Amina’s hands flew to the twin hilts at her hips.
“How’d you find us?” Javi asked.
El Gib’s sneer turned thoughtful as he cocked his head. He turned to Eyepatch—Carlos, Risa recalled—for an answer.
Carlos shrugged. “It doesn’t make any sense. Last I remember, we were in Monpira.”
Their recruiting efforts for the heist must have been a success, judging by the number of Sanguines who were unfamiliar to Risa. Bella, the object of Javi’s ill-fated attempt at seduction, was also there, unfortunately. Bella wore no hat today, her blouse cut with a deep V that revealed her tattoo.
Risa had known her curse would catch up to them. There was no outrunning it—not through a tunnel or through a market or on the back of a cart hidden beneath a tarp. She just hadn’t thought it would happen while they were waiting for public transportation or surrounded by dozens of people who seemed uninterested in the fight moments from breaking out. The patrons minded their own business with a determination Risa had to admire, concerned only with the small blimp growing closer, pulley gears clanking loudly as it prepared to dock.
“Wait—” Javi wagged a finger at El Gib, who wore an open vest several sizes too small for his potbelly, apparently forgoing the uniform the new recruits were forced to wear. “Didn’t the Wolf gut you?”
Risa’s gaze fell to Mustache’s round stomach. Several old wounds marked his skin. Nothing suggested that, just yesterday, a supposed-dead princess had tried her hand at gutting him.
El Gib also glanced down in observation. “Huh.”
If her curse somehow made mercenariesheal faster, she was going to lodge a very wordy objection against the universe.
El Gib shook his head. “Who cares!” he shouted. He pulled out a machete from behind his back. “Grab ’em.”
Javi scoffed, “Are we not going to question the physics? You can’t hide ahacking instrumentin your back pocket!”
Risa remembered what Paulo had said. That El Gib might have had half a brain, but Bella had a full one.
“He’ll double the bounty,” Risa told the pretty woman who had almost captured the prince the day before. “If you let us go.”
The woman’s eyes widened with interest. Carlos looked between Bella and his leader, caught between loyalty and greed.
Javi sputtered, “I don’t just carry around twenty-four thousand reales—”
Risa ignored him. “Twenty-four, and we’ll add some jewelry,” she told Bella, who nodded along with the words, already calculating how to split the money among the group.
El Gib pointed his machete at Risa. The blade looked deadly sharp. She had no desire to test that.
“That’s not the deal, Bells. We kill the prince. And her, too, for good measure.”
Bella whipped the coiled tendrils of her black hair over a shoulder. Her brown doe eyes narrowed on El Gib.
“There’s a better deal on the table, Eto. We should take it.”
“This isn’t the time for a coup,” he snapped, then pointed his weapon at Carlos. “Carlos, get him.”
Before Carlos could move, Risa was pointing an accusing finger at El Gib’s mustache.
“Aren’t you all suspicious about why he’s so determined to kill this idiot when there’s more money to make keeping him alive?” Risa was desperate, scrounging for any bit that would derail this clear setup her curse had orchestrated.
Bella regarded Risa for a long moment. Whatever she divined from staring made her angry. “Eto’s got a side deal!”
Risa felt as if the world were closing in on them, not unlike the tunnel walls back in the Underground Pass. Starting a fight seemed ill-advised when they were being pressed in on all sides by Sanguines and innocent—if aloof—bystanders alike. Especially when the Sanguines wouldn’t hesitate to hurt and kill whoever was in the way. The aircab was taking its sweet time docking, and there was nowhere to run or hide among the flat, desolate land that surrounded the platform for several miles. Risa needed to find a way to save them. At least until the aircab settled at the platform.
“He does!” Risa confirmed, though she didn’t really know.
“Fine, I’ll just kill the boy myself!” El Gib shouted. He lunged for her but was knocked aside by a wayward elbow from a random patron.
Bella shoved Risa into Javi’s chest and held up her own weapon, two half-circle blades, one in each hand.
Mayhem exploded. El Gib swung his machete at Bella, but that didn’t seem to please one of his fellow Sanguines, who ran beneath his raised arm and rammed their head into his stomach. Carlos started for his friend, but was stopped by one of the new recruits, who had some “complaints to file” and needed to speak to him immediately. The others jumped into the fray, new and old fighting while El Gib and Bella stared each other down.