The umpteenth time was the charm.
At least, that was what Taylor told herself as she sat in the mouth of a narrow alley with her back against a brick wall. Though the words sounded ridiculous even in her own head.
Across the street, life carried on. People walked past, cars rolled by, and somewhere in the distance, somebody was arguing loudly enough to be heard over traffic.
Taylor ignored all of it.
Lung would kill her. That much had become obvious. It didn't matter whether she told the truth, lied, begged, insulted him, or tried to reason with him. Every road ended in the same place, with fire, claws, and death. Sometimes all three.
She could not intimidate him either. Her power was horrifying when people understood what it meant or could do. The problem was that Lung didn't. To him, she was just some weird teenage girl who showed up in his territory.
And most of the intimidation was dependent on knowledge she didn't have.
Taylor rubbed at her eyes.
"So what now?" The question echoed uselessly in the empty alley.
Eventually, she arrived at the only answer she had:
Kill Lung.
It seemed simple in theory, but probably impossible in practice. Still better than spending the next hundred loops getting roasted alive.
Her dad would hate the idea, though.
Taylor felt a stab of guilt at that, then shoved it aside. She could feel guilty later, preferably after she wasn't being murdered by a dragonic gang leader anymore.
With a tired groan, she slid down the wall until she was sitting on the ground.
She needed to wait for night to fall. Lung had to sleep eventually. Everybody slept eventually.
Taylor pulled her knees against her chest and rested her forehead on them, breathing in her own smell instead of the garbage around her.
A cat wandered past at some point, looked at her, decided she wasn't worth investigating, and left. The sun crept lower, and her eyes grew heavier.
Resetting every time she died didn't count as sleep, and she was mentally drained. So by the time darkness finally started falling over the city, she was already deeply asleep.
By the time night came, the alley had grown cold enough that she could feel it through her clothes. Her neck ached, and her legs had gone stiff. A discarded newspaper had blown into the corner at some point and remained there, fluttering weakly whenever the wind picked up.
Taylor pushed herself upright.
The neighborhood looked different at night with most of the people gone. However, the few who remained moved quickly, disappearing into buildings without ever lingering.
Good.
That made sneaking around easier.
She made her way toward Lung's building, sticking close to walls and keeping out of the pools of light cast by the occasional streetlight. Nobody stopped her because nobody noticed her.
At least, she didn't think they did.
The building itself was dark except for a handful of windows. Taylor stared up at it, then she took a breath and slipped inside.
The stairwell smelled slightly of cigarette smoke and old concrete, but every sound was muffled because she walked slowly, past one floor and then another.
Nobody appeared, and nobody challenged her. For the first time since arriving in ABB territory, something was actually going according to plan.
Taylor almost didn't trust it.
Eventually, she reached the floor she wanted. The hallway beyond was silent, but her pulse was quickened so much that it sounded so loud in her ears.
This was it. Lung was somewhere ahead. Sleeping, hopefully.
Taylor crept forward, taking one step, then another. And another.
The door at the end of the hallway came into view.
Taylor's heart hammered against her ribs. She opened her mouth slightly, already thinking ahead to what came next. And then, someone appeared beside her.
There was no warning. One moment the space was empty. The next, a masked man stood there.
Oni Lee.
Her stomach dropped.
"Oh—" Something punched through her chest, cutting her off immediately.
Taylor looked down. A blade protruded from her torso.
For a second, she simply stared at it. Then the pain arrived, and blood flooded her mouth. She tried to breathe and immediately choked. Her sight swam in and out of view.
Oni Lee had already vanished.
Taylor collapsed to her knees, more blood spilling onto the floor. She dimly realized she could hear footsteps now, voices too. Someone was shouting orders.
Her vision blurred further.
The last coherent thought she managed was equal parts disbelief and irritation.
Seriously?
Then everything went dark.