Kayson’s apartment felt all wrong. A Bruno-sized hole in the faces I’d grown familiar with. I wasn’t in a good state, and my hand constantly kept shaking. I took a few tries to light my cigarette and let my feet rest on the table; hopefully, the nicotine might help even me out.

Eve paced around with a scowl. It brought a heavy feeling to my heart when her eyes landed on me and filled me with worry. Seeing her worried about me felt unnatural, and I didn't need her pity to settle on me, so I tried to let it run off like water.

Even Suzaki was fidgeting and looking closer to tears.

After sharing what happened, Kayson patted me on the shoulder, looked me in the eye, and then told me we’d get Alex back. After that, he’d made phone call after phone call. It was plain to see he was trying to track down whatever information he could if it wasn’t for his cool head, I dunno what I would’ve done. I probably would’ve wished them the best, then thrown my head on the chopping block.

There was an unsaid promise hanging in the room, and it lingered thick in the small apartment like the smoke of my cigarette. Getting Alex back meant going directly against the Brass Kings. While it was true Tristan already crossed that line; I’m not sure what evidence he’d left. We’d look like the aggressors for this inner gang war if we played it wrong. Even worse, the fighting would occur during the Lantern Festival and in the middle of a war.

Any way we looked at it, there were consequences. Both the circumstances of the situation and any approach we might take to secure my brother’s safety would land us in hot water. Tristan led us here, and I would damn sure make certain he paid the same price.

We were reckless, bold, and foolish idiots for going ahead with this—all of us. Immortals only knew how this would end. But I loved everyone in this damn apartment to my very Soul. That left me with the numb acceptance that I’d do whatever it took to save my brother and unrelenting gratitude to the ones who’d help me down this path. It helped a little bit to offset my mother’s crying and telling me never to come back.

All that was left was to let our thinker put his thoughts together. I held the anxiety of my friends an arm's distance away; it may have been wrong to try to avoid wrapping myself up in the negative emotions. But I knew if I let myself sink again, I would drown. There was nothing to do but wait.

Kayson finished a third phone call. He returned to the room and had a nasty scowl on his face. I ashed my cigarette and composed myself, prepared for bad news; it helped that I’d gotten a shower and a change of clothes from him. Though, this plain button-up shirt and the denim jeans weren’t really my style.

“Right, so.” Kayson cleared his throat. “Bruno’s being held in the outer walls of the Getsu Sect. Yang didn’t see fit to keep his prisoner in his mansion, so he threw Bruno in the Sect brig.” His face took a shadow. “Yan is currently enjoying the festival, harassing women and bragging that he’ll be having a ‘righteous’ duel tomorrow. It’s not common for Sects to advertise duels against rogue cultivators—but his grandfather is exerting pressure to let this entire situation slide, so he’s letting his grandson have his little tantrum.”

“Of fucking course! Those fuckers are all the same! Filthy rich scumbags with nothing going on in their life but to entertain themselves by hurting others and harassing women—“ Eve burst forward, her face red but a note of relief. Go figure she wanted something to lash out about instead of feeling trapped in her head with worry.

“Well, aint like we didn’t buy into this,” I said. There wasn’t a point in deflecting responsibility from the situation.

“What’s done is done. We thought we did a decent job concealing which Brass King members were responsible, and that the Sect would drop it since they normally don’t deal with street gangs. But it was impossible to predict the actions of a traitor with the rank of Captain, and the obsessive nature of an offended young master. Tristan’s suspicious influx of cash and his ability to pay out key members of our gang certainly doesn’t make the information forthcoming. For example, I found out today after pressing my contacts that the Fourth Division approached the Getsu sect two weeks ago.” Kayson said.

Go fucking figure. Tristan shoved his hands into every little place he could. What other things had the psycho been up to that we hadn’t seen so far? Where was he getting all this money?

“What’s important now is to focus.” Kayson met each of our eyes. “We can’t lose our nerves about going against this Sect because this will be the first domino we tip. We’ll be burning many bridges if we even want to stand a single shot of fixing this situation; to get Bruno back, save Luca’s brother, and oust this traitor. We all need to be in this, a hundred percent committed. If anyone wants out, say it now. I’m not going to order you into something that can go so wrong, a situation where even if everything goes in our favor, we have no way of knowing how it'll end. So this is your chance. Leave if it’s too much.”

All of us exchanged looks in complete silence. Kayson stood firm, and I felt a flush of appreciation towards him. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he was willing to go through hell with me if it meant keeping us all safe and happy.

“Do ya even need to ask me?” I folded one foot over the other on the table. Looking up at the trail of smoke drifting up from my death stick’s cherry. This was where the other shoe dropped. Where Eve and Suzaki realized how bad of an idea it was to get tangled all up in this. When they realized the risk of getting their neck chopped off, I was locked in. There wasn’t a choice for me, but I wouldn’t blame my friends for stepping away. My heart tugged, but I accepted it if that’s the decision they needed to make.

“I-I’m in,” Suzaki said. My heart started hammering.

“This is fucking stupid; we’re all screwed. Every one of us.” Eve laughed loudly, killing the tension in the room. “Fine, if we’re all going to die together, let’s do this. But first, we’ll get dumbass one out of jail so that we can have nice little death party.” Eve collapsed on the couch next to me, her fingers snapping out to steal the cigarette that hung from my lips.

I tried to conjure a pissed-off scowl for her, but I couldn’t wipe the dumb smile from my face.

“Don’t worry, dumbass two. We’ll save your lil bro.”