Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an Assassin (7 page)

It didn’t surprise him
when she removed her small blue jacket and placed it into the
crate, moulding it into a warm nest for the bird.

It was just like Natalia
to be so thoughtful and kind. She had been protecting the baby bird
since the bomb blast, keeping it close to her heart. He had heard
her whispering soothing words to the animal, as though it
understood her. He smiled and looked down at the bundle of fluffy
feathers in his hand. It was calm, curiously watching Natalia work
to make it a comfortable bed.

When she was done, Ixion
handed the Friskin back to her and she carefully set it down in the
makeshift nest. It investigated the new environment for a few
seconds, pecking at the jacket and the tall solid sides, and then
settled down.

“
Thank you,”
Natalia said as she stroked the bird.

“
There is no
need to thank me. I was only carrying out orders.” He sat down on
the other side of the crate.

Natalia pulled her feet up
onto the stage and hugged her knees. Her gown had short sleeves and
the club was closed so there was no heating. It had taken them
several long minutes to find out how to turn some of the spotlights
on. The owner had given them the pass code for the back door and
told them to lock up after them. Ixion could understand why he had
wanted to get away. The battles outside showed no sign of dying
out. The weapons fire and shouting were only growing louder and
more violent.

Ixion slipped down from
the stage and came to stand in front of Natalia. He removed his
jacket and placed it around her shoulders.

The tight black vest he
wore beneath his jacket wasn’t enough to keep him warm, but the
princess needed heat more than he did. If he allowed her to become
cold and catch an illness, it would be a black mark against him and
would be a violation of his duty.

And his
feelings.

Natalia touched the lapels
of his jacket where they met in front of her chest and then looked
at him. Her gaze dropped to his body and she frowned at
something.

“
What are
those?” She reached out to touch the two black leather and metal
cuffs that covered his forearms and he stepped back so she
couldn’t.

He didn’t want her
anywhere near such things.

He looked at them, turning
his arms so the underside of his forearms were upwards, and the
mechanics of the devices were visible. The short retractable blade
in each gleamed brightly under the spotlight, as though they had
never been used.

They had caused so many
deaths.

Natalia looked curious,
her eyes fixed on the devices.

“
Do they come
out?” she said and a little line appeared between her eyebrows as
she peered at them, craning her neck so she could see better. “Show
me.”

He thought about not
showing her and then acceded. Her words could be considered an
order. He had to obey.

Without looking at her, he
tilted his hands back to trigger the devices. The two blades shot
out, extending past his fists, locking in place. Natalia’s eyes
were as large as twin full moons.

She didn’t look horrified
though.

She looked fascinated,
just as she had done the first time she had seen him.

He pushed the tips of the
blades up with his fingers and they shot back into the
cuffs.

“
Where do you
come from?” Natalia said with a glance to his wrists and then the
blades strapped to his thighs. “I have never seen such weapons or
the methods you were teaching Aiden and Ciel with
swords.”

Ixion’s heart gave a hard
beat. She had been watching him teach her brothers? He hadn’t
taught them anything when she had been present. She must have been
watching them from the gallery around the courtyard on the first
floor of the palace and she had done so stealthily enough that he
hadn’t noticed her.

“
I am
Perseian.” Speaking the name of his species made him remember the
pendant that he had bought Natalia, one which he would never have
the audacity or courage to give to her but which now resided close
to her hands in his jacket pocket. His gaze flicked to it and then
to her hands. She was toying with the sleeves of his jacket, her
slender fingers tracing the blue embroidery around the cuffs.
“These are the weapons I was raised with. The only ones that I have
needed since I took the trials as a child.”

“
You went
through trials when you were a boy?” She drew her knees up again,
wrapping her arms around them and looking up at him. He was
thankful that her hands were away from the pockets of his
jacket.

He nodded.

“
Tell me about
them.”

Ixion tensed. He didn’t
want to tell her about them. She didn’t need to know about the
things that he had done.

“
Is something
wrong?” she said with a frown.

He bowed his head. “My
lady, I request you give me leave to refuse your
request.”

She giggled. “Why should I
grant your request to request that I give you leave to refuse my
request?”

He frowned. She was
playing with him. The things that he had done were no laughing
matter. If he told her, she would never look at him again. She
would fear him. He sighed, pressed his right hand against his
chest, and closed his eyes.

“
My lady does
not need to know the things that I have done, only that I will
protect her.”

She was silent for a long
time. He didn’t dare look at her. It had taken him a strangely
large amount of courage to say those words. He had told her earlier
that he would protect her but now it felt different to say such a
thing. It felt as though he was confessing that there was something
deeper than his duty behind his reason for protecting
her.

“
I would like
to know.” Her voice was small.

He looked at her, right
into her green eyes, trying to see if she was telling the
truth.

“
Why?” he
said.

She toyed with the
fastenings on his jacket. “So I will know you better.”

He bowed his head again.
“I am unworthy of such a thing.”

“
Indulge my
whim then and tell me because I am asking you to.”

“
An
order?”

“
If you prefer
it that way.” There was an edge to those words that said she might
order him to do other things if he was lucky. He could only pray to
Iskara for such an elusive dream to come true.

“
Then I will do
as my lady asks.” He drew up a chair and set it down in front of
her.

Just as he was going to
sit down, a loud blast shook the building. Natalia gasped. One of
the white spotlights went out and then blinked back into life. The
baby Friskin made a purring noise.

Ixion reached into the
crate and stroked it. It settled immediately. He glanced at
Natalia. Her eyes were wide and fearful again. He wished he could
soothe her fear so easily.

Perhaps talking to her
would keep her mind off the fighting outside.

He sat down on the chair
and thought about what to tell her. Only the truth would do,
although he would omit some parts.

“
Tell me about
the trials,” she said in a tight voice.

If she feared the fighting
outside, then telling her about the trials would only scare her
more, but she had ordered him.

“
They are a
rite of passage on Perseia. I was the only survivor out of nineteen
others who shared my birth date.”

“
That’s
terrible. What happened to them?”

He leaned back in the
chair. “I killed them.”

Her eyes shot wide and she
gasped again. Her mouth opened but he beat her to
speaking.

“
It is the way
of Perseia,” he said, hoping it would make her see that he’d had
little choice in the matter. “All males of eleven
years—”

“
Eleven!” she
shrieked, cutting him off. She looked horrified. “They made you
kill at eleven?”

Clearly his people were
not well documented and she didn’t have access to any of the palace
personnel files or information about the royal assassins. He had
thought that she would know where they all came from and how they
arrived at the position.

“
I joined the
Lyran royal assassins at age fifteen and was the commander here by
twenty-five.” He didn’t hold back now. He wanted to see how she
would react to the knowledge that Perseia had always supplied Lyra
with its elite assassins and how they were raised so they were good
enough for her family. He wanted to see if she would finally be
frightened of him rather than fascinated. If she did change towards
him, it would put an end to his feelings once and for all. “I was
bred to kill.”

“
You were so
young,” she said, leaning towards him, her expression full of
concern.

“
All Lyran
royal assassins join at the same age when our training is
complete.”

“
Are they all
Perseian?”

He nodded.

“
Does Lyra
dictate the age at which they are put into service?”

He nodded again and she
paled. She looked down at her hands where they rested in her lap
and then up into his eyes.

“
And you joined
at fifteen. Why?”

“
Lyra takes all
of the sons from specific bloodlines and has done for generations.
My father served Lyra and my grandfather before him, going back
hundreds of years.” He paused for breath, thinking about his family
and how he had rarely seen his father. Assassins could only return
to Perseia once every two years. Most mated in that time in the
hope of gaining a son to carry on the bloodline and the honour of
being a royal assassin. His father had been a commander on Lyra
Prime. Ixion had only seen him four times in his entire lifetime.
“I was expected to continue the tradition. My bloodline will expect
me to… mate… and bear a son that will carry on the name and become
an assassin.”

Natalia fell quiet, her
fingers twisting the fine blue material of her dress. Did she
finally see him for what he truly was? A killer, unfit for a
princess such as her, and someone that she should fear rather than
seek to know more about.

“
Did they make
you take the trials?”

He wondered if it would
make a difference if he said that they had even though they
hadn’t.

“
No,” he said
and she looked at him. “All males take part in the trials. There is
no option to not take the trials because all would do it
regardless. The trials are to gain our honour. It is the first step
on our path to upholding our families’ names.”

“
But so many
die.”

“
They did not
die, my lady. I killed them.”

“
Why?” There
were tears in her eyes.

He cursed the sight of
them and the way they made his heart ache to comfort
her.

“
Because it is
the way of my people and because I had to maintain the name of my
bloodline. Failure was not acceptable. None of my bloodline has
ever died in the trials.”

“
Do you regret
what you did?”

“
Not now. It
was them or me and I have done far worse things since.”

“
In the name of
Lyra,” she muttered and sighed. A tear slipped down her cheek. He
longed to brush it away. “Have you killed many for us?”

He nodded. Hundreds. If
asked, he wouldn’t confess though. He didn’t want her to know how
many lives he had taken, not when she struggled to come to terms
with the nineteen lives he had taken as a child. If he told her how
many he had killed in the name of Lyra, she would only
cry.

The sound of distant
weapons fire filled the oppressive silence.

“
I’m
frightened,” she whispered.

“
Of me?” That
thought hurt. He had wanted her to be frightened but the idea that
she actually might be made a dull ache settle in his
chest.

Natalia reached into the
crate and stroked the baby bird. “No.”

That word was like a sweet
elixir to his heart.

“
What frightens
my lady?”

She looked at him and then
at the doors far behind him at the back of the dimly lit
club.

“
This
fighting.”

“
I will not let
anything happen to you. The battles are growing quieter. It will
not be long until the military has them under control. It is safe
here.”

“
With you,” she
whispered with half a smile. “You wouldn’t let anything happen to
me.”

His heart warmed at her
belief in him and her trust. She was right. He would never allow
anything to happen to her.

He was surprised when she
tilted her head back and started singing softly. The melody was one
that he recognised but hadn’t heard in a long time. She had been
singing it the night that he had first heard her.

He had been en route back
from his first mission as a commander and she had been walking the
garden, the only light that of the crescent moon and the bright
stars. She had been only fifteen then but her voice had been
beautiful.