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Scarlett kept to the shadows as she made her way quickly down various alleys and streets. The Black Syndicate looked like any other wealthy neighborhood in Baylorin. If you didn’t know what it was, if you weren’t looking for it, you were none the wiser that it was a place full of dark dealings. She turned the corner and prowled onto the main street of the Black Syndicate for the first time in a year, her cloak billowing behind her. Others on the street cast her wary glances, marking her. She was known here, not forgotten in the slightest in her year-long absence.

She passed the healer’s compound on her right. She should really stop there before she headed back to the manor today, but the thought of seeing Sybil made bile rise in her throat. Directly across the street towered the four-story house of the Fellowship. The labyrinth of training rooms and dungeon cells beneath the house was unknown to many unless you trained there or were unlucky enough to be dragged below.

Scarlett continued down another few blocks, passing two of the Syndicate’s main brothels and an opium den. She made a sharp right down an alley and quickly climbed to the roof of a shop that sold various weapons. Leaping across a few more rooftops, she found herself atop a tavern. She dropped down over the side, holding onto the gutter, and swung herself through a window into an attic room.

Nuri sat at the long wooden table in the room, two mugs of ale before her. The Fellowship had standing ownership of this room. The door down to the tavern was always locked from the inside. The window was the main entrance used by those who utilized the room, and it was their usual meeting spot.

Scarlett closed the window behind her, pulled her hood back, and crossed the room, plopping down on the bench across from her. Nuri slid a mug across the table. “Were you followed?” she asked.

“Only by Maximus,” Scarlett said with a roll of her eyes, taking a long drink from the mug.

“Hmm,” Nuri mused. “I don’t know if I should be upset with Maximus that he was so obvious or impressed with you for knowing he was trailing you.”

“I don’t know whether I should feel pissed off that you think I wouldn’t notice someone tailing me so you sent an escort, or annoyed to all hell that you still have the Fellowship guarding my movements,” Scarlett retorted.

Nuri clicked her tongue. “After what happened a year ago, you really think we wouldn’t have eyes on you at all times?”

“My banishment was rescinded when I accepted my job,” Scarlett snapped, “and I don’t need a keeper.”

“Events from a year ago would suggest otherwise,” Nuri said with a shrug. “You are feeling better?”

“I’m fine enough,” Scarlett sighed, drinking again from the mug in front of her.

“Good. Then you can figure out how you’re going to speak to Callan.”

Scarlett choked on her ale. “You know I can’t do that, Nuri.”

“You can, and you must.”

“Going to see Callan is like signing your death warrant. I won’t do it,” Scarlett argued.

“If anyone even whispers about my death, they would be dispatched within a day,” Nuri replied darkly.

“I haven’t spent time with Callan in over a year, Nuri. I can’t just drop into his rooms at the castle out of the blue,” Scarlett argued.

“Then drop in out of the night. I don’t care how you do it, but you need to talk to him, Scarlett. Two more have disappeared,” Nuri said, her voice quieting at the last words.

“I know. Cassius told me.”

“No,” Nuri said, shaking her head. “Twomore. Last night. Four in four days.”

Scarlett’s eyes widened at the news, her face paling. “Who?” she whispered.

Nuri was looking down at the table, twisting a section of her ash-blond hair around a finger. “Dexter and Lena,” she answered quietly.

“The twins? They are so young,” Scarlett replied in shock.

“They were six. They’re getting younger and younger again,” Nuri said, quiet anger ringing in her voice.

“This hasn’t happened since that night,” Scarlett said.

“No, it hasn’t. We let our guard down. We got lax. We mustn’t make that mistake again. You need to go talk to Callan,” Nuri pushed.

“What about the other Districts? The slums? Are their children going missing?” Scarlett asked, ignoring Nuri’s plea.

“No. Only here. I’ve been scouting the other areas of the city for months. I’ve had members of the Fellowship doing the same. I was thinking maybe they had left our children alone only to move on to others, but only our children, our orphans, are going missing. I have as many as I can at the Fellowship, but it’s not a place for children with the constant training and killing. Sybil has taken several in at the compound, but it’s the same thing. They have their own work to be doing. They can’t be watching children all day. I don’t want the Madams getting their whoring mitts on them, so I don’t let them go there. I’m getting a safe house set up again, but I’m running out of options, Scarlett.”

Scarlett could hear the rage and worry mixing in her voice. She stared down at her half-empty mug of ale.