The city’s namesake.


    Great. Hopefully, things wouldn’t get too shady. She’d looked at a map online, but a map was just a bunch of colored lines, and it could only tell you so much about a place.


    Shit. Had she messed up the passphrase? Gotten a word wrong? She’d rehearsed this thing over two dozen times. It should be right. Then again, what if she’d had the wrong phrase to begin with? Her palms started to sweat, but she resisted the urge to wipe them on her skirt.


    A sound-suppression Construct? She couldn’t see anything, but some mana Constructs were invisible. Especially aspects like sound and air.


    Damnit. How did he know? How did people always just . . . know? Her badge was hidden beneath her hoodie, and nothing else should have given her rank away. Then again, it could be a simple deduction on his part. A Silver wouldn’t bother hiding her badge, and a Gold wouldn’t come here in the first place.


    Speaking of bullshit. Everyone said Bronze bodies were weaker than Silvers and Golds, but they failed to point out a real biological difference. She’d been hit by a Silver’s Missile before, and it wasn’t much worse than a punch to the face.


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    Talek. She wanted this more than anything in the world. Her life might even depend on it someday.


    Talek. This was a trap. Who even fell for a stupid trap like this? Akari was more reckless than most, but how would they know that?


    Damnit. She should have seen this coming. Magnus didn’t seem so bad, but his dojo would attract its share of shady students.


    For Talek’s sake. Why didn’t they give up?


    Surrounded once again.


    you?” Blondie shot back. “Then how come you’ve got my money?”


    had stolen from her—which she couldn’t prove—it didn’t justify lethal force on a public street.