Jasper flashed the newcomers a smile. One of her hands slid into a pocket. “Hello there! What brings you all to this…rooftop?”

A man whose skin was covered in dark green scales stepped forward and held up his empty hands, a cold smile on his serpentine face. Grace’s eyes quickly went to the tattoo on his wrist: a knife dripping with blood.

“I could ask you the same thing, Van Terra,” the man said. His hands dropped to his sides. “But I already know you’re here to rob the jewelry store a few floors down.”

Grace shot Jasper an incredulous look. “You’re what?”

“What did you think we came up here to do? Enjoy the sunrise?” Jasper’s focus shifted back to the man. “Don’t tell me you’re here to stop me. You’ve done far worse than robbery.”

“We’re not here for you, despite the reward on your head.” The man nodded at Grace. “We’re here for her.”

“Me?” Grace yelped.

“Too bad,” Jasper said. “She’s mine.”

“We’re not letting you leave with her.” The man flexed one of his hands. His associates inched forward, their own hands moving to guns at their sides. Along with the weapons, Grace spotted more bloody knife tattoos. Were they part of one of the lower district gangs? The name “Red Blades” did sound familiar, the more she rolled it around in her head.

Jasper drew a dagger.

“Bringing a knife to a gunfight?” The serpentine man laughed as he drew his gun from his side holster. “Idiot.”

Jasper’s head tipped to the side. “Angel, you may want to get down.”

The other Red Blades lifted their guns. Heart pounding, Grace dropped to the ground.

Jasper moved with speed and grace that bordered on inhuman, deflecting every bullet with the dagger’s blade as if it were a shield. With her other hand, she drew a second dagger. The gunfire continued and she danced in a circle around Grace, throwing bullets to the ground. Grace remained crouched, frozen, with her hands over her ears.

The gunfire finally stopped.

“Guns run out of bullets.” Jasper smirked. “And I’m Van Terra. Idiot.”

She lunged forward and stabbed the closest man in the chest. Grace flinched.

A woman to Grace’s right, with the pale green skin and pointed ears of a West Kronosian, drew a dagger of her own and darted forward. Grace tried to scramble away but wound up staggering backwards and falling.

The woman was halfway to Grace when Jasper sent a knife flying into her shoulder. Clutching her arm, the Red Blade cried out and dropped to her knees. Another Blade, a blue-furred man, swung at Jasper with a pocketknife. Jasper laughed and knocked it aside.

Grace dropped her gaze to the ground beneath her and focused on getting back up. Her legs had turned to jelly, her hands had gone numb, and every frantic breath brought her closer to passing out. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to think about anything besides the clinking of metal on metal. The tang of blood in the air.

The rooftop fell quiet. A hand grabbed Grace’s shoulder. She yelped and looked up.

“Whoa, it’s okay, it’s me,” Jasper said. “Take a deep breath. If you pass out, I’m not carrying you.”

Grace risked a glance around the roof. They were the only two left standing. “Are they dead?” she asked, avoiding looking at any particular body for more than a second.

“Not yet. But some of them might get back up if we stick around too long, so…” Jasper jutted a thumb at the door.

Grace climbed to her feet, took a shaky step, and then another. “Okay. I’m okay.” As they started across the roof, she asked, “What are your daggers made of?”

“A galaxium alloy,” Jasper answered. “It’s tough stuff, but even the best knives break after enough bullets.” She lifted an eyebrow. “So, you really haven’t heard of the Red Blades?”

“I guess they do sound familiar.”

“They’re the biggest gang on the planet.” Jasper reached the door first and opened it. A light flickered on automatically to illuminate the staircase on the other side.

Grace had heard about gangs operating in the lower districts, but… “I didn’t think there were any gangs up here.”

“That’s what the government wants you to think.” Jasper laughed. “Seriously, though. The gangs—some of them, anyway—bring the elite families drugs and other illegal imports. In exchange, they get a degree of protection from the law.” After a pause, she added, “Though, you are right that they don’t usually make themselves visible up here. Today was a rare exception. You were enough of a target to make them come up.”

Grace was too focused on not tripping down the steep roof-access staircase to fully grasp everything Jasper said. “Why does the biggest gang on Kronos want me dead?” she asked, still processing the new information.

“Because they work for Starr, obviously.”

“What?” Despite her best efforts, Grace stumbled at the next landing. Her legs were still shaky from the confrontation on the roof. Her hands weren’t any better, she noticed as she caught her balance.

“The Red Blades do all of Starr’s dirty work for him,” Jasper explained. “The governor has his own personal army, and the public has no idea. And that’s on top of the upper district police forces that are more loyal to him than they are the law.”

Grace glanced at her as they started down the next flight of stairs. “How do you know all of this? And about the lab experiments?”

“I have my ways.” Jasper hopped over the last three steps.

“And I’m—” Grace swallowed. “How sure are we that the lab I escaped was one of Starr’s?”

“It explains why Starr’s so determined to get his hands on you again,” Jasper answered with a slight shrug. “And the Sky Labs experiments mostly revolve around cyborg enhancements.”

Grace frowned. “I’m not a cyborg.”

“Yeah, you are. That’s what your wings are. Cybernetic.”

“Right. I guess I never thought about it like that.” Grace paused a moment before starting down the next flight of steps after Jasper. “But a lot of people in the city are cyborgs. They aren’t all experiments.”

“Sure, they have basic replacements for missing limbs. If they’re rich enough, with the right connections, they might have a computer chip in their brain or an illegal weapon implant.” Jasper waved a hand as she leapt down to the next landing. “But Sky Labs tech is next level and has been for decades. Nothing like those wings exists anywhere else.”

Jasper exited the stairwell and led Grace into a hallway bathed in the warm glow of dimmed lights. “Now,” she said. “This is where it gets serious.”

Grace stared at her. “And the gunfight on the roof wasn’t?”

Jasper shrugged.