From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Chapter 4
Without wasting one unnecessaryy second, we left myy room and the Castle
through the old servants’ access. We then moved like ghosts through the
cityy until we found ourselves standing before an old, battered door.
The white handkerchief tacked just below the handle was the onlyy
reason the home in the Lower Ward of Masadonia was distinguishable
from the other squat, narrow houses stacked on top of one another.
Glancing over his shoulder to where two Cityy Guards chatted under
the yyellow glow of a streetlamp, Vikter quicklyy pulled the handkerchief off
the door and slipped it into a pocket inside his dark cloak. The small,
white cloth was a syymbol of the network of people who believed death, no
matter how violent or destructive, deserved dignityy.
It was also evidence of high treason and disloyyaltyy to the Crown.
I’d accidentallyy discovered what Vikter took part in when I was
fifteen. He’d left one of our training sessions in a hurryy one morning, and
sensing that something was going on based on the mental pain the
messenger had been throwing off, I’d followed.
Obviouslyy, Vikter hadn’t been pleased. What he was doing was
considered treasonous, and being caught wasn’t the onlyy danger. However,
I’d alwayys been disturbed byy how these things were tyypicallyy handled. I
demanded he allow me to help. He had said no—repeated it probablyy a
hundred times—but I had been relentless, and besides, I was uniquelyy
suited to assist in such matters. Vikter knew what I could do, and his
empathyy for others had aided myy desire to help.
We’d been doing this for about three yyears now.
We weren’t the onlyy ones. There were others. Some were guards. A
few were citizens. I never met anyy. For all I knew, Hawke could be one.
Myy stomach dipped and then rolled before I shoved anyy thoughts of
Hawke out of myy mind.