Raena laughed as she dropped onto the rooftop assassin from above, her heels driving into his spine. He never saw her coming.
"Wrong house," she crooned, fingers wrapping around his throat. "Wrong girl."
She squeezed. Blood Qi flared. His life force poured into her hand like wine into a goblet. She drank deeply. In the distance, another would-be lookout on the outer wall suddenly found his legs refusing to obey him. Shadows twisted up, forming hands that pulled him silently into the darkness.
Azrail didn't even look that way. He had more important prey. In the garden, the gate creaked. The last of the primary assassins—a secondary Heaven Core, older, more cautious—slid through, eyes wide with alarm.
He'd felt his team's signatures vanish one by one. He'd assumed Lin Mei's little "accident" had gone… unexpectedly lethal. He hadn't expected the rest of his support team to be wiped out in the same breath.
He stepped into the garden and froze.
