Two-Faced (Assassin at Court Series Book 1) (7 page)

Chapter 21

I
crouched behind a bush outside the eastern edges of the palace walls and waited. I purposely arrived half an hour before sundown. I did not like the idea of walking into an unknown situation. I wanted to see whoever I was meeting arrive before they saw me. A warm body pressed against me from behind as a rough hand slid closed over my mouth to keep me from screaming. I bit down hard on the offending flesh and my assailant released me with a startled jerk.

“Gods damn, Skyler, did you have to bite me?”

I spun around and faced the person behind the familiar voice. “Kade!” I said in surprise. I did not think he would hurt me, but I held my knife at the ready nonetheless.

A fellow guild member and my kind-of-sometimes-boyfriend grinned at me from ear to ear. “Put the knife down babe. You and I both know this face is too pretty maul. You would never forgive yourself.”

I rolled my eyes. “I think I would manage,” I said through clenched teeth. “What the hell are you doing here?”

His expression immediately turned sour as if the words he were about to say were being forced out of him against his will. “Delivering a message.”

“About what?”

“You know what.”

“From who?” I probed.

“You know I can’t tell you that.” He actually looked as if he regretted not being able to. Kade was a part of the Guild, but he was no killer for hire. Instead he worked as a go between for the benefactors, the people who took out contracts on other people to kill, and the assassins. He was the middleman that protected the identities of both parties involved. Right now, I needed him
not
to do his job so damn well. But I did not press him for the information. Giving it up would mark him as a dead man.

“I know,” I let my question drop. Our relationship may have been a casual, superfluous distraction, but he was still my friend and I did not want to see him dead.

He stared at me for a long time before finally speaking. “Your benefactor is getting anxious. He has spies inside the palace who report you don’t appear to be trying to kill the Prince at all. You have been alone with him several times and yet he is still alive.”

“What the hell do they want me to do? Murder him in the royal gardens?” I asked incredulously. I clutched the knife I held in my hand tighter in frustration.

Kade threw up his hands. “I’m just the messenger, remember. Don’t stab me.”

“Trust me, if I wanted to stab you, I would have done it a long time ago.”

“You mean like during one of those nights I tried to take advantage of you?” His grin was devilish and I almost changed my mind about not stabbing him. He could be damn infuriating at times.

It was one of the reasons he was only my sort-of-sometimes-boyfriend. We met when he delivered my first contract to me. He flirted shamelessly with me the entire time, and I threatened to gut him if he did not stop undressing me with his eyes. Samael used him as his main messenger and me as his main assassin so we saw each other a lot. Eventually he wormed his way into my good graces. We hung out whenever he was in Arythmia and over time became friends. We ended up having as much as a relationship as two people like us could have. It never evolved into anything serious though. Whenever he was in town, we hung out but kept things light and casual between us. It is the reason why I never accepted any of his sexual advances. I liked him but I did not love him. As insane as the notion sounds, I wanted my first time to be with someone I loved. Obviously that had yet to happen. Assassins don’t live a life conducive to falling in love.

“I changed my mind. I’m going to gut you,” I leveled the knife at his torso.

He burst into laughter. “You said that exact thing to me the first time we met. I think that was the day I fell in love with you.”

It was my turn to laugh. “You don’t love anybody but yourself.” I was teasing him but it was also true. Kade was possibly the most self-conceited person on the planet. With his athletic build, dark bedroom eyes, and boyishly handsome looks, he looked good, he knew it, and he made sure everyone else knew it too. 

His expression closed off. “I wish that were true. It would make what I have to say easier,” he said quietly.

I sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”

Kade said what he had been sent to say then apologized a dozen times for saying it. Both Samael and the benefactor were growing impatient and doubting rather I would fulfill my contract. I was now on a deadline. I had two nights to kill the Prince or Samael was putting a price on my head. Every assassin and wannabe assassin looking to prove himself or make a nice chunk of change would be gunning for me.

Having delivered his message Kade turned to leave but then he faced me again. He stared at me with searching eyes.

“Do you love him?” He finally spoke.

“I think I might.” It was the first time I admitted it out loud.

Some emotion I could not quite place flashed in his eyes. I would call it hurt if I didn’t know him better. “Skyler, even if you walk away, his life will steal be in danger. I honestly don’t know who the benefactor is this time. I’ve only been dealing with Samael. But I do know that whoever he is, he wants the Prince dead and will not stop until he is. You do know they will send somebody else?”

I nodded in acknowledgement. “I know, but if I warn him beforehand, he won’t be blindsided.”

“If you do that, you’ll expose yourself as an assassin.”

“I know.”

“You’ll be put to death for treason.”

“I know that too.”

He scrubbed a hand through his short, dark hair. “Damn it, Skyler, I really hope he is worth it.”

“He is.”

He eyed me so intently that I thought his gaze would burn right through me. “So are you.”

I did not know what to say to that so I didn’t say anything except, “I should get back to the palace. I need to warn the Prince.” I turned away from him to leave, but he reached out and caught my arm. 

“Wait,” he said stopping me from pulling away. “I haven’t met the benefactor, but you have. He delivered the contract to you at Samael’s. I don’t know what is going on, but from the intel I gathered there is something big at play. I think you may be being used as a pawn in a House’s coup for the throne.”

Chapter 22

T
wo guards seized me as soon as I entered the palace.
This is it,
I thought.
I have been caught.
Either the Queen finally proved there was never a Skyler Emilia of the House of Alastair or I was spotted meeting with Kade beyond the palace walls. I did not bother to put up a fight. I had walked back into the palace accepting of my fate. I only regretted not having a moment to tell Zander the truth in private. I owed him that much.   The guards marched me into the throne room where chaos awaited.

The King barked out orders to various men while the Queen sat sobbing on her throne. She started toward me as soon as she spotted me. The force with which her hand connected with my cheek sent my head reeling backward.

“Where the hell are my children?!” She shrieked at me.

I blinked in confusion. She moved to strike me again, but before she could the King gently grabbed her hand and led her away. She sagged back into her throne and began sobbing again.

“I suggest you speak plainly and answer honestly,” he said to me in a calm but still threatening tone. “Do you know the whereabouts of the Prince and Princess?”

“No, why would I?” I asked in alarm.

“You were the last person seen with them. My son and daughter never returned from a morning ride. You usually accompany my son do you not?”

“I do,” I confessed, “but I insisted they go without me today.”

“Why did you not got with them?”

“I thought the Princess might like to spend some time alone with the Prince.” I was sounding guiltier by the minute.

The King eyed me in clear disbelief. “When it became apparent my children were missing, I sent guards in search of you. They reported you were nowhere to be found in the palace. Where did you disappear to?”

I was prepared to confess my treachery, but not like this. I was being blamed for actions that were not mine. Moreover, if Zander and Kiera were missing, then their lives were in terrible danger. My heart raced inside my chest. I was more afraid for their welfare than I was for my own. Confessing now would do me, or them, no good. The Assassin’s Guild and the benefactor that took out a contract on Zander was behind this. Even if I told the King, his men would never find them in time. I had no choice but to let them think me guilty and drag me to a cell.

“I went into town to explore,” I said lamely. I did not even try to sound convincing.

Guards were sent to my cell every half hour to attempt to pry information out of me. Each time they came with new and varied threats about what would happen if I did not speak. I remained silent. For my plan to work, I needed to see one guard in particular. Four hours and eight guards into the routine, he showed up. Jacob was a palace guard, but he was also Zander’s friend. Zander told me once that they were like brothers. His father was Zander’s father’s Guard Captain and the two of them grew up together in the palace. If anybody would listen to what I had to say, I hoped he would.

Jacob did not stand outside of my locked cell and threaten me like the other guards did. Instead, he unlocked the door then locked it again behind him. He leaned against a wall adjacent to the bars. He looked at me with murder in his eyes. “I do not come to you with threatening words in hopes of coaxing the truth out of you.” As he spoke he took one step after another toward me. When he reached me he yanked my head back by my hair and pressed a short sword to my throat. He dug its sharpened point into my flesh, forcing red liquid forth. “The king refuses to torture the information out of you until it can be proven that you are not who you say you are. Torturing nobles, even lesser ones, is impermissible according to Anthame custom.” His blade dug deeper into my neck. “But I don’t care who you are or what House’s blood may or may not run through your veins. I will spill every drop of it right now if you do not tell me everything you know. My Prince is missing and I will do whatever it takes to find him.”

I smiled against the pain of the blade biting into my flesh. “Good, I was hoping you felt that way.”

Chapter 23

J
acob carted me from my cell in chains and a hooded robe. The clanking sound of the set tangled around my ankles echoed down the halls. They made so much noise I was sure someone would notice us. We were supposed to be leaving the palace inconspicuously. I tried to tell Jacob as much but he ignored me.

“The only way I am letting you out of this cell is in chains,” he had told me.

I did not like it, but I was in no position to argue. I had just confessed that I was in fact not a lesser noble, but an assassin who had come to the palace to kill his Prince. It was easier to convince him that he needed to help me escape because I was the only one who could find and save Zander and Kiera than I thought it would be. The gods must have been on my side because he readily agreed, with stipulations of course. The chains secured around my wrist and feet were one of them. The pleasure of his company was another. Clearly, the jackass I originally pegged him as had not been a misjudge of character. How someone like Zander and someone like him could be friends I had no idea.

I waited outside a tavern in Pleith notorious for lots of booze, a rowdy crowd, and loose females. If Kade stayed in town for the night to enjoy the city’s baser pleasures, which he usually did when traveling, it was the one place I was sure to find him. I wanted to go in and drag his sorry ass out myself, but that was hard to do in chains. Damn it, I needed to convince Jacob to remove them. I could not do what needed to be done with them in tow. Said, jackass, was currently inside the tavern looking for Kade. If he was inside, the description I gave him would be sufficient enough to pick him out in a crowd: he would be the tall, dark-haired one with ice blue eyes surrounded by women and throwing money around like there was no tomorrow. A couple of minutes ticked by and Jacob was forcibly removing him from the tavern. He at least had enough of a conscience to look guilty.

“Talk, now!” I spat in his direction. If my hands were free I would have wrung them around his neck. There was more at play then he earlier led me to believe. He came with the message that I had two nights left to complete my contract, implying that the benefactor would wait and see if I did before taking alternative action. Zander and Kiera were kidnapped long before I met with Kade if they never returned from their morning ride. So either Samael sent him with the message with duplicitous intent or the benefactor was now acting independently of Samael.

Kade must have seen his death in my eyes because he immediately spilled what he knew. “Samael sent me with the message and told me to keep you busy for the rest of the night. I swear I don’t know why but he did not want you to return to the palace until tomorrow morning. I suspected he was setting you up to take the fall for something, so I delivered the message but I did not delay you from returning.”

“Gee, thanks for that,” I said sarcastically. This was why we never worked out. I could never take his advances seriously. Kade was out for the good of Kade, always. Even when he tried to do the right thing, he only halfway did it so that his own ass was still covered. I could never fully trust him.

Jacob hit him in the stomach with the hilt of his sword. Kade grunted in pain. “Enough! Tell us who took the Prince and Princess and where they are be headed.”

“I don’t know,” Kade wheezed out.

Jacob jammed the hilt into his stomach more forcefully this time.

“I am just a messenger.”

“Next time I strike with the other end,” Jacob growled.

“Okay, okay, okay,” Kade held out his hands as if they could shield him from the next blow. “I really don’t know where they are, but Samael has a safe house about two hundred miles north of here. It sits in the woods just shy of the border of the neighboring kingdom of Manascus.”

“That is where they are taking them,” I said to Jacob. “They wanted me away from the palace overnight. It would take about fifteen hours to get from here to there on horseback. I imagine they are not traveling by foot or they would have planned to delay me double the amount of time. Whatever they are planning, it will be done by morning. You may not like or trust me, but if you want to save Zander and his sister you need to get over it. You need to unchain me, you need to get us horses, and we need to get to that safe house.”

“What about him?” Jacob still had his sword pointed at Kade. “We can’t leave him. He could warn them.”

Kade began to tremble in fear for his life. “No, no I won’t,” he stammered. I should have been okay with Jacob putting the sword through his abdomen. Hell, I should have had no problems doing it myself. But some small piece of me did not want to see him die regardless of how much I loathed him at the moment. I glared at my
ex
sort-of-sometimes boyfriend. “
Him
we can tie up with a note to whoever finds him that should they escort him to the palace they will be handsomely rewarded. Isn’t there a standing reward offered by the King for any information that leads to the identification of a member of the Assassin’s Guild?” I smiled wickedly at Kade.

He did not bother trying to talk his way out of it. We both knew I had granted him a boon in the form of his life. As a messenger and not an actual assassin, the King would not have him executed. Kade would be imprisoned in the palace cells.