Sky Ghosts: Initiation (Sky Ghosts #1)

Chapter 1

The sun perched right over the horizon when she walked out into the yard, looking for her sister. Jane was chatting with their colleague Patrick, their bench bathed in sunlight. Pulling on a nonchalant face, Pain strolled toward them.

"Tell me again, why are we patrolling tonight?" Jane said the moment she spotted her.

Patrick trailed off, whatever he was saying hanging in the air unfinished. He squinted at Pain as she stood in front of him, her body blocking the sunlight, her katana's shadow stretching across the pavement.

"Did you have a fight with Peter again?" Jane asked.

"He found out about those two Beasts from last week," Pain said with a shrug.

"And the other three dozen?"

A smirk pulled at the corner of Pain's mouth. "That was mostly Marco. Don't look at me like—"

Jane waved her off.

Sensing the awkward mood, Patrick got up and ran a hand through his short blond hair. "I should go," he mumbled, his cheeks reddening for no reason. "Good luck on your watch."

Jane nodded with a smile. "Be careful."

He nodded back and turned around just as a group of rookies spilled out of the sliding front door.

"Peter said, if I'm going to needlessly endanger myself, I might as well do something useful," Pain said. Jane's eyes were on the rookies crowding in the yard. "I don't see how this patrol is more useful than wiping out half of Chuck's gang, but whatever." She turned to look at the rookies too.

A furrow appeared between Jane's eyebrows. Despite the three-year age gap, they were often taken for twins. But Pain knew that her features weren't quite as soft and feminine as her little sister's; that there was a sharpness to her that had nothing to do with makeup.

"Wondering if they'll survive their first patrol?" Jane asked. Her eyes pointed at the young men.

"Wondering if they'll survive the training." Pain crossed her arms, turning to look at them—and catching more than a couple of curious stares. "You and I and Patrick, we've been in this since we'd learned how to walk. These boys... Half of them will be dead before the year is through."

"Well, it's not on you, is it?" Jane got up and stretched, her twin swords hanging at her hips.

"It is on me," Pain hissed, and held her sister's gaze. "It's on all of us, for not doing more to stop it. These patrols are pointless."

"Tell that to all the civilians who didn't get slaughtered thanks to us."

"What about the ones who did get slaughtered because Eugene is still out there? What about our funding drying out because he keeps going after our clients?"

"What do you want to do, go after Eugene yourself?" Jane asked. "You know you can't. No one can."

"There has to be something we could do, but Peter won't listen to my ideas," Pain protested, and started walking toward the ground floor door.

"Because they're crazy. And because he knows Eugene better than anyone, and he doesn't want you anywhere near him. Just let it go, seriously. Focus on your work."

It's not enough. Pain didn't voice yet another protest, suddenly weary of fruitless arguments. She looked around the darkening yard one more time, the last sunrays of the day painting the inside of the semicircular building red. The men stood smoking and chatting in low voices. They didn't have to worry about civilians seeing them here, with the building located on the outskirts of Brooklyn, surrounded by a small field and a road. No one would look at it twice.