ELARA
Three assassins crash through my window, and my first thought is: Finally.
My second thought is: Wait. Cain's contract was exclusive. Why are there more?
The assassins move fast—professional, coordinated, deadly. One goes for Cain. Two come straight for me.
I don't move. Don't defend myself. This is what I wanted, isn't it? Death?
But Cain moves.
He's faster than the other assassins. His blade catches the first one across the throat before the man even realizes Cain's there. Blood sprays. The assassin drops.
"What are you doing?" I shout at Cain. "Let them—"
"No." He blocks the second assassin's blade aimed at my heart. Metal rings against metal. "This is my contract. Mine."
He's protecting me. The man I hired to kill me is protecting me from other killers.
It's insane.
The third assassin reaches me. His blade drives toward my chest. I could stop him with magic. Could burn him to ash with a thought.
Instead, I close my eyes and wait for the impact.
The blade never comes.
Cain tackles the assassin away from me. They crash into my bookshelf. Books rain down.
"Are you insane?" Cain snarls at me while fighting off two attackers at once. "Fight back!"
"Why should I?" I shoot back. "This is what I want!"
"Not like this!" He disarms one assassin and kicks the other across the room. "Not by ambush. Not without understanding why!"
The remaining two assassins regroup. They're good—guild-trained, like Cain. But Cain is better.
He moves like death itself. Fluid. Precise. Beautiful in a terrible way.
Within seconds, both assassins are on the ground. Dead or unconscious, I can't tell.
Silence falls. Just me and Cain, standing in my destroyed study, surrounded by bodies and broken glass.
"Why did you do that?" I demand. "They could have ended this!"
"They're not supposed to be here." Cain's breathing hard. Blood drips from a cut on his arm. "I took your contract exclusively. No one else should have come."
"Maybe the Shadow King sent them. Maybe he—"
"The Shadow King doesn't work that way." Cain checks the bodies. Pulls off their masks. His face goes pale. "I know these men. Marcus. Leon. They're from my guild."
"So?"
"So they weren't sent officially." He stands up, anger radiating off him. "Someone hired them privately. Someone who knows about your contract and wants you dead before I can complete it."
The implication hits me. "Lord Matthias."
"Maybe. Or whoever he's working with." Cain's cold eyes meet mine. "Someone wants you dead right now. Not studied. Not researched. Just dead. Why?"
I don't have an answer.
Guards burst through my door, weapons drawn. Captain Voss's eyes go wide seeing the carnage.
"Your Majesty! Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine." I gesture to the bodies. "These men attacked. My guard—" I glance at Cain "—defended me."
Voss stares at the three dead assassins. Then at Cain. "You killed all three? Alone?"
"They weren't very good," Cain says flatly.
A lie. They were excellent. But Cain is better.
"Take the bodies," I order. "Find out who sent them. And triple the guards on my chambers."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Voss hesitates. "Perhaps you should move to the secure rooms. These windows are too vulnerable."
"No. I stay here." I turn to Cain. "You. With me. Now."
I walk to my bedroom, leaving the guards to clean up. Cain follows silently.
Once we're alone with the door closed, I round on him. "You had no right to stop them."
"I had every right. You hired me."
"To kill me! Not protect me!"
"To figure out how to kill you," he corrects. "There's a difference. Those men weren't trying to break your curse. They were just trying to murder you. It wouldn't have worked."
"You don't know that."
"Yes, I do." He crosses his arms. "Because if it were that simple—if any assassin could just stab you and you'd die—you'd have hired someone centuries ago. You're not stupid, Elara. You know regular assassination won't work."
He's right. I hate that he's right.
I sink onto my bed. Suddenly exhausted. "Then what was the point of that attack?"
"Testing. Or distraction. Or—" Cain stops. His eyes narrow. "Or making sure you're vulnerable when the real attack comes."
"What real attack?"
"Matthias isn't working alone. You said he mentioned someone who knows about your curse. Someone who's been looking for you." Cain starts pacing. "Tonight was too sloppy. Too obvious. Professional assassins don't crash through windows like that unless they want to be noticed."
"You think it was a diversion?"
"I think—"
The lights go out.
Every torch, every candle, every magical light in my palace—all extinguished at once.
We're plunged into complete darkness.
"Cain?" I call out.
No answer.
I summon shadow magic. It responds immediately—darkness is my element. Power flows through me, and I can see again. Everything rendered in shades of gray, but visible.
Cain stands frozen by the door. His hand on his blade. Eyes scanning for threats.
"Magic suppression," I realize. "Someone's using a spell to block magical light."
"Can you still use your powers?"
"Shadow magic, yes. But fire magic, healing—those might be blocked." I stand up. "Someone's cutting off my defenses."
"The real attack," Cain says grimly. "It's happening now."
A sound from my balcony. Footsteps. Multiple people landing on the stone.
Through the darkness, I see them. Not three assassins this time.
Ten. Maybe more.
All moving toward my bedroom with deadly precision.
"We need to leave," Cain says. "Now."
"I'm not running from my own palace."
"You're not running. You're regrouping." He grabs my arm. "Unless you want to die tonight—and not the meaningful death you hired me for, but a meaningless slaughter—move."
Something in his voice makes me listen. We run for the door.
It explodes inward.
More assassins. Blocking our escape.
We're surrounded. Trapped in my bedroom with killers on both sides.
Cain puts himself between me and the closest attackers. "Stay behind me."
"I don't need protection."
"Tonight you do." His blade is out, ready. "Because someone very powerful wants you dead before I can figure out how to kill you properly. And that means whatever I'm supposed to discover about your curse—it's something they don't want found."
The assassins attack as one.
Cain meets them head-on. His blade flashes in the darkness. Blood sprays. Men scream.
But there are too many. Even Cain can't fight ten trained killers at once.
One gets past him. Drives a blade toward my heart.
I catch his wrist with shadow magic. Twist. Bones crack. He screams.
Another comes from my left. I blast him with darkness. He flies backward into the wall.
"I thought you wanted to die!" Cain shouts while fighting three at once.
"I do!" I shout back, fighting two more. "But not like this! Not as a victim!"
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"
"You're the one protecting someone you're supposed to kill!"
"Because I have standards!"
We fight back-to-back. The immortal queen and the dying assassin, surrounded by people trying to murder us both.
It's absurd. It's insane.
It's the most alive I've felt in centuries.
An assassin breaks through. Gets close enough to stab Cain in the side.
Cain grunts in pain but keeps fighting. Blood soaks his shirt.
"You're hurt," I say.
"I'm dying anyway. What's one more wound?"
"Idiot." I unleash a wave of shadow magic. Every assassin in the room gets thrown backward. They hit walls, furniture, each other. Half don't get up.
The ones who do retreat. Running back through windows and doors, disappearing into the darkness.
Silence falls again.
Cain staggers. I catch him before he falls.
"You're bleeding," I say stupidly.
"Noticed that." He presses his hand to his side. Blood seeps between his fingers. "Missed anything vital. I'll be fine."
"You need a healer."
"We need answers." He looks up at me. "Someone just sent twenty assassins to kill you. Someone powerful enough to hire my entire guild. Someone who knows about your curse and doesn't want me to break it. Who?"
Before I can answer, a new voice speaks from the shadows.
"Hello, my love."
I freeze.
That voice. I know that voice.
Impossible. He's dead. He has to be dead.
A figure steps out of the darkness. Tall. Elegant. Face I haven't seen in three thousand years.
Aldric.
The sorcerer who cursed me.
He smiles. "Did you miss me?"