KAEL'S POV
I slammed my fist into the wall so hard my knuckles split open.
Blood dripped down my fingers, but I barely felt it. Pain was nothing. Pain was familiar. What wasn't familiar was this sick, twisting feeling in my gut every time I looked at Aldric Thornhaven's portrait.
Those eyes. Those impossible eyes that matched mine exactly.
"It doesn't matter," I said out loud to my empty room. My voice sounded hollow. "He's just another target."
But my hands shook as I spread the mission documents across my narrow bed. The Veil didn't give us much—a bed, a trunk for weapons, stone walls that trapped cold mountain air. We didn't need comfort. We needed to stay sharp. Stay focused.
Stay alive.
I forced myself to read the intelligence report instead of staring at that painted face.
ALDRIC THORNHAVEN. Age: 18. Status: Prince of the Eastern Principalities. Threat Level: CRITICAL.
Eighteen. The same age as me. Born in the same year, probably the same month. My stomach churned.
Subject is uniting rebel territories against the Continental Empire through speeches promoting "justice" and "freedom." Has gathered significant following among common people and minor nobles. Empire considers him primary threat to continental stability.
I snorted. Justice. Freedom. Pretty words that meant nothing. Master Corvus taught us the truth: the world runs on power and fear. Everything else is a lie people tell themselves to sleep better at night.
Aldric Thornhaven was a fool who believed his own lies. That would make killing him easy.
So why wouldn't my hands stop shaking?
I grabbed the castle layout map, memorizing every corridor, every entrance, every guard post. Thornhaven Castle sat on a hill overlooking the eastern territories. Forty guards on rotation. Twelve patrol routes. Three secret passages—though according to the notes, only two were still usable.
Amateur security. They were protecting their prince with hope and trust instead of real defenses.
Idiots.
My door crashed open without warning.
I spun around, shadows already gathering at my fingertips, ready to attack.
Vera stood in the doorway, her arms crossed. She looked angry, but Vera always looked angry. "So it's true. Master Corvus gave you the Thornhaven job."
"That's not your business," I said coldly.
"It is when you're walking into a suicide mission." She stepped inside, letting the door slam behind her. "Do you know how many assassins the Veil has sent after Aldric Thornhaven? Six. Do you know how many came back? Zero."
My throat went dry. "Master Corvus didn't mention that."
"Of course he didn't." Vera moved closer, lowering her voice. "Listen, I know we're not friends. I know you beat me in the test. But I don't want to watch them burn your body tomorrow because you walked into a trap."
Something warm flickered in my chest. It felt strange, foreign. Was this what caring felt like?
I crushed it immediately. Caring was weakness.
"I'm better than those other six assassins," I said.
"Are you?" Vera pulled a wrinkled paper from her pocket and tossed it on my bed. "That's Silas. Best shadow mage the Veil ever trained before you. Thirty-seven successful kills. Master Corvus sent him after Thornhaven two months ago."
I picked up the paper. It was a death notice. Silas had been found dead in Thornhaven Castle, throat slit, his own blade in his hand. Suicide, the report claimed.
"Thornhaven's chief strategist is a woman named Seraphina Vale," Vera continued. "She's an ice elemental and a genius. She's caught every assassin we've sent. Some say she can read minds. Others say she just never sleeps."
"Rumors don't scare me."
"Then you're an idiot." Vera's voice cracked with something that might have been fear. "Kael, you don't have to do this. You could run. Disappear. Master Corvus would never find you if you used your shadow magic to hide."
For one wild second, I imagined it. Running away. Being free. Never taking another order. Never killing another person.
Then reality crushed the dream.
"He'd find me," I whispered. "Master Corvus always finds runaways. And what he does to them..." I couldn't finish. We'd all seen the bodies.
Vera's face went pale. She knew I was right.
"Then at least be careful," she said quietly. "Don't trust anyone there. Don't believe anything they say. And if you get a chance to escape, take it."
She left before I could respond, the door clicking shut softly behind her.
I stood alone in my room again, surrounded by documents about a boy with my face.
A boy I had to kill in three days.
I spent the next hours memorizing everything. Aldric's daily schedule. He woke at dawn, trained with his personal guard for two hours, then spent mornings meeting with citizens who came to him with problems. Afternoons were for council meetings with his advisors. Evenings, he walked the castle walls alone, looking at stars.
That's when I'd strike. When he was alone and dreaming about peace and justice and all those useless things.
I studied the notes about his speeches. "Every person deserves dignity. Every child deserves safety. We fight not for power, but for the right to live free from fear."
My lip curled. Beautiful words from someone who'd never known real fear. Who'd never been beaten for failing. Who'd never watched other children die because they were too weak.
Aldric Thornhaven lived in a fantasy world. I lived in reality.
I packed my weapons as midnight approached. Three daggers—one poisoned, two clean. Throwing knives. Smoke bombs. Lock picks. Everything I needed fit into a small pack that wouldn't slow me down.
Master Corvus's words echoed in my head: "Your purpose. The reason I've kept you alive all these years."
What did that mean? Why had he kept me specifically? The Veil took in hundreds of orphans. Most died in training. A few survived to become weapons. But Master Corvus had always watched me differently. Like I was special. Like I was... important.
I pulled out Aldric's portrait one last time, studying it in the candlelight.
Same storm-gray eyes. Same sharp jawline. Same nose, same mouth, same everything.
How was this possible? People could look similar, but identical? Down to the exact shade of gray in our eyes?
Unless...
No. That was insane.
But the thought wouldn't leave me alone.
What if we weren't just similar? What if we were related? Brothers, maybe, separated somehow?
I laughed bitterly at myself. I was an orphan. Abandoned. Worthless until the Veil made me useful. Master Corvus told me that the first day I arrived, bleeding and terrified at age six.
"You have no family. No past. No future except what I give you. You are mine."
I'd believed him. Why wouldn't I? He was the only person who'd ever kept me alive.
But now, staring at this portrait, doubt crept in like poison.
What if Master Corvus had lied?
The candle flickered, making shadows dance across Aldric's painted face. For a moment, it looked like he was staring directly at me. Like he knew I was coming. Like he was waiting.
I rolled up the portrait and shoved it in my pack. Didn't matter if we looked alike. Didn't matter if we were somehow connected. Orders were orders. Aldric Thornhaven had to die, and I would be the one to kill him.
I blew out the candle and lay down on my bed, trying to sleep before the journey ahead.
But sleep wouldn't come.
Instead, I kept seeing those eyes. My eyes. Staring back at me from a stranger's face.
And deep in my bones, in some place I didn't understand and couldn't control, something screamed that killing Aldric Thornhaven would be the biggest mistake of my life.
I pressed my bleeding knuckles against my chest, trying to calm my racing heart.
In three days, one of us would be dead.
I just hoped I'd killed the right person.