THE FIVE THRONES

THE SHADOW'S STRIKE

The knife came out of nowhere.

Sunny felt the whisper of air, the cold kiss of steel against his throat. He threw himself sideways, rolling across the dirt, and the blade sliced through empty space where his neck had been.

He came up fast, fists raised. The attacker was a blur of black cloth, already moving, already striking again.

Sunny blocked the second blow with his forearm, felt the knife bite into his flesh. Blood sprayed across his face. He didn't stop. He drove his knee into the attacker's stomach, felt the impact, heard the grunt of pain.

The knife clattered to the ground.

Sunny followed up with a punch to the face, then another, then another. The attacker stumbled back, and Sunny caught a glimpse of dark eyes, a flash of pale skin beneath a hood.

"Who sent you?" Sunny demanded.

The attacker didn't answer. Instead, they lashed out with a kick that caught Sunny in the chest, sending him crashing into a stack of barrels. Wood splintered. Pain exploded through his ribs.

When Sunny looked up, the attacker was gone.

He lay there for a moment, gasping for breath, blood dripping from his arm. The training yard was empty. The only sound was the distant hum of the city and his own ragged breathing.

Someone had tried to kill him.

And they had almost succeeded.

---

Kaycee found him ten minutes later, slumped against the wall, trying to tie a makeshift bandage around his arm.

"What the hell happened?" Kaycee demanded.

"Someone attacked me. In the yard. They used a knife."

Kaycee's face went pale. He knelt beside Sunny and examined the wound. "It's deep. You need a healer."

"I know."

"Who was it?"

"I don't know. Hooded. Fast. Professional."

Kaycee was silent for a long moment. Then he stood up and offered Sunny his hand. "Come on. We need to move."

"Where?"

"Somewhere safe. Somewhere they won't find us."

---

The safe house was a basement beneath an abandoned bakery in the Lower Quarter. It was small, cramped, and smelled like mold, but it had a solid door and no windows.

Kaycee lit a lamp and set it on a crate. The light cast long shadows across the walls.

"Tell me everything," he said. "From the beginning."

Sunny hesitated. He had been keeping secrets from Kaycee, and he knew it couldn't last. But telling the truth meant revealing things he wasn't ready to share. Things that could destroy the fragile trust between them.

"I made a deal," Sunny said finally. "With the Serpent family. With a woman named Yasma."

Kaycee stared at him. "You made a deal with the Serpents? Are you insane?"

"She had something I needed. Something of my father's. She offered to help me get into the tournament. All I had to do was promise to remember her when I won."

"And you trusted her?"

"No. But I needed what she was offering."

Kaycee ran a hand through his hair. "Sunny, you don't make deals with the Serpents. They don't make deals. They set traps."

"I know. But I didn't have a choice."

"There's always a choice."

Sunny looked away. "You don't understand."

"Then explain it to me."

Sunny was silent for a long moment. He thought about his father. About the night he had died. About everything he had been carrying for seven years.

"My father was murdered," he said. "By the families. I saw it happen. I was seventeen. I watched them kill him, and I couldn't do anything to stop it."

Kaycee's face softened. "I'm sorry."

"I've been running from it for years. I've been planning my revenge, getting stronger, waiting for the right moment. And now I'm back in Ember, and I'm closer than I've ever been. I can't afford to walk away. Not now. Not after everything."

Kaycee was quiet for a long time. Then he nodded slowly.

"Alright. I understand."

"You do?"

"I do. But you need to understand something too. You're not alone anymore. You have me. And if you keep secrets from me, if you keep making deals behind my back, you're going to get us both killed."

Sunny looked at him. There was no anger in Kaycee's eyes. Just concern. Just the look of a man who had decided to trust someone and was trying to make it work.

"I won't keep secrets from you anymore," Sunny said. "I promise."

Kaycee nodded. "Good. Now let's figure out who tried to kill you."

---

The answer came faster than expected.

Two days later, Sunny was back in the training yard, his arm still bandaged but healing. Kaycee was pushing him harder than ever, determined to make him stronger before the tournament.

"Faster!" Kaycee shouted. "You're too slow!"

Sunny ducked under a punch and drove his fist into Kaycee's ribs. Kaycee grunted but didn't stop. He came back with a kick that Sunny barely avoided.

"Better," Kaycee said. "But not good enough."

Sunny was about to respond when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned, ready to fight, and found a woman watching them from the entrance to the yard.

She was small and wiry, with dark eyes and a shock of black hair. She moved with the grace of a fighter, her body coiled like a spring.

"Zora," Kaycee said. "What are you doing here?"

The woman smiled. "I heard you had a new student. I wanted to see for myself."

"He's not a student. He's a partner."

"Partner?" Zora raised an eyebrow. "You don't have partners. You have pawns."

Kaycee shrugged. "Things change."

Zora walked closer, studying Sunny like he was a puzzle she couldn't solve. "You're the one from the market. The one who nearly got himself killed."

Sunny met her gaze. "I'm the one who won."

"Against a drunk." She laughed. "Impressive."

Kaycee stepped between them. "Zora, what do you want?"

"I came to warn you. There's a bounty on your new partner's head. One thousand silver coins, dead or alive."

Sunny felt his blood run cold. "Who put the bounty?"

"Don't know. Don't care." She shrugged. "I just thought you should know. The hunters are coming. And they're not like the thugs you've been fighting."

"How do you know about this?" Kaycee asked.

Zora smiled again, but there was no warmth in it. "I have my sources. The same sources that told me you were planning to enter the tournament. The same sources that told me you might be useful."

"Useful for what?"

"For winning." Zora looked at Sunny. "I want to make a deal. I help you survive the hunters. You help me win the tournament."

Sunny stared at her. "Why would you help me?"

"Because I hate the families more than I hate you. And I know a good fighter when I see one." She paused. "Besides, I've been looking for someone to watch my back. Kaycee's too busy with you. I need my own partner."

Kaycee laughed. "You're not serious."

"I'm completely serious." Zora crossed her arms. "What do you say, Sunny? Want to team up with the woman who almost killed you?"

Sunny didn't know what to say. This was too much, too fast. Yasma's deal. The bounty on his head. Now Zora, offering an alliance.

But he needed allies. He needed people he could trust. And if Zora hated the families as much as he did, maybe she was worth the risk.

"Alright," he said. "You have a deal."

Zora grinned. "Good. Now let's talk about how we're going to keep you alive."

---

That night, Sunny couldn't sleep.

He lay in the basement of the abandoned bakery, staring at the ceiling, thinking about everything that had happened. The attack. The bounty. Yasma's offer. Zora's deal.

His father's prayer beads were in his hand, worn smooth and warm from years of use. He rubbed his thumb across them, feeling the familiar grooves, remembering the old man's voice.

"Revenge is a poison, son. It will eat you alive if you let it."

Sunny closed his eyes.

He knew his father was right. He knew revenge was destroying him, piece by piece, year by year. But he couldn't stop. He didn't know how to stop.

The door to the basement opened. Sunny sat up, reaching for the knife under his pillow.

"It's just me," Kaycee said, stepping into the room. "I couldn't sleep either."

"Too much on your mind?"

"Something like that." Kaycee sat down on a crate across from Sunny. "I've been thinking about what Zora said. The bounty. The hunters. This is getting dangerous."

"More dangerous than fighting in the tournament?"

Kaycee smiled. "Different kind of dangerous. At least in the tournament, you know who your enemies are. Out here, anyone could be trying to kill you."

Sunny nodded. "I know. That's why I need to get stronger. Faster. Better at reading people."

"Or you could just trust the people around you."

Sunny looked at him. "You trust Zora?"

"I trust her to do what's best for Zora. That's different from trusting her to have my back." He paused. "But I trust you. And I think that's enough for now."

Sunny felt something shift in his chest. It was strange—trusting someone, letting them in. He had been alone for so long that he had forgotten what it felt like to have someone on his side.

"Thank you," he said.

"For what?"

"For saving my life. For believing in me. For everything."

Kaycee smiled. "That's what brothers do."

---

The hunters came three nights later.

Sunny was alone in the training yard, working on his forms, when he heard the whisper of footsteps on the roof. He froze, his senses on high alert.

A figure dropped from above, landing silently in front of him. Hooded. Masked. A knife in each hand.

"One thousand silver," the figure said. "That's a lot of money."

Sunny didn't answer. He just raised his fists and waited.

The attacker moved fast. Faster than the last one. The knives blurred through the air, aimed at his throat, his chest, his gut. Sunny dodged what he could and blocked what he couldn't, but he was already bleeding, already losing.

He needed help. He needed Kaycee.

But there was no one coming. He was alone.

The attacker feinted left and struck right. The knife bit into Sunny's shoulder, slicing deep. He cried out and stumbled back.

"This is the end," the attacker said. "Any last words?"

Sunny thought about his father. About Kaycee. About everything he still had to do.

He wasn't going to die here. Not like this.

He lunged forward, ignoring the pain, and drove his fist into the attacker's throat. The masked figure gagged and stumbled back. Sunny followed up with a kick to the knee, then another to the chest.

The attacker went down hard.

Sunny grabbed the fallen knife and pressed it to the masked figure's throat. "Who sent you?"

No answer.

"I said who sent you!"

The attacker laughed. "You'll find out soon enough. They're already watching you. They're already waiting."

And then the figure went limp.

Sunny pulled back the mask. The face beneath it was young—a woman, no older than him. Her eyes were empty, staring at nothing.

Poison. She had taken poison.

Sunny stood up, breathing hard, blood dripping from his shoulder. He looked around the yard, but there was no one else. Just him and the body of the woman who had tried to kill him.

He walked back to the basement, his mind racing. Someone had put a bounty on his head. Someone was watching him. Someone wanted him dead.

But Sunny was still alive.

And he would stay that way, no matter what it took.