As if to prove his point, he stands, taking back his sword.
Around me, the air smells of the aftermath of the storm, mixed with the tang of blood and the stench of death.Someone sent killers to slay Marcus, killers with both training and magical power.Selene wouldn’t be so direct, so only two questions matter now that I’m sure Marcus is safe.
Who sent them, and why?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
One of Marcus’ servants stitches the wound in my shoulder while others quickly clear the bodies away without question.They move with such efficiency that I find myself wondering if this is something they’ve had to do before.If they’re overwhelmed by the situation, they give no sign of it.
Marcus is sitting nearby, on one of the gilded couches of his villa, sipping a goblet of wine.He would look calm, except that his hand is gripping the goblet tightly enough that his knuckles are white with the effort, and he’s shaking ever so slightly.I can’t tell if that’s the normal aftermath of battle as the adrenaline leaves his body, or if he’s simply that angry.
"It's all right," I say as soon as the servant is done stitching the wound in my shoulder.
“It really isn’t,” Marcus says, his voice thick with emotion.
I move to sit beside him.I’ve seen him in fights before, against Alaric’s resistance and others, but I don’t think I’ve seen him in the aftermath of a fight like this.I put my hand on his shoulder and he tenses at the touch.
“You need to relax, Marcus,” I say.“It’s over.”
“How can I relax when killers came to myhome?”he demands.“When they came looking for you.”
I shake my head."Not for me.For you.As soon as they saw you, they were going to kill you.If I were the target, they would have tried to incapacitate you or go past you.And at the end, they ran rather than continue trying to kill me."
Marcus looks thoughtful.Strangely, he seems less angry that people were trying to kill him than with the possibility that they were trying to killme.He sets down the wine goblet carefully.
“You’re right.They were coming for me,” he says.He looks momentarily worried.“Does that mean Selene knows I’m not on her side?”
If so, it will fundamentally change the dynamic of our fight against her.Until now, Marcus has been protected partly by his status, but mostly because Selene thinks he’s siding with her.If she learned he’s been working against her from the start, would she send killers like this?
“I don’t think this is her,” I say, after a moment’s thought.
Marcus frowns.“You don’t think Selene has access to killers?That she’d send them against her enemies?”
“Someenemies, maybe,” I say.“I can imagine her sending killers against someone unimportant who got in her way.But that isn’t the way she’s worked so far with other people.She could try to have Rowan killed, but instead, she’s worked to sideline him.She could have tried to have me killed, but she was happy enough to see me imprisoned and then given to you.Selene always seems to have another scheme for people.And if shedidwant us dead, I think she’d come and do it herself.She’d want the satisfaction of knowing she could beat us.”
“Even if she knew I betrayed her?”Marcus says.
“Even then,” I insist.“I think something like this wouldn’t be enough of a revenge for her.She’d want to destroy you politically, to take me from you, and then, if she killed you, she’d want to do it personally.”
“It’s terrifying to think that we know it isn’t Selene because things would be far worse if it were,” Marcus points out.
It is, but I also think it’s true.I’m convinced Selene Ravenscroft didn’t play a part in tonight’s events.Which means someone else sent the assassins.
“If not her, then who?”Marcus wonders aloud.“The resistance?”
I shake my head.“They’re allies now, not enemies.”
“Some faction within them might not have gotten the message.They might think they’re doing Alaric a favor by killing the man who holds you prisoner.”
"I don't think this was the resistance," I say."If it were a single individual, maybe, but this was a well-coordinated strike by half a dozen trained killers.Alaric would have stopped something like this in the planning stage."
“Not least because of the possibility of you getting hurt,” Marcus agrees, sounding thoughtful.“All right.Not them.And I don’t believe this is some random business rival.The timing would be too much of a coincidence.Why now, just as Selene’s building up to her Grand Tournament?Why not months ago, or after it’s done?No, there must be a connection.”
“Selene has plenty of people around her whomightuse assassins,” I point out.“Particularly if they thought removing you might give them some advantage.”
“That’s plausible,” Marcus says.“The question is which of them.Actually, no.The question is what happened to my guards.Exus!”
A servant comes running.He’s a young man of perhaps eighteen, with short dark hair and dark eyes.He looks worried by tonight’s events, but also determined, as if he’s making sure he doesn’t let Marcus down in the middle of this chaotic situation.
