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The same brother that now, despite the different paths their lives had taken, was getting ready to make the same mistake he had made so many years ago.

“I met Sarah shortly after my 65thbirthday,” Kato said, tinkering with one of the gauntlets. Anything to keep his hands busy. “She was human, and she tried to sell me a rose one afternoon when I was visiting the Lyric flower market. At the time, I was young and stupid, and all I cared about was impressing the woman I was with—so, naturally, when a mortal approached me with some piss-poor excuse for a flower, I did the most prickish thing I could think of and crushed it beneath my boot.”

Kato smiled at the memory. “Sarah insisted I pay for the rose—and pulled a dagger on me when I refused. I was so focused on trying not to draw blood in front of my lady friend that she managed to get me right in the gut. The lady—I honestly can’t remember her name—screamed and disappeared into the crowd, and Sarah began to laugh and laugh and Shards, I thought she was insane. Here was this human girl—a hundred pounds soaking wet—trying to take on a Highborn shadow mage with nothing more than a rusty dagger and a basket full of roses. And even when I turned to her, snarling, teeth bared, all she did was shrug and hold out a hand, telling me that now I owed herfoursilvers for bleeding on her shoes.”

The air cannon finally slid back into the gauntlet. Kato jumped from the ladder, landing with a heavy thud. “Needless to say, I was smitten from that moment on. She was beautiful, smart, with a wicked sense of humor. After a single afternoon, I asked her to go to bed with me, and I think I fell even more in love with her when she nearly laughed herself silly.

“So, I showed up the next day at her stand and bought her entire inventory of flowers, and when she still refused to talk to me, I came back the next day and did it again. Day after day, I kept buying her flowers, until one afternoon she stuck around long enough to help me hand them out to children in the street. I let her believe I was being nice, but the truth was, I just didn’t know what the hell to do with all those flowers, and the kids were the only ones that didn’t think I was trying to sell them something.

“After that, she let me start following her to the tavern where she worked at night, and I would sit at the bar until she came to kick me out at closing. It took me a week to make her smile. Another two to make her laugh. By the end of the month, she let me buy her a meal, and when a year had passed, I finally convinced her to move back to Ghislain where we courted in secret for another five years.”

“Is that when you sent her away?” Kato started at the question, looking to his brother. Skye just shrugged. “The rumor is that Mother gave you a choice—the heirship or your mistress. Since she’s not here now, I’m assuming you chose to send her away.”

Kato let out a low, joyless laugh. “I was never given a choice. Not really. When my‘affair’was discovered, I was dragged before the family elders. They told me that it was a disgrace that I would choose to debase myself with a human, and if I chose to keep her, I would be forfeiting my right to the heirship. They said that they wouldn’t stop me from living my life the way I saw fit, but that they would no longer support me or my choices if I decided to stay with Sarah.”

Skye crouched, helping Kato lift an unwieldy length of metal meant to protect the spine. “That doesn’t sound so bad,” he said.

“Maybe on the surface,” Kato conceded. On the surface, it sounded like freedom. “But think about it, Skye. The Genesis Council might be the highest ruling body in the Imperium, but our family isn’t too far below their jurisdiction. If Mother and the rest of the elders decided they no longer wanted to support mylifestyle, as they soeloquently put it, where do you think that would’ve left Sarah and me?”

Kato paused for a moment, letting the realization sink in. “We would’ve been blacklisted. From restaurants, from stores, from inns and taverns, from entire cities. I wouldn’t have been able to find work; we wouldn’t have even been able to find a healer if Sarah got sick, much less if she ever got pregnant. Thechoicethat Mother offered me wasn’t a choice at all. It was a farce, little more than political theatre.”

Skye’s jaw had gone slack, but when Kato’s eyes cut to his, he quickly shut his mouth, shaking his head. “I never knew.”

“No. I suppose you wouldn’t,” Kato muttered, his grip on the wrench in his hand tightening until he felt the metal start to bend. This was a side of their family, of society in general, that his brother hadn’t experienced yet, one the Castaros had shielded him from.

“Why are you telling me this?” Skye asked. Not suspicious, just… unsure.

“So you don’t make the same mistake that I did,” Kato said plainly.And because Sarah would have my balls if I didn’t,he added silently. That little spitfire had always had a very black-and-white sense of justice, and Shards he’d loved her for it.

“I’m not going to try to talk you out of going to find Taly,” Kato went on. “If you believe she’s still out there, then I think you should go. But whatever you do, don’t ever let our family find out about your feelings for her. Or what you’re doing with those books. They’ll use it against you—I guarantee it. And neither of you deserve that.”

Kato threw the twisted bit of metal that used to be a wrench on a nearby table before grabbing an old cloth and wiping his hands.

It was a long moment before Skye finally said, “I’m going to find her.”

Kato snorted. “You don’t say.”

“Ivain doesn’t know I took the books on bloodcraft.”

“I know.”

“And he doesn’t know that I still plan to leave the city—even after he denied my request to go.”

Kato sighed, then said, “I figured.” He threw the cloth on top of the wrench. “Bloodcraft is dangerous. And illegal. You’re taking a huge risk.”

Skye turned, slowly, letting his eyes drift across the lights of the Mechanica armor as they flickered to life. “I’m not sure I see the danger.”

“Then you’re naïve.”

“Am I? What is bloodcraft other than learning how to master our own bodies? To use our ability to manipulate aether in order to alter our own biochemistry? Every shadow mage already uses bloodcraft to a certain extent. Every time we alter our perception, sharpen our senses, enhance our strength or speed. So what’s the difference between a basic aether augmentation spell and a spell that allows us to stop our heart or harden our skin or increase our cognitive efficiency?”

“Or bolster your strength?” Skye went quiet, and Kato had his answer. “You’ve already started experimenting on yourself, haven’t you? That’s how you were able to lift that cannon. It’s how you’ve kept yourself awake to do all of this in so short a period…”

Shit.Shit. This was worse than he thought.

“Look…” Kato pinched the bridge of his nose. How had they gotten here? “Bloodcrafters can alter their body chemistry—yes. Hell, they can even alter the body chemistry of anyone stupid or unlucky enough to ingest their blood. They can enact spells that can last for centuries given the right anchor; they can create undead minions; they can even invade the minds of their victims—but it’s still a risk. Even if you were able to achieve a complete mastery of your aether and your blood—what happens if you mess up? The margin for error is microscopic when it comes to that sort of magic, and what happens if you stop your heart or your breathing or your brain and then can’t start it back up?”

Skye’s face paled. “If I can find Taly, it’s worth it.”