I paused for a moment, hand on the wind-cold doorhandle. A look to one side revealed nothing but trees flashing by; a look to the other side the same.

  This was it, in a way. A jump from excusable curiosity into vigilante investigation. Something—someone perhaps—was nearby in the trees behind us. There was a good chance they were nearby now too, following the train for one reason or another.

  And people from Enic’s group, who may or may not be mundane themselves, were also here. Likely for their own brand of vigilantism. Here I am, striding into the middle of all this without any more plan than to find a justification.

  I wanted to look back where I’d come, but standing out here longer would only leave me more exposed. Taking a deep breath, I opened the door a crack and slipped quickly inside. I’d expected darkness, but small, slat-like windows near the top cast the room in a dim glow that wavered in time with the trees outside.

  Crates, boxes, and more, some covered in pinned-down canvas or held by chained ropes were stacked up to the window slats. A narrow path split the center, down to the door on the opposite side. Unlike the passenger cars, there was nothing in here to deaden the noise, and the rapid clacking of the tracks below marched in time with my heart.

  It didn’t slow until I’d swept and found the room all clear.

  The worst part, I realized with a sinking pit in my stomach, was that I didn’t know where to start. The crates nearest me were nailed shut, and rather than risk someone walking in on me, I searched for a prybar. One was laying in a groove by the large side door used for loading and unloading, but I didn’t realize the problem until I had it in hand.

  Could I put the top back on convincingly? How much time would this take?

  I put the prybar back and wandered the cargo, trying to see if anything jumped out at me. The crates of pumpkins? Obviously not those.

  All the while, my nerves drew more and more thin. What am I doing skulking around in the rail car? I’m the… I’m not really anybody now, am I?

  Bang! A falling barrel made me jump so high my head hit the car’s roof. The smell of lamp oil hit me immediately as wetness pooled under my feet. Claws ready to spring from my hands, I hissed and spun, only to find no one hiding in the gaps.

  The dark, shimmering stain was spreading, so I quickly grabbed the barrel, righted it, and looked for the cap. It’d rolled across the car, but I pushed it back on easily enough. When I reached to put it back, that was when I noticed something very important.

  The cargo here was separated into groups, and some had straps and planks to hold the stacks in place. The one around the big stack of lamp oil was lying on the floor, cut through. Someone had shoved it into a gap, out of sight, and the planks were stacked next to it.

  Not bloodstone, but evidence all the same. Worse than that, one drum was missing. No one would’ve been able to sneak that through the train, which meant… I looked toward the door going further toward the back of the train, to the very last cargo car.

  I almost took the prybar, just in case.

  Like the last, this one was unlocked. Unlike the last, I saw something in the trees again. A glint like metal or glass: a blade or a button. There were no good options, but outside was worse than in, so I pulled the door open, ducked inside, and closed it swiftly.

  Blood.

  The smell was faint, but unmistakable. Not quite blood, but something equally familiar and much much more worrisome. Bloodstone.

  My head whipped toward the scent, and I locked eyes with a woman prying the lid off a crate. She was dressed like she was part of the crew, and her eyes narrowed. More crates like the one she was prying, all unmarked, filled half the car

  My stomach sunk. Father, why?

  “Passengers shouldn’t be in the cargo cars.” The was an undertone of threat to her voice, which rolled like a low-class accent masking as something higher. Behind her, the missing lamp oil barrel sat ready.

  If I hadn't had years of practice and a set of new instincts, I’d have frozen. A moment of hesitation that could have ruined everything. Instead, I took an educated guess. “And crew shouldn’t wonder what the blind serpent sees.”

  When she heard the words Enic had told me to say, her brow furrowed. The crowbar stayed stuck, lid pried halfway off, and no tension left her. “Who might you be to ask such a strange question?”

  “You may consider me a friend of Enic’s.”

  Recognition lit in her eyes, but she frowned. “You shouldn’t be here. I know who’s part of this, and you’re not.”

  So either Enic’s name carries weight. “Is that what I think it is?” I glanced at the crate. The smell of bloodstone was stronger now, and the acrid undertone seemed familiar, too. The cap was already off the barrel of lamp oil. How did she even move that? Is she a cultivator too?

  “It won’t be for long.” The woman glanced at me before prying the lid off. “Like I said, you should leave.”

  “What are you doing with that stuff?” Bloodstone, but I couldn’t show I knew.

  She moved to the next crate, its nails creaking as she pried it open. “It burns good.”

  Destroying it was good, but fire? On the train? “Do you know who put it here, where it’s going?”

  “Leave, or it’s gonna get ugly.” She moved to the next crate.

  As I lifted my foot to take another step, my instincts flared and time slowed. The twisting feeling of a powerful technique hit me just in time to leap back as the side door of the cargo car blew open. The woman flew across the car and crashed into the crates opposite, crowbar flying as the open barrel tipped over and gushed lamp oil. The whole train car rocked, wheels grinding as they strained against the rails.

  Bloodstone dust clouded the air. Full of vitae…

  A man stepped through the opening, grinning and well-groomed, with long dark hair and piercing blue eyes. He appeared in the wreckage like a wraith, dark purple robes flowing around his feet.

  “I wondered what I’d find if I watched the rats scurrying.” Robes’ voice was smooth, with a practiced air of superiority I’d spent much of my life learning to both affect and endure. “But you’re not like the other fallow rats, are you?”

  I kept my eyes on the man, even as lamp oil soaked my feet. It wasn’t hard to tell that Robes was strong. Third Ring at least, if his unconcerned look and relaxed posture were any indication. More than that, not a fleck of bloodstone dust alighted on his robes, driven off by some technique I couldn’t see.

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  My instincts were screaming to run away, twitching, waiting for any opening. The crushed crates exploded outward, adding more bloodstone to the air as the woman launched forward with a guttural yell.

  I took the chance to duck back, but some technique of his pressed down on me, pinning me against the door. At the same time, the woman missed terribly, nearly falling through the hole in the car’s side. We entered a bend, and the car bounced dangerously on the rails, wheels squealing in protest.

  She turned, stumbling, and I got a look at her eyes. Red like bloodstone, they were dim and sickly. Gashes stuffed full of bloodstone covered her body, and it wasn’t hard to see broken bones and remember what Enic said.

  Bloodstone kills.

  She jumped and the force pinning me lifted. Only to slam into her, sending the woman flying out of the car, body a crumpled mess.

  He watched her go. “Poor fallow. But this is not the path to strength.”

  I barely missed the gathering vitae of an external technique. I jumped, bending at an impossible angle, and kicked off the side wall of the car as a rain of icy needles impaled where I’d been standing, having punched straight through the outside of the car.

  “Told you that one’s not fallow,” a lilting voice mocked. “You’re always so performative when it’s just better to get things done.”

  “And you are never silent when it matters.”

  A lithe figure dropped in the ruined opening, sparing a glance at where the woman from earlier had crashed. The dust fell on her, but her face hid behind an emotionless mask of ice. “Wow you broke this place good, huh. But come on, if you hadn’t insisted on watching, we could’ve saved the shipment.” Unlike Robes, Needles was wrapped up tightly in dark clothing, pale green eyes shining.

  “We’ve gained information,” Robes rumbled. “They’re working with cultivators.”

  By now, the lamp oil covered in glittering bloodstone had spread across the car’s floor. It reeked like vitae and danger.

  For a split second Robes’ eyes left me to glare at her. I dashed for the door, only for a wild force to knock me into it so hard I felt the metal bend. I staggered back and whirled, just in time to watch Needles step forward, her malice-filled eyes drilling into me.

  “Go on then,” she teased. “Show me what you can do. Someone’s apparently far more interested in watching you squirm than doing our job.”

  The air around me chilled, and I froze. Keep them talking; that’s the only way out of this.

  “I… what’s going on here?”

  Needles laughed. “You know we heard everything, right?”

  “I-I was just curious, that’s all!” The stutter came easily, naturally, though my shaking shoulders were very much real.

  She frowned, and I wondered if I caught her bluffing. I’d bet she expected me to try something when she turned back to Robes, but I caught the corner of her eye.

  The car jolted again, and my eyes caught a spark from the damaged wheels as it glinted up through the hole.

  It didn’t even make it to the oil-soaked floor.

  The moment it touched the bloodstone-rich air, flames burst forth like a technique unto their own. With a thunderous boom, heat and force slammed me into—then through—the door.

  Surrounded by blinding flames, my world went white, then red, all in agonizing, ear-ringing silence. I rolled, the track suddenly above my head, and the train shook again, violently. My sharp nails dug into metal, then my legs, and I blinked soot out of all my eyes.

  Inches away from my face, the track sped by. I watched the ground under the tracks fall away, replaced with the massive beams of an elevated trestle.

  Move!

  I spun, threw out silk, and yanked myself backwards and up toward the car’s roof. Ice spikes landed behind me and the car dented inwards. But I didn’t make it; the silk caught the moment it left my legs, fire tracing back in a second and lighting me up like I was made of paper.

  I landed on the roof and rolled before lifting myself with my spider legs. The flames attacking me sputtered and waned, and I felt like my entire body had been scorched.

  Stretching ahead of me, the train rolled on, crossing the trestle spanning a deep gorge. Behind me, heat and fire loomed as the last cargo car burned. Ahead, on the roof of the rearmost passenger car, the two cultivators stood, watching me, their outfits only lightly singed. Vitae was pulling out of my limited reserves, hearing reasserting itself as the last of my silken guise burned away.

  Whatever Needles said was lost to the wind, and Robes’ reply equally so. And then they charged, leaping over to my cargo car’s roof. I bent sharply, threw out silk, and dodged. One leg was clipped, and a wave of force sent me bouncing, but I clung to the side, punching eight holes in the metal.

  When I tried to skitter away from the fire, ice thudded into the car, blocking me. Two strands of silk this time: one raked the top, and the other clung to the side, swinging me up and over. Up top, Robes had stumbled, but Needles was clear and aiming. A hiss built in my throat, along with something else as we squared off.

  They’re unsure what I can do.

  Pressure and vitae built in two of my fangs. More ice, more force. Again, I nearly dodged, again my limbs paid for it with pain and broken chitin.

  My topmost legs threw me upright and I opened my jaws instinctively right as the vitae burst forth. A hissing ball of pale liquid shot forth, covered by two strands of silk. Fast as they were, they weren’t a perfect team. The ball of vitae-enhanced venom splashed off Robes’s shield and spattered Needles’ arm.

  She howled in pain, smoke rising from her arm, and I surged forward. My piercing limbs were stopped just before Robes’ skin, but the impassive look was gone from his face. In its place, intense focus and wide eyes met a mouth set in a thin line.

  The thread Needles had just dodged vibrated, and I jolted out of the way as ice crashed forward. A sound like breaking glass sent Robes’ stumbling. But before I could wrap my silk around his neck, he’d rolled out of the way, fist punched forward.

  Force hit me in the chest like a train. When I rolled, shards of ice cracked two of my legs, settling with a heavy weight as the ice spread. More silk sliced it off, but the pair rushed me. Again, I dove off the side, and again they forced me back.

  Now, my back was to the fire again. The heat was warmer, closer. Slagged metal spattered the side of the car under me.

  “Who do you work for, demon?” Robes’ demanded. The pain in his voice sent a shiver of satisfaction down my spine. If there were not two, he would make for fine prey.

  “You think she’s going to tell us? Just kill her already!”

  We moved cautiously, but I couldn’t stop them from advancing. The silk I’d laid on the car’s roof ignited from the sheer heat, and my vitae had almost run dry. When I cast the next line of silk out, it combusted, and the pair seized their chance.

  I should have known it would end this way. I should have listened and tried to run. Only a few seconds had passed, but I knew I’d exhausted all the options. Below us, the trestle, now a bridge, spanned a canyon, a glittering ribbon of river far down at the bottom.

  Individually, I was outclassed. Outnumbered, I’d never stood a chance.

  My fangs ached, even if I’d never get to sink them into their throats. Behind me, the ruins of the other cargo car belched tongues of fire and a torrent of black smoke. The heat here burned, and together the pair they drove me back until one of my legs met air instead of metal. In an instant, I corrected, but that instant was far more time than either of them needed.

  Needles grabbed a leg and my whole body went rigid, as freezing cold washed over me, my own dwindling vitae no match for the foreign technique invading me. The man punched forward, force extending past his fist, doubling me over. Spikes of ice caught me, burrowing deep. I tried to summon threads, but it was like my vitae had frozen in my body.

  Instead of finishing the job, the pair backed off suddenly. Through blurry vision, I saw the flames reach me. In the back of my mind, the thought remained… wasn’t there a lot more lamp oil in this car?

  The second explosion drove the air from my lungs and sent me to meet the sky. Another wall of force slammed my limp body down into the inferno. Scorching heat replaced freezing cold. A hissing scream tore from my throat and behind my eyes, I watched my garden set ablaze, flames racing toward the silken tree.

  Something jolted, metal screeched, and the destroyed cargo car lurched, tipped, and groaned. With a snapping sound, fresh air rushed in to stoke the flames, and the floor fell from beneath me. I hit one wall, then the other, as charred remains of cargo battered me.

  Through the hole, I saw the sky turning, then the bridge soaring above. Two figures watched from the end of the train as my burning grave fell into the canyon. They turned out of view, a wall of rock spun past, and I saw the thin, glimmering line of the river rushing up to meet me.

  When river and train car met, the last thing I felt was the sweet relief of the frigid, rushing water.