Arden Road had been blocked oP.
“I think we’re within the Japanese residential area,” Orion whispered. Though they remained inside the car, driving forward slowly to take in their surroundings, he kept his voice quiet.
“We must be,” Rosalind said. She craned her neck, squinting ahead. There were barriers erected along the entrance to Arden Road, guarded by uniformed Japanese soldiers. Her stomach twisted at the sight. “They’re legally allowed to be here for protection while the battle is ongoing.”
On the map, the Japanese residential area spanned from the eastern edge of Zhabei down to a portion of the International Settlement, pressing on the bend of the Huangpu River. They were close enough to the 1ghting that its sounds could be heard faintly. Still, the streets here possessed an inherent sense of safety, knowing that the imaginary lines between jurisdictions restricted the entry of conAict.
“Legal or not,” Orion muttered, “how do we get through?”
Without warning, a boom! shuddered in the distance, lighting a Aare into the night. Rosalind jolted in her seat, swiveling to survey the disruption. It was coming from the border of the International Settlement. Which… wasn’t allowed.
“Oh,” Rosalind said suddenly. “That’s got to be Celia.”
The soldiers at the end of Arden Road hurried to survey the threat. Though there weren’t very many civilians around these residential parts, a few vehicles on the street slowed to see what was going on. Rosalind took that opportunity to pull onto the side of the road and halt the car naturally, hoping it wouldn’t draw
attention. The other cars passed. She nodded at Orion; in tandem, they both exited, stepping into the night.
“What the hell is Celia doing?” he whispered. He reached for her hand, feigning a leisurely stroll. The explosion had come from behind them. Arden Road sprawled ahead, extending toward the south. Though the pavement was on a slight incline, the trees to either side loomed forward, eager to grow against the grain.
Rosalind glanced over her shoulder. Another series of explosions followed the 1rst, though they weren’t loud in the way that the overhead bombing was. The skies remained dark at the site—no 1re hurtling up to the clouds. It didn’t appear to be an attack on the border. If Rosalind had to take a guess, Celia was meddling with the control points and breaking up the barriers that were keeping people out of the International Settlement.
“I know what she’s doing,” Rosalind said, hurrying their walking pace. “Get ready to run.”
First the roar of noise was faint—then it got louder and louder. While Rosalind and Orion proceeded along the side of the road carefully, a crowd appeared from afar, moving forward en masse. Civilians from Zhabei. Refugees and escapees, some lugging all that they could carry while others left with only themselves.
Many decided to swerve upon sighting the blockade on Arden Road, breaking from the group and taking the crosswise roads once they had entered protected foreign territory. A large majority, though, kept pushing forward, completely overpowering the ten or so soldiers that had been posted to protect the Japanese residential area.
Taking the distraction, Rosalind tugged on Orion’s hand fast, joining the masses. She didn’t know whether the crowd would disperse or if they would continue down Arden Road for the fastest route of escape. They needed to make use of the distraction while they had it.
They moved quickly. Made decent progress, passing beautiful houses and shiny fences.
Then a gunshot Aew along the street.
“Stop, stop,” Orion hissed, hauling Rosalind close.
The crowd screamed. Her heart in her throat, Rosalind hurriedly scanned their surroundings, trying to see where the bullets were coming from in the absolute pandemonium. Orion, meanwhile, yanked them behind a letterbox, taking temporary shelter.
A cluster ahead of them cleared. Over the crest of Arden Road, a new line of soldiers had arrived to stop the crowd. There was one man dressed in a Western suit, and he held the gun, walking two paces ahead of the uniformed soldiers. When it seemed most of the civilians were scared enough to turn back and take an alternate route, he lowered his gun and spoke something in Japanese.
“What’s he saying?” Rosalind whispered.
“He’s telling the soldiers to hurry up and clear the street—they can’t have trouble here,” Orion replied warily.
Rosalind’s hand tightened. “I don’t suppose Celia has a second distraction up her sleeve.”
“That would be too much to hope for.” Orion winced. He risked a glance back where they had come from. The masses were starting to disperse. He must have realized their predicament at the same time as Rosalind: if they wanted to chance something, they needed to do it now while the pan was still hot and chaos choked the air. “Okay. How do you feel about forcing our way through?”
There were only two of them. At least 1fteen soldiers up ahead.
Instead of relying on her hairpins, Rosalind pulled a poisoned knife this time. “Stay behind me.”
Celia was intent on striking every control point east of the Huangpu River.
She waited for the sound. The moment her explosive erupted into the night, the moment the Nationalists or foreigners guarding the barbed-wire control points reared back with alarm and shouted for order, she was on the move. The crowds always handled the rest. They only ever needed the slightest waft before biting down on the oPering—before rushing through and taking the opening. The control points would be recovered shortly, of course. They were too well maintained to be caught oP guard for long and usually needed only minutes to recover order. By the time the officers blew on their whistles and blocked the
control points again, though, enough people would have gotten through to create a Aock moving into the International Settlement.
Celia could only hope that was enough. She threw another explosive. Timed it, then rounded the corner, getting out of sight.
“… come in. Sweetheart?”
She pressed her earpiece. “I’m here.”
“Reports from the ground about the ronin starting to shoot at random. Now is a good time to get out of there.”
Celia muttered a curse, looking around. She was somewhere near Hongkou. By what she was witnessing, she guessed this area was going to experience the most evacuation. Civilians here had no other way of protecting themselves short of Aeeing outright and hoping that was enough to spare their lives.
“Send more operatives into Hongkou to help our line of resistance,” she instructed. “I need to get into the International Settlement.”
“Can do.” A crackle of static over the wire. “Are you going after your sister?” “Not yet.”
Celia needed to bring some sort of defense if she was going to join the battle with Rosalind. Alisa’s call had come from the base, so Alisa was still there. And if she was still there, then something was awry, something had been orchestrated two steps ahead of what Celia could see and indicated that Rosalind and Orion were possibly walking into a trap. Still, it wasn’t as though they could not show up at Lady Hong’s base of operation when the completed experiments were under threat of being disseminated. But they had been summoned, and why would they be summoned…?
Gun1re rang above Celia’s head. She crouched down, taking cover for a short moment, before an idea occurred to her.
“Oliver,” she said suddenly. “Can you put me in contact with Priest?”
The wire stayed quiet. It stayed quiet for such a long time that Celia thought she might have lost signal until Oliver activated his side again, clearing his throat. “I can do that,” he said. “She’s, uh, she’s actually already heading that way.
Don’t freak out.”
Celia blinked. “Why would I freak out?”
“Let me just start oP by saying I am a responsible brother….”
As long as Rosalind could keep the bullets away from Orion, they could move through this unit quickly.
There was no denying it: there was no chance any gun could beat someone capable of Ainging a soldier across the road. Orion didn’t need to incapacitate anyone outright. They fell into an easy pattern: Rosalind only needed to slash shallowly with her knife, getting in an opponent’s way for long enough to take the initial attempts at 1ring bullets. The moment she ducked to allow him to take over, Orion had them down and eliminated, moving on to the next.
Rosalind thought they were making good progress. She pulled her knife fast, right through the shoulder of one soldier, swiveling to give Orion room.
Then she felt something cold press to the back of her neck, and she froze in an instant, her breath catching in her throat.
“Orion,” she warned.
He spun around. Swore under his breath, raising his hands at once to show himself disarmed.
“I think,” the voice behind Rosalind said in English, “that is enough.”
The soldiers stopped. The street would have fallen quiet if not for the battle in the distance. Though Rosalind couldn’t see who had her at gunpoint, by the sound of the deep, accented voice, she had to guess it was the man in the suit.
“You could have walked up to the manor,” he continued, speaking to Orion. “All of this is quite unnecessary.”
Orion’s eyes stayed on Rosalind. He looked as though he was seconds away from lunging, and Rosalind silently bade him to stay where he was instead of risking it.
“I have trouble believing that,” Orion said carefully. He switched to Japanese, and though Rosalind couldn’t understand what he said next, she knew he was asking for her to be let go.
The man, predictably, did not move his gun. A cold sweat crept down Rosalind’s neck. Her healing had a limit, and being shot point-blank far crossed it. Still, better that he was keeping the gun on her than turning it on Orion.
“Your mother has been waiting for you,” the commander said, continuing to speak in English. “We all have.”
Orion hesitated. His brow furrowed, trying to gauge where this was going. “She doesn’t need me anymore.”
“Ah, but she does. Some trick your friend played.”
Silas, Rosalind realized in an instant. “What the hell does that mean?”
The man didn’t answer her. But that alone seemed an answer in and of itself: if there was some trick in Oliver’s blood, then the experiments hadn’t been successful yet. They still didn’t have the completed concoction.
So why had Alisa said otherwise?
A heavy pit was opening in Rosalind’s stomach. It turned even worse when she and Orion exchanged a glance, and she watched a Aash of defeat cross his expression. His gaze was soft.
“All right,” Orion said slowly. “If she needs me, she can have me.” “Orion,” Rosalind said, appalled.
“Tell my mother I have a trade,” he went on. “Give Rosalind the cure to her experiments. Then I’ll be your test subject for however long my mother needs. I won’t protest. She won’t even need to force me.”
“Absolutely not,” Rosalind snapped. “Orion, are you out of your mind—”
The man grabbed her neck from behind. Before Rosalind could do a thing to resist, before she could snarl or 1ght or grab a pin from her hair, there was a terrible pain in her shoulder. He had injected her with something ice-cold.
And her world snapped dark in an instant.
