Those who dismissed the warnings met mysterious deaths. These unexplained incidents spread fear and suspicion among the denizens of the Underworld. Within a few short years, slavery died out due to paranoia. While the Underworld endured, human and demon trafficking was permanently outlawed. What had once been the primary source of profit for dealers now became a taboo practice.

- The Secret History of Slavery

“What is your name?” Nia whispered to the demon boy as they slinked out the door and into the darkness with the Zahdian boy in tow.

She could hear the chirpings of night insects and even the hunting calls of night hawks far off in the distance. It was quite reassuring to hear something familiar.

Nia finally got a good look at the location in which they were being held. It was still very dark, but she managed to make out the silhouettes of the buildings.

The area looked like a giant cavern that had been repurposed for keeping storage. Barracks, warehouses, and empty stalls lined up in rows. The stable was to the left. Nia could make out horses and camels in there along with empty caravans. There was a huge opening on the ceiling of the cavern where the moonlight streamed in. It might have been caused by erosion from the outside. However, it was too high up to use as an escape route. 

There were several exits on the right wall. Torches flickered in the distance where a collection of tents were set up. Nia immediately knew that the tents were housing the human traffickers, and she made a note to keep an eye on them for any signs of movement.

The Zahdian boy quickly made his way toward the stable without being reminded of his task.

Nia’s nerves were humming and on edge as she and the demon boy crept toward the warehouses among the shadows.

She couldn’t help but marvel at how calm he was. She also wondered how he knew where to go. Is it the instinct of a thief, or the instinct of a demon that’s guiding him right now?

“My name is Khiran.” He answered back. “Just Khiran. By the way, I already figured out what yours is. How did the second princess of Saraja get kidnapped by slavers?”

Nia froze in place, shock and fear pooling in her stomach. How did he find out?

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell the slavers.” He reassured her jokingly. “Not even for money.”

“How did you know?” Nia’s voice came out in a cracked whisper, which ruined her facade of false courage.

“Your eyes, they reminded me of the late queen’s. Your mother was from the Lunare family, wasn’t she? The maternal bloodline of Queen Lavida Lunare?” He referred to the first queen of Saraja using her maiden surname.

Nia instinctively ducked her head again, lowering her eyes to the ground. How could she have forgotten to hide her eyes? Blue eyes were uncommon in Saraja, after all. Did anyone else see them? 

As far as she knew, only members of the Lunare family had it, and the famous ‘Lunare eyes’ can only be passed down from mother to children. Because Nia’s mother was from the Lunare family, Nia and her sibling inherited her blue eyes. 

Before them, the last members of the royal family to have blue eyes were the children born between King Jasheed Latarias and Queen Lavida Lunare. Blue eyes cannot be inherited through paternal lines.

“There’s no way you’ve met my mother.” Nia blurted out the obvious.

Khiran snorted. “Obviously not, but I’ve seen her in public a few times. Also, the handclock you had earlier was a dead giveaway. Only nobles could afford handclocks, but a gold one? The hairpin you bartered to me suggested that you might be from a wealthy aristocratic household, but the gold handclock is owned by a selected few.”

Nia immediately placed her hand protectively over the place where her handclock was hidden. She immediately regretted her actions when she realized she accidentally gave its position away.

“You thought I forgot about it, didn’t you?” Khiran asked, amused by her worried expression.

“Don’t steal it,” Nia warned with a hard edge in her voice.

Khiran shrugged. “I steal for the fun and thrill of stealing, not for the money. At least, in the past I did, but this hairpin alone would let me live comfortably for a good while, anyway.” He pulled the jewel hairpin out of his pocket and studied it under the torchlight.

Nia froze as she suddenly came to another far-stretch conclusion based off of Khiran’s earlier words. “You stole the sagehand’s handclock?” It was more of an accusation than a question. “You recognized it as a handclock despite the fact that very few exist in all three kingdoms. Also, you claimed that steal for the fun and thrill of stealing, so it sounded like something you would do. Stealing the old sagehand’s handclock, that is.”

“I didn’t take it. What’s the point if no one knows enough about it to appreciate its value? That’s the problem with new inventions. I merely removed it from his office and hid it in a vase in the living room.”

Nia nearly choked on her own saliva from surprise. She didn’t know whether to laugh at him or berate him. The old sagehand had blamed her for months over a crime Khiran committed. His precious handclock was under his nose the whole time. 

What were the odds that she ended up meeting the actual thief? In a place like this of all things. Nia let out a silent sigh instead.

Nia frowned. “Tell me the truth. Why did you agree to my request? The one where I asked you to destroy this place.”

Khiran quietly slipped the jewel hairpin back into his pocket. “You were right. It’s too risky to escape this place without taking care of our captors first. They know this place better than we do. But most of all, I was able to break free from the prison because of your hairpin. Therefore, I am indebted to you, and demons take their debts very seriously.”

It seemed like an overkill to help her take down all these slavers simply because she gave him something like a highly-valued lock pick.

“So, how were you kidnapped? I thought you had guards watching your every move.” Khiran was the one to question her this time.

“I ran away after my family was murdered, then I was tricked into eating a drugged bowl of stew. It was a Zahdian woman who kidnapped me. I think she has a vendetta against Sarajans.” Nia answered carefully.

Khiran nodded, his expression as unreadable as ever. “You were lucky she was from Zahdi. If it were someone from the capital of Saraja, they might have recognized you as their princess.”

Nia shuddered. She had also been lucky that it was dark when she woke up. Otherwise, the leader of the slaver might have pinpointed her true identity had he been even a little familiar with the royal family.

“Wait, why did you run away again? And, what you said about your family being murdered…?”

Nia stumbled. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

She regretted her outburst earlier. That must have been how he figured out that her mother was dead. No wonder he referred to her as the late queen.

Thankfully, he didn’t pry into her personal life any further. Instead, he pointed ahead. “Guards in front of us.”

Don’t panic, Nia reminded herself, her heart pounding loudly in her ears. Two guards were watching the entrance to a warehouse in front of them.

“Are you sure this is where the blasting sand is?” Nia asked in a low voice.

He snorted. “Of course not. That’s where the valuables are. It must be in that one.” He pointed to the warehouse a short distance away from the first one.

“I swear, I think you’re playing around.” Nia huffed as she followed him over, careful not to make any loud noises.

“Why would I do that?” The front door was within sight of the guards, so Khiran started scaling up the side of the warehouse as soon as he reached it. He reached the window and opened it within a minute and pulled his body through it.

Nia’s eyes widened in disbelief as she watched him climb. He made it look effortless, like a lizard climbing up a rock. There was no way she could scale the wall like he did.

Khiran must have realized this because not long later, he poked his head out the window and threw down a coil of rope while wearing a teasing smirk.

“Can’t catch up, rich girl?"

She glared back, not daring to say anything with the guards so close. She preferred it when he talked less.

She took the rope and tied it securely around her waist before she started climbing the wall. Khiran helped pull her up as she dug her toes and fingers into the tiny cracks on the wall to haul herself up.

With burning muscles, she silently thanked herself for the times she climbed the palace wall for fun. She was careful not to breathe too loudly or make too much noise.

“What did you find?” She asked softly, studying the room. It was darker than outside and bigger than the barrack. It was also filled with barrels and barrels of…

“Blasting sand,” Khiran’s voice betrayed the smallest note of smugness despite his expressionless face. “Just as I thought.”

“Your intuition is so accurate it’s scary,” Nia admitted. “Is it a demon thing?”

“No, it’s a thief thing. Why would guards be protecting a warehouse of illegal weapons?” Khiran made his way toward the other end of the room and disappeared into the darkness.

Nia can’t help but wonder how he can see. She can barely make out a few feet in front of her with the weak light streaming in from the windows. The darkness is like a blanket smothering every one of her senses.

“How can you see anything?”

“Demon eyes.” He glanced back at her, revealing glowing slitted eyes. “It turns slitted when I’m emotional or when it’s too dark for human vision. You probably noticed that already.”

That’s rather amazing. Instead of voicing that aloud, Nia reached for a barrel of blasting sand, wondering where to put it to create the most damage to the black market.

“Are we really going to blow this place up?” Nia asked hesitantly, doubt lacing her words for the first time.

“You’re not getting cold feet, are you? This was your idea to begin with.”

“I was just thinking about the treasures in the warehouse beside this one.” If Nia could steal some of the treasures, she would have more wealth to pay for her sister’s freedom—no, she was good for now. She still had other jewelry pieces aside from the one she paid Khiran with. She can’t get too greedy when her freedom is still at stake.

“And I thought I was the thief here, not you.” Khiran’s amused voice floated out of the darkness. “Look what I found back here.”

Nia squinted in his direction. “Can’t see.”

“Smoke bombs.”

“That’s useful.”

“And the sleeping drugs, too. Did you know that it doesn’t have to be ingested? As long as it enters the bloodstream, the victims fall asleep in seconds.”

Nia felt goosebumps forming on her arms. “What are you planning to do?”

There was a silence before Khiran’s voice spoke up again. “Find me a small crossbow. I’m going to take care of the guards outside.”

Nia sighed. “I can’t see in the dark, remember?” Torches were too dangerous to bring around, especially with gun powder everywhere.

“Why did I take you with me again?” Khiran groaned. “Never mind, the weapons must be on the next floor.”

“Do you know what’s in the third warehouse? You know, the smallest one.” Nia quizzed his sharp intuition.

“Isn’t it obvious? It’s food and supplies.”

“You seemed to know everything.”

“Thief’s intuition.” Khiran shrugged right before he exited the room carrying the bottles of sleeping drugs in search of a small crossbow.

Nia felt useless. She shouldn’t have asked to come, she was only dragging him down and wasting his time. He would have done fine without her.

She realized that, somehow, Khiran had unknowingly taken her brother’s place as her partner in crime in her mind. That was why she felt the urge to follow him. Nia suddenly felt angry at herself for replacing Vivian with a stranger. 

Khiran was nothing like Vivian. Vivian was kind and thoughtful while Khiran was arrogant and provoking. And yet, Nia felt safer with him by her side despite knowing him for only a few hours.

Khiran returned half an hour later, announcing that he took down all guards outside with small bolts dipped in the sleeping drug. Nia was surprised to hear that—she hadn’t heard even the slightest disturbance. Khiran was too good at what he did. The thought sent chills down her spine.

They returned to the barrack to let the others know that the coast was clear. Some of the captives helped move the barrels of blasting sand and placed them in strategic locations while Khiran rigged it up with a fuse so he could ignite it from a safer distance.

And finally, they were set to go.