Blood Heir (Blood Heir Trilogy #1)(65)

A shadow flashed to her left, on the steps leading down from the heavy velvet curtains.

Ana turned, sensing the powerful thrum of blood even before she saw the woman. Steel blades flashed as the newcomer stepped into the light, her black cat mask glittering in the torchlight.

“You,” Ana said hollowly.

The woman had changed from her skimpy courtesan’s outfit into tight-fitting black breeches and a shirt, but it was the same steel Affinite who guarded the doors of the Playpen every night, the one who had tried to stop Ana from entering. There was no sign of her companion, the Yaeger, as she stepped in front of Ana, blocking the path. Countless small blades lined the belt at her hips, gleaming like teeth.

Instinct screamed at Ana to hurl her Affinity at the woman, to fight with every fiber in her body.

But May’s words held her back. They were the same, Ana and this steel Affinite: feared for the qualities that marked them different, and persecuted by those with power.



Ana raised her hand. “Please, don’t do this.”

The woman’s eyes glinted. “If you’re not dead by the end of the night, it’ll be my life he takes.”

“Who?” Ana asked, though she suspected she knew the answer.

“Lord Kerlan.” The steel Affinite raised her blade. “I’m sorry.”

Ana didn’t give her another chance to speak. She seized the Affinite’s blood and slammed her against the back wall. The Affinite’s eyes widened in surprise, but she twisted, and a blade shot from her belt.

Ana dove to one side; the throwing knife lodged into the wall behind her with a plink. She rolled and pounced to her feet, but in that second, she lost her hold on the steel Affinite.

The second blade sliced Ana’s arm; she cried out and crashed against the wall, her Affinity diverted by the warmth leaking down her arm and the sharp pain of her flesh cut open.

A third knife flashed, but Ana was quicker. She grasped the steel Affinite’s blood and squeezed. The woman gave an agonized scream, which quickly cut off into a choking noise as blood began to fill her lungs.

“You don’t have to do this,” Ana rasped. “Come with us. Fight with us.”

The steel Affinite shuddered. Her head was bent, and a puddle of blood had gathered on the floor beneath her. When she lifted her face, her eyes were bloodshot, red dripping from her nose and lips. “I…”

Pressure clamped down on Ana’s mind, so absolute that she cried out. The world dulled as her Affinity vanished; her head throbbed against a familiar, cold wall.

A shadow parted from the velvet curtains. The yaeger stepped into the torchlight. For the first time since Ana had seen her, though, she looked afraid.



Ana didn’t know why until a silky voice caressed her like the night. “Kill her, Nuryasha.”

A figure stepped partially into the torchlight, lurking behind the yaeger and the steel Affinite. But even from there, Ana could see the glint of the broker’s pale, icy eyes as he regarded her.

The steel Affinite—Nuryasha—coughed blood and palmed her blade. She hesitated.

“Kill her,” the broker ordered again. The yaeger’s eyes narrowed. The pressure on Ana’s head increased. She sank to her knees, dizzy with pain, grasping for something—anything—that would save her. One thought comforted her: that May was safe with Ramson.

Nuryasha flung the blade.

A small blur shot out from the corridor to Ana’s left, crashing into her middle and knocking her aside. Ana collided with the wall, pain erupting in her back and her injured arm.

Blinking through the dark spots in her vision, she looked up.

May stood where Ana had been moments before, the sheath of a throwing knife protruding from her abdomen. A dark patch was rapidly spreading across her dress, crimson seeping into her fingers as she tried to stanch its flow with her bare hands. Her eyes were wide with surprise as she met Ana’s gaze, her mouth puckered in a slight O.

She staggered and fell lightly to the ground.

Time seemed to stop, and the rest of the world dissipated until there was only the image of May’s small figure slumped on the reddening floor, seared indelibly into Ana’s mind. Her ears filled with a strange ringing silence as she clawed her way to the child’s side; she thought she heard screaming, but nothing made sense anymore.



Ana lifted May into her arms. Had she always been this light?

“May,” Ana whispered. Her hands came away sticky and dark.

The world crashed back in a whirl of smoke and blood. It took Ana a moment to realize that the yaeger’s barrier on her mind had lifted.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ramson shove the yaeger aside, his dagger protruding from her back. Nuryasha lay at his feet, motionless in a pool of her own blood. The broker was gone.

Ramson’s eyes latched on to May, and he swore softly.

“Ana,” whispered May.

“Hush.” Ana clasped her shaking hands over May’s, pressing against the wound. “I’ll stop the bleeding, and we’ll get you bandaged up.”

May’s chest hitched in short, shallow breaths. A dizzying amount of blood hit Ana’s senses; her Affinity shuddered, and she bit back her nausea.

“My ma-ma said,” May murmured, and drew another rattling breath, “?‘We are but dust and stars.’ She told me…before we separated…to look for her in the earth and in the stars.”