BANG.
Someone slammed against the outer door.
Anotherthud, louder this time. Desperate.
Zander.
It had to be.
The assassin glanced that way, and that moment of hesitation was mine.
I kicked the chair beside me into his legs and rolled away.
The door burst open with acrackthat shook the walls.
Zander was first through, his eyes ablaze with Dark Fire, Remy a half-step behind him with his blade already drawn. The assassin whirled toward the noise, the glint of his sword catching the light as he prepared for another strike.
Remy lunged.
But he wasn’t faster than Zander.
Not even close.
Dark Fire surged from Zander’s outstretched hand like black lightning, wild and alive, an unholy roar that shattered the space between them. It struck the assassin mid-turn, searing through fabric and flesh with a sickening hiss. The force of it threw him back like a ragdoll, slamming him into the stone wall.
A heartbeat passed.
Then he crumpled.
A hole smoked in the center of his chest, right where his heart should have been.
Remy lowered his blade slowly, eyes locked on the smoldering corpse. “I know him,” he muttered, voice tight with disbelief.
I pressed a shaking hand to my side and sank onto Riven’s bed. It was the closest to me, and the only solid thing that didn’t seem like it might collapse.
“Who is he?” Zander asked, already scanning the room, making sure no others waited in the shadows.
Remy crouched beside the body, fingers deft as he searched the man’s cloak. “An Order assassin.”
“That doesn’t tell us who sent him.” Zander’s voice was quiet now. Deadly.
“I’ll search him. He may still have his orders.” He knelt beside the man, searching the tunic and pants.
Remy pulled a folded parchment from inside the man’s inner vest. It bore the seal of a thorny rose pressed in crimson wax. He broke it open, scanned the contents, then froze.
“There’s no name. But…” His throat worked. “It’s from theOrder of Thorn.”
My blood iced.
I blinked. “That’s my father’s mark.”
Zander turned to me slowly.
Remy didn’t speak, but the look on his face confirmed what I’d already realized.
“My father ordered my death, again.”
Chapter
