The rain fell like knives over Veldros, the kind of storm that drowned screams and washed away blood. Darius Veyne stood in the shadows of Montmory Manor, his gloved fingers flexing around the hilt of his dagger. The contract was simple: Lord Aldric Montmory had to die before dawn.
But nothing was ever truly simple.
---
Darius slipped through the manor's defenses like smoke—silent, unseen. The guards were lax, their patrols predictable. He slit the first man's throat before he could blink, caught the second with a needle dipped in obsidian order venom, leaving him paralyzed but alive.
No unnecessary kills.That was his rule.
The study door was unlocked.
Aldric sat at his desk, fingers steepled, a glass of wine untouched before him. He didn't look up as Darius entered.
"You're late."
Darius froze.
Aldric smiled. "Silas said you'd come at midnight. It's half past."
A cold fist clenched around Darius' heart.
Then the door behind him locked.
---
Three figures stepped from the shadows—Garrick, Lyssa, and Veyne.His own squad. His family.
Their blades were already drawn.
"Garrick?"Darius' voice was dangerously calm.
Garrick, his oldest friend, the man who had saved his life in Korvain Pass , looked at him with empty eyes. "It's just business."
Lyssa, who had shared his bed just last week, smirked. "Silas promised us a fortune for your head."
Veyne, his blood brother, the one who had sworn oaths with him in the obsidian order's Temple, said nothing. He just leveled his sword.
Darius' mind raced. Silas had sold him out. But why?
Then Aldric laughed. "Oh, Darius. You really thought the guild trusted you after what happened in Valenhold?"
Darius' blood turned to ice. Valenhold.The mission that had gone wrong. The *innocents* that had died. The secret he had buried.
They knew.
---
Darius moved first.
His dagger took Aldric in the throat before the noble could finish his smirk. The man gurgled, clutching at the blade, but Darius was already spinning—
—just in time to catch Lyssa's shortsword with his forearm. The blade bit deep, scraping bone. He barely felt it.
Garrick lunged, his greatsword cleaving the air where Darius' head had been. Darius rolled, slashing Garrick's hamstring on the way up. The big man roared, crashing to one knee.
Veyne struck like a viper—sword flashing for Darius' heart. Darius twisted, but the tip still tore through his side. He gritted his teeth and rammed his dagger into Veyne's ribs.**
His brother gasped, stumbling back.
Lyssa came again, blades whirling. Darius blocked one, but the second sank into his back. He roared, elbow smashing into her face, feeling bone crunch. She reeled—
—and Garrick's fist shattered Darius' jaw.
He hit the ground, vision swimming.
---
Darius spat blood, struggling to rise. His body was failing him.
Garrick loomed over him, greatsword raised. "Should've died in Korvain."
Lyssa wiped blood from her broken nose. "Silas said to make it hurt."
Veyne, clutching his bleeding side, stepped forward. "I'll do it."
Darius stared up at the man he had called brother—the man he had taken an oath with, bled with, killed for.
Veyne's sword pressed against Darius' throat.
"Any last words?"
Darius smiled through broken teeth.
"You shouldn't have left me alive in Korvain."
Then he yanked the poisoned needle from his sleeve—the one meant for Aldric—and buried it in Veyne's neck.
Veyne's eyes widened. The Obsidian order venom worked fast. His body locked, muscles seizing, and he collapsed, choking.
Garrick bellowed in rage, swinging his sword—
—but Darius rolled, snatching Veyne's fallen blade, and rammed it up through Garrick's ribs into his heart.
The big man coughed blood, disbelief in his eyes, before crashing down.
Lyssa screamed, attacking in a frenzy.
Darius was too slow. Too wounded.
Her blade pierced his stomach, twisting.
He gasped, gripping her wrist as she leaned in, her breath hot on his face.
"You lose,"she hissed.
Darius grinned.
"Do I?"
Then he slammed his forehead into her nose—
—and the hidden blade in his vambrace snapped forward, punching through her eye.
Lyssa shrieked, staggering back, clawing at her face—
—before Darius hacked her head from her shoulders.
---
Silence.
Darius collapsed against the desk, blood pooling beneath him. His vision darkened.
Then—footsteps.
A slow clap echoed through the study.
Silas Voss stepped from the shadows, his pale face unreadable.
"I knew you'd kill them,"he murmured. "Pity you had to die for it."
Darius coughed blood. "Why?"
Silas crouched beside him, tilting his head like a curious vulture.
"Because you were getting soft, Darius. And the Obsidian order has no room for mercy."
He drew a thin, curved dagger.
"But don't worry. I'll make sure your body is *found.* The great Darius Veyne, slain by his own kin. What a tragedy."
The blade descended.Darius choked on his own blood, fingers twitching toward the one thing he had left—the strange bronze pendant he had taken from his very first kill years ago. It had always been cold.
Until now.
As his vision darkened, the pendant flared with golden light.
Silas stumbled back. "What in the hells—?"
Then—the world shattered.
---