Free For Want of a Fiend by Barbara Ann Wright

was—had rewritten the plan and come in after them before they were overdue.
    “Darkstrong take the woman,” Starbride muttered. They were going to have words over this one, Katya’s inability to cope be damned. Starbride gave one more quick glance at the dark streets around her and then crept toward where Katya and Brutal had gone, doing her best to stay in the shadows.

Chapter Seven: Katya
     
    “We should have given them more time,” Brutal rumbled at Katya’s back.
    Katya resisted the urge to snarl at him. She’d heard him the first hundred times. The fact remained that Pennynail and Starbride were almost overdue. She’d be damned before she’d leave Starbride in danger any longer than necessary. Starbride had obviously gone into the building with Pennynail, and they’d gotten in over their heads. Fiend or no Fiend, Katya was going to get them out.
    Brutal pulled on her shoulder. “At least let me go in first,” he said before they reached the back door. “No sense in both of us getting our heads sliced off in a trap.”
    She let him take the lead, though she wanted to dart around him and run through the building. Memories of Starbride tied to a table, the threat of having her fingers cut off, loomed in Katya’s mind. And Starbride had been captured twice, held as part of an elaborate trap concocted by Roland and his henchmen, Darren and Cassius. Only Roland had protected Starbride from Darren, then. Katya doubted Roland would care to keep Starbride in one piece now.
    Katya tried to shake the thoughts, but they kept rising, even as she and Brutal ducked through the door into blackness. If Roland hurt Starbride, Katya would burn the building down; she’d burn the Warrens, maybe all of Dockland.
    No, a voice inside her said, without the Fiend, she wouldn’t be able to do anything.
    Katya did snarl then, but at this nagging lack of confidence she couldn’t seem to shake. Brutal lit a candle and held it high. A narrow staircase started up before them and turned sharply at a landing before continuing upward. A long, dark hallway sat beside it and continued into the building, into blackness, and another hallway struck off to the right. To their left was a door, shut and bolted as if to keep something inside rather than out.
    Katya stooped. The floor was filthy and tracked by many feet. She lamented the fact that they’d left Averie just outside Dockland with their horses. Maybe she could make sense of the mess of footprints. Whoever said the building had been abandoned was much mistaken. Listening hard, Katya heard the sound of muted footsteps above them.
    She pulled on Brutal’s arm until he lowered his ear. “We start at the top and work our way down.”
    He moved toward the staircase. They stayed close to the wall and tried to avoid the creaks and groans that would plague the middle of the stairs, but they couldn’t escape them all. Anyone listening from above would know they were coming.
    They passed the second floor, looked down it briefly, but saw no one. Halfway to the third floor, a flash of brilliant light came from above, a flash bomb. Katya rushed past Brutal and took the stairs two at a time. When she reached the top, she ran down the hallway, headed toward a spot of candlelight coming from one of the rooms.
    Inside the room, a woman leaned out a window, looking outward as if tracking something’s fall. A cloak obscured her form, but the hood was down, and very pale hair cascaded down her back.
    “Maia?” Katya breathed. She stepped forward.
    A scuff behind her made her turn and bring her rapier up.
    The sight of Darren almost made her pause. His arm moved, and she tried to leap out of the way of whatever he threw at her, but it slammed into the side of her head and brought stars to her eyes.
    She staggered, swung wildly, and heard him laugh. “Funny how we never get the one we’re expecting.”
    Behind him, the hallway exploded in fire.

Chapter Eight: Starbride
     
    From above, Starbride