfeit by the will of the court.”

Hundreds of voices answered the call. “Justice must be served!”

Adelina turned with the prince and followed him, her shoulder pressed against his. Her oldest sister was wrong. The Prince of Thieves was a ruler in his own right, and he did right by the official royal family. They would have to convince Raena to make him an ally.

“Will you turn him over to the palace guards?” she asked sweetly.

It would be a rather fortuitous message from the Prince of Thieves to the Crown.

“After I have publicly taken my trophies he will be walked by my inner circle through the city to the palace. The male will suffer for what he has done. Then King Orion may do what he wants with him, but the information I have learned will be relayed, as always.”

Adelina trusted the prince to take the proper payment from the male she’d practically skewered, and then her father could take the rest. Satisfied, she smiled knowing how much the mechanic would suffer.

Varan gripped her arm hard and roughly pulled her against him. “What was that little display?”

She put to use what Nadyah had taught her so far, and instead of yanking away like she wanted to Adelina pressed herself into him to throw him off guard. Varan’s eyes widened in surprise and he released her.

“May Mala have mercy; I knew some of those who lost their children in the bombings,” Adelina explained.

She would never forget the mothers who walked through the rubble like lost souls, calling for their little ones. Finding and removing the bodies for the proper cremation had taken days and so few injured survived.

Varan took a step back. “It was a terrible tragedy.”

Adelina removed the hood from her head. “A tragedy is wrought by the will of the gods and goddesses, no human can control those events. The bombing was not a tragedy. It was a monstrosity of evil which only humans are capable of.”

Giselle took his hand in hers. “You weren’t there Varan; you can’t know what it was like.”

He glanced between the two of them for a moment with narrowed eyes. “And you two were?”

“Unfortunately,” Giselle replied, breezing by him to Varan’s unofficial table.

It looked over the entire tavern while still being tucked in a corner to keep private conversations private. She plopped in her usual spot, back to the door. Only Giselle would knowingly take the most vulnerable position, trusting her instincts to protect them all.

Varan glared but didn’t argue further. He offered his hand to Nadyah who had been strangely silent as she took everything in. Her delicate hand went over Varan’s and Adelina watched the prince escort her courtesan to his table, seating her on his left.

Once the four of them were seated, a familiar servant girl brought drinks and Varan murmured his request for food. The Prince of Thieves was one of the few who could afford humans as servers rather than bots, but it wasn’t for the prestige. Humans didn’t always have a recording device implanted, but they could steal from the unsuspecting rich who liked to visit such a place as a daring adventure. They could reason and understand inflections. They made excellent spies when flirted with for the night. Varan was a cunning bastard. He wasn’t the Prince of Thieves because he was pretty.

Giselle took out a deck of cards and dealt the hand. Adelina shook her head. She was here for a reason. Her sister had balked when Adelina had first told her of the plan, but only because it made her nervous to go behind the king’s back – and now Raena’s. “Prince, are you ready to lose some of that stolen money tonight?” Giselle asked.

He bared his teeth at her and took the cards. “Oh, Elle you know I love taking gold from you.”

Adelina eyed Nadyah who looked paler than normal and quiet. She hadn’t spoken a word since they’d arrived. It would be all right. She would finish her task at the Ladrole and then they could go elsewhere to have fun.

Something brushed against her back and Adelina whipped around. Nothing and no one was behind her. She turned back to the prince. Someone must have walked by too close, close enough to disturb the fabric of her cloak. It made Adelina uneasy. She refocused on Varan who watched her even as he played cards with Giselle.

“Why are you here, Lina?”

Adelina glanced at Nadyah. Her courtesan had been supportive of this endeavor, but didn’t have an opinion when she was asked for one directly. This was her risk to take since only she seemed to care about getting the answers. Giselle and Nadyah wouldn’t stop her, but they didn’t want to hang themselves either. Just being present was dangerous enough if Raena found out and didn’t appreciate what Adelina had done.

A whipping would be only the beginning of her punishment.

Was Prince Nash worth the risk? Was this really the right path; the only path? As third-born she had little of her own power. Nash did not have the time for her to formally request Raena or her father for permission to inquire. They would misunderstand why she was interested in the first place and tell her to be careful with her heart.

Adelina slipped a finger into her other glove and took out the small disc. She set it on the wooden table and pushed it across slowly to Varan so he and anyone else watching could see it wasn’t a weapon.

“This is what I need and as soon as you can manage it. Tomorrow even, if that were possible.”

Varan picked it up, his eyes locked on hers and they never wavered. He slipped the disc into his shreve and read the lines of code. The prince had taught it to her after their second business deal when she expressed concern over doing more deals with him. His eyes widened and then narrowed. He threw his shreve so hard on the table she feared it would shatter.

“What in Ladra’s name are you doing cavorting with the lost prince?” He leaned forward. Was that concern she saw in his eyes or fear? “What is on that disc could be considered treason.”

Adelina crossed her arms over her chest, feeling vulnerable. He had a point, but without knowing her real connection to the prince this endeavor might fail. She had to convince him. “Your mischief goddess has nothing to do with this,” she snapped.

“Don’t forget she’s the goddess of all us lowly thieves as well,” Varan said, meaning her. His voice was tight with barely restrained anger. “Ladra doesn’t just take eyes as her trophies. If I break an oath my soul is hers.”

Adelina nodded. If he did as she asked he would be risking his life as well. Varan had always been loyal to the Draga royal family. “Prince Nash didn’t kill his family,” she whispered. There were too many listening ears. “I’m doing this as a favor to a friend. I don’t have the contacts you do, and you still owe me.” She shrugged. “Ladra doesn’t take kindly to unpaid debts either.”

Oh, she had made him furious. His face flushed red and his hand snaked across the table, scattering cards to the floor. His fingers wrapped around the fabric of her cloak and yanked her forward. “Why should I risk my life for one of your little games, Princess,” he hissed.

The Prince of Thieves had figured out the truth and in his court her life was forfeit.