The elevator shuddered and creaked as it ascended. When the doors opened, Grace was the first to hurry out. Jasper chuckled as she followed.

The five crossed a skywalk to the Bibi’s. Grace peered over the railing at the city below. At the walkways and skyways filled with people and cars. The flying vehicles, flashing lights and billboards. The urge to jump and spread her wings made her heart ache. She’d rarely had the opportunity to fly while living at the palace.

The end of the skywalk connected to a walkway wrapping around the skyscraper. Similar walkways clung to most public floors in the cities—the floors of buildings filled with restaurants and shopping centers. Stretches of buildings with nothing but windows and balconies on their outer wall typically signaled offices or apartments on the inside, only accessible by interior elevators requiring keycards or a code.

“Won’t people recognize us?” Grace asked as they reached the diner’s front door.

“Not unless we do something to get their attention,” Jasper said. “And Bibi’s shouldn’t be busy yet.”

Well, Kronos was home to life from all over the galaxy. There was such a diverse variety of people on the streets that it was hard to attract attention by sight alone, regardless of what you looked like. No one would pay much mind to people who were just walking. Plus, Holly and Thea had left their jackets in the car, making themselves less recognizable.

Still, Grace wished she had a jacket to hide her wings, even if they folded up tightly enough to not be blatantly obvious.

The group entered the Bibi’s and found it empty. Jasper tapped the bell by the register. A moment later, a teenage girl emerged from the back, loudly chewing gum. She had dark blue scaly skin, lighter blue hair pulled up on top of her head, and an annoyed expression on her serpentine face. “You’re early.”

Jasper shrugged. “Things went smoother than usual for me. Statistically speaking, something terrible is bound to happen at any moment.” She clapped her hands together. “So, you have the passwords for the employee database?”

The girl blew a pink bubble and reached into the front pocket of her shirt with a clawed hand. She held up a folded piece of paper. “You have my jewelry?”

Jasper emptied her pockets onto the counter. The girl picked up a necklace and examined the vibrant red jewel at the end of its chain. Apparently satisfied, she handed the paper to Jasper and began scooping the jewelry into a paper bag with the Bibi’s logo on it.

“How did you get these, anyway?” Jasper asked as she tucked the paper into her coat. “We couldn’t find them in any of the Starchatter databases we hacked.”

“They don’t keep them in the system, they keep them on paper. They’ve had issues with security in the past,” the girl explained. “Lucky for you, I have a close connection there.”

“Follow-up question,” Holly said, raising an eyebrow as she looked around the diner. “What are you doing working in a place like this? We just handed you hundreds of thousands of janos worth of jewelry. You have connections with people like Van Terra.” Her tone was tinged with suspicion.  

The girl shrugged. “My mom would be suspicious if I didn’t have a job.”

As the last of the jewelry went into the bag, a gunshot echoed outside. Jasper had a gun of her own gun in hand in an instant. Holly drew a blaster from a holster at her back. Thea and Dax tensed but didn’t look particularly alarmed.

Grace only had a moment to be surprised by the weapons she hadn’t noticed the team carrying. She stared, frozen, as a bullet came through the door and struck the wall behind the counter.

“Oh, come on,” the employee groaned. “I left the Green District to get away from this kind of thing.” She stormed into the back.

A few more shots went off. Jasper took a step toward the door. “Who’s there?”

The door burst open, revealing three Red Blades. Grace yelped and stumbled backward into the counter.

“What were you shooting for?” Jasper asked the Blades. “Door was unlocked.”

The blue-furred Blade in the middle stepped forward, one of his large ears twitching. “Hand over Alvarez, and we’ll let the rest of you go.”

“Not a chance.” Jasper cocked her gun. “Holly, help me. Everyone else, get to the balcony.”

“You think we don’t have more Blades in the area?” the Blade asked.

“This close to the upper districts? Can’t have too many of you in one group. You’ll scare the rich people.” Jasper took aim. “And not all of the police are quite as cozy in Starr’s pocket as you are.”

Grace hurried after Thea and Dax to the open doorway that led to an outdoor dining area. The Bibi’s was positioned in the corner of the building, allowing the diner a massive balcony jutting out the side to accommodate their lunch rushes.

More gunshots rang out behind the three as they stepped outside, joined by the sound of Holly’s blaster firing. Grace dove to the side, aiming to take shelter under a table. The floor was slicker than she expected, and she found herself rolling back out into the open. She pushed herself out into a crouch and glanced back at the doorway.

Bullets whizzed by overhead. Grace scrambled forward blindly and collided with the balcony railing. Another shot. Then a second, and a third.

The fourth bullet hit Grace’s right wing, bounced off, and grazed the back of her shoulder. She yelped, more from shock than pain. It took a few ragged breaths before the sensation of torn flesh hit her. It took a few more before she could crane her neck and attempt to assess the damage.

Dax and Thea were crouched under a table nearby. “Let me take a look!” Dax called, starting toward her.

Thea grabbed him and pulled him to the ground. “Look out!”

Grace ducked. Her hands tightened around the bars of the railing. This time it wasn’t bullets, but red beams of energy that cut through the air. One of the Blades had a blaster of their own.

One shot struck the railing, ripping an entire section off the balcony. The section Grace was clinging too. She went down with it.

Her wings unfolded on instinct. Fresh pain coursed through the right side of her body. She was able to catch enough air to slow her descent, but every second was a battle.

Grace extended her arms, hoping to find something to catch herself on. Her hands met a railing. She swung against the bars and grimaced through the next wave of pain. Great. Now her ribs were almost as unhappy as her shoulder.

A few seconds was all she got before losing her grip. She didn’t get a chance to spread her wings again, landing a moment later on a fire escape hugging the side of an office building. She tumbled down the steps and came to a stop at the next landing.

With shaking arms, she tried to push herself up but slipped and slammed face first into the metal platform. Blood trickled from her lip. Gunshots echoed above her.

Grace grabbed the railing above her head and pulled herself to her feet. A bullet ricocheted off the stairs a few stories up. Leaning out over the railing, she peered up and tried to locate her pursuers. The painfully close sound of the next shot made her jump in surprise. She tumbled off the fire escape.

The world dimmed. More and more passing windows were shattered or boarded up. Fewer flying cars moved through the air, replaced with vehicles that were confined to the pothole-riddled skyways of the lower city.

A slanted roof sped toward Grace. She gritted her teeth and forced her wings to their full length.

Her spinning head and ringing ears made it difficult to process what happened after she hit the roof. She was rolling, falling, crashing. She bounced off the lid of a dumpster and fell one last time. Concrete greeted her at the end of her final descent.

Groaning, Grace pressed a hand to her pounding head. She managed to pull herself into a sitting position, but standing was beyond her. The world blurred. Her eyes stung. She’d never been in this much pain before. Was she dying? Would someone find her before she did?

She wanted to cry, but even that seemed impossible. Her eyes closed. The passing of time became something distant, a hazy concept her mind couldn’t grasp. Any coherent thoughts she had faded away.