Two-Faced (Assassin at Court Series Book 1) (11 page)

Chapter 32

I
awoke in the middle of the forest lying on my back in a makeshift campsite. Stars twinkled in the clear sky above me. White passed over my vision then I felt a cool, damp cloth being wiped across my forehead.

I groaned as I struggled to sit up. My head was pounding and the world tilted on its axis a little when I attempted to do so.

“Lie back down,” Zander’s concerned voice instructed me. “I think you may have a concussion.”

I groaned again. “We don’t have time for this shit.”

“You like that word a lot don’t you?” I heard the amusement in his voice before I turned my head in the direction of it to see the smile playing on his face.

“I’m an expressive person,” I said caustically.

“Not if that is the only word you use when you’re upset.” His tone was light and teasing.

It made me think of a time in the not so distant past when he walked right off the dais to stop at my table and exchange playful banter with me for all in attendance to see.

“What has you in such a chipper mood?” It felt like someone had taken a hammer to my skull and he wanted to joke.

“You woke up,” he said more soberly as he tenderly pushed my hair back out of my face to wipe the cloth across my forehead again.

“I wish I hadn’t. My head is throbbing.” I closed my eyes against the pain.

He placed his arms around me and pulled me to a sitting position. “Here drink this. It should help.” He placed a vial of clear liquid to my lips.

It eased the pain almost immediately but its vile taste made it almost not worth the benefit. “Yuck!” I wiped the back of my mouth with my hand to get rid of any traces of the liquid on my lips. “Where did you get that?”

“Martha packed a few tonics she thought we might need. That one was labeled pain reliever.”

“It should have been labeled
nasty as shit,
” I grumbled.

He lightly nudged me with his shoulder. “There goes that word again.”

With my head feeling better I laughed at his teasing.

Zander set us up a makeshift tent with sticks he’d gathered and blankets Martha sent us with for shelter. He also caught a couple of fish in the nearby stream and cooked them over the fire he’d made.

“You’re pretty resourceful for a Prince,” I later teased him. I owed him one from earlier. “Where did you learn to do all of this?”

He shrugged as if it was no big deal. “Jacob and I kind of taught ourselves how to survive in the woods when we would go off for hours on rides to the waterfall. The learning process was quite a riot.”

“I can imagine.” I laughed at the image of two pampered boys about Kiera’s age, one a Prince the other the son of a Guard Captain, trying to
make it
on their own in the forest.

He laughed with me. When we quieted down mischief twinkled in his eyes. “Want to play truth or dare?”

My heart warmed at the memory the question dredged up. “It depends. Are you going to play by the rules this time?”

“Nope. My kingdom…”

“Your rules,” I finished his sentence. “I’ll play.”

“Who is the guy from the tavern in Kline?”

Red colored my cheeks. I felt embarrassed to admit my pseudo-relationship with Kade, but I made myself answer honestly. I told Zander about our past history and about my meeting with him outside the palace and then again with Jacob.

“Do you still have feelings for him?” He asked in a hesitant tone like it was a question he didn’t really want to know the answer to.

“Not anymore,” I shook my head vigorously. The only thing I felt for Kade was the need to knee him in the groin.

Zander‘s tense posture relaxed at my answer.

It was my turn. I contorted my features into the same mischievous look he gave me when he was up to no good.

“Dare,” I told him. I paused a beat to let the suspense build and then I dropped the bomb.  “Sleep with me,” I challenged.

Heat immediately blazed in his eyes then disappeared just as quickly. “We can’t,” he said tersely.

The laughed I was holding in escaped. “I meant it literally. Actually sleep with me in the tent you made.”

Zander tried to get out of the dare. He argued that somebody needed to keep watch. I told him nobody was looking for us at this point and we would likely hear the noise of an approaching threat. He gave me a dozen more excuses and I gave him a dozen more reasons why they were lame.

He conceded, though not in the way I would have liked. I was lying on one side of the tent and he was on the other side as far away from me as possible. I would be lying to myself if I said I was not offended.

“Is the idea of lying beside me that repulsive?” I said in a quiet voice.

He looked at me like I had sprouted wings. “You and the word repulsive don’t even belong in the same sentence.”

“Then why aren’t you touching me?” I asked feeling insecure.

“Because if I do, I won’t stop there.”

“Oh,” I fidgeted uncomfortably. “I guess I will um go to sleep then.”

“Okay,” he said.

“Okay,” I said back.

I woke up in the middle of the night in a fright. I was turned on my side and someone had grabbed me from behind. I inhaled the familiar scent of sandalwood and cloves that belonged to Zander and relaxed into him. He had migrated toward me then reached out and gathered me into his arms in his sleep. His hands circled around my waist and rested on my stomach. The right thing to do would have been to wake him or move away, but I scooted closer to him instead. I fell asleep with a ghost of a smile on my face as his breath tickled against my neck. 

When I woke up again it was at the same time Zander did. I opened my eyes to a pair of warm amber-colored ones looking back at me. During the night I unconsciously turned my body to face his and our legs had become intertwined in each other.

“Sorry,” we both mumbled at the same time then awkwardly went about disentangling ourselves.

I packed up the campsite as Zander readied the horses. Once we were both done we set out for the last leg of our journey.

---

The port city of Garreth bustled with activity. It was busy no matter the time of day. There was always business being conducted, exports shipping out and imports shipping in. Krishna’s residence sat on the far edge of the city near the piers. We approached his home on foot. The multiple men patrolling the perimeter were a good sign. It meant they were guarding someone within. I counted six of them in total. Zander took out the three in the rear while I dealt with the three in the front. We entered the building together. Jacob greeted us at the door, confirming what I suspected when we never ran into him between the waterfall and the safe house.

“Krishna doubted you would come alone, but I told him you would. You never were good at asking for help, Zander. You always try to take on the world by yourself.”

Zander leveled his sword at his friend. “How could you?”

Jacob let out a bitter laugh. “How could I? Easy. Not everyone wants to live in the shadow of the House of Roth or devote their life to your service like my pathetic father. Krishna offered me the opportunity to ascend to High Noble status and I took it. Once he is King he will give me power and a title.”

“So you would give up your honor, betray your childhood friend, for money and status?” Zander spat at him.

“I am willing to do that and more,” Jacob drew his sword. “If you came all this way, then you know Krishna has the Princess and you know what he is planning for her. I can’t let you leave with that information alive.”

Zander and Jacob attacked at the same time. Zander swung his sword in a wide arc and Jacob blocked it with his own. Jacob thrust in an upward motion, aiming for Zander’s chest, but he shifted his weight at the last minute before the blow struck. Having sparred together countless times before, they knew each other’s every move before they made it.

“Check the rest of the house for Kiera!” Zander called over his shoulder to me.

As I eased my way up the stairs the noise of their swords clanged behind me. The second floor was an endless hallway of one closed door after another. I started at the end of it and cleared each room, door by door, checking for the Princess as I went. One of the doors I came to was locked. I pressed my ear to it and heard muffled cries.

“Kiera?” I softly said into the door. The cries grew more insistent. I took a step back and kicked it off of its hinges. The Princess sat in the middle of the room, tied and gagged to a chair. I would murder Krishna with my bare hands when I found him. I rushed over to Kiera and cut her gag and the bindings around her hands and feet loose. She collapsed into my arms in a sobbing, hysterical heap.

“Everything is going to be alright now,” I comforted her. “I’m here and so is your brother and we are going to take you home.”

“Like hell you are,” a voice growled from the doorway.

I looked up into the same face that had given me an envelope filled with bills and the Prince’s name. I jumped to my feet in front of Kiera. “You will have to kill me to take her!” I shouted at Krishna.

His answering smile sent chills down my spine. “Don’t worry, I planned on it.” He drew his sword and started toward me.

I quickly drew my own and raised it just in time to block his from cleaving through my neck. I spun out of range and away from Kiera. I did not want the fight to be near her. Krishna was both faster and stronger than I was. He easily countered my parries and thrusts while I barely held my own against him. I swung my sword at his head and the force of his defensive strike knocked it from my hands. He moved to ram his sword into my gut, but stopped short. He laughed at me as he cast his sword aside.

“I think I would rather enjoy telling Samael I murdered his precious ward with my bare hands.”

He grabbed me by my throat and lifted me off of my feet. I clawed at his hands, but it did little good.
Damn it! I would not die at the hands of this bastard.
I didn’t have a weapon left on me but perhaps there was one on him. I stopped trying to pry his hands from around my throat and instead felt around the belt at his waist. Krishna was so high on the thrill of squeezing the life out of me that he did not notice what my intentions were. My hand closed over the hilt of a short blade. I yanked it free and buried it into his side. He dropped me and I fell to the floor.  I scrambled on my knees toward my discarded sword and rolled out of the way just before Krishna ground his boot into the spot where my head should have been. I sprang to my feet and widened them in a defensive stance. Krishna took a menacing step toward me and then abruptly stopped. The blade he had cast aside protruded out of his chest. His eyes went wide in disbelief then he fell face forward. Kiera stood behind him, splattered with blood. Once his body hit the ground hers crumpled as well. Zander rushed inside, saw the blood and immediately assumed the worse.

“She is okay,” I hurriedly reassured him as he knelt beside us. “Are you?”

He nodded in confirmation.

“What about Jacob?”

“He’s dead,” he said in a hardened tone.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.

“Don’t be.” The grief that moved in shadows behind his eyes betrayed the cold detachment he tried to project.

“Zander, can we go home now?” Kiera sobbed hysterically from my arms.

              Her brother wrapped his arms protectively around us both and assured her, “Yes, little sister. I am taking you home.”

Chapter 33

I
stood by the docks with Kiera as Zander procured a covered wagon, horses, and a small accompaniment of trustworthy men to escort him and his sister back to the High Palace. He would not make the journey alone with his sister in tow.

“Everything is taken care of. We leave in a half hour,” he told his sister when he returned.

She beamed in delight. She hugged him and then me. “We are going home Skyler.”

“You and your brother are going home,” I corrected her gently.

She looked up at me confused. “Aren’t you coming with us?”

I looked at Zander and he looked back at me. I chewed on my bottom lip trying to figure out how to tell her I would not be returning to Pleith.

“I….”

“Skyler is coming with us,” Zander cut me off.

I looked at him in surprise.

He swept me up in a quick kiss then set me back on my feet. His gaze bore into my eyes. “I forgive you and I love you.”

Those seven words made my heart soar.

“Oooh,” Kiera squealed from beside us. “Zander loves Skyler. Zander loves Skyler.”

Stay tuned for the next Assassin at Court adventure and more of swoon-worthy Zander and Skyler!!!!

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