And her only loyalty was to her family and the Crown.
The sun would shine in Kava before her father felt so much as a shred of remorse for all he had demanded of her. All those bodies. She wondered what the total was now. The rain drip, drip, dripped down her nose. She’d stopped counting near her sixteenth birthday. There wasn’t any point. Because it was never going to end.
Thankfully, it was rare she had to find a tip now. The king believed the worst of the curse to be decimated. But it was a constant threat in her father’s hand. That she’d have to go find someone to be put down like an animal. That he’d handherover to the king instead if she didn’t obey.
And then there was her mother, Georgia. She carved out the social face of the Crown with expert strokes. Parties, cocktails, and gold flatware were her weapons.
Born into the Crown’s circle, she had used poise and grace like an ax to hack her position into existence. And now she wielded her power with the best of them. Who to invite. Who to ostracize. The art of putting someone in their place by seating them at the children’s table. By accident, naturally.
She made careers. And she broke them. People sweat in her presence as if she were the queen herself. If her mother had ever learned how to get her hands dirty, she would have made a terrifying general.
Elysia brushed the water off her face. She had always been a quiet child, unlike her sister, Beatriz, who screamed and raged like a soul caught between the dead and the living. While Beatrizwas politely dragged out of sitting rooms that rolled with smoke and banter, Elysia had been allowed to stay, often tucked away in a corner long forgotten by the people who made the wheels of Kava turn.
And so Elysia began her training in the ornate halls and parlors of their kingdom’s finest. She collected secret after secret with no one the wiser. Because no one pays attention to sweet, soft girls in the corner.
And she liked it that way.
Rough fingers captured her ankle and yanked, startling her out of her thoughts. An embarrassing squeak escaped her mouth, but Gage’s strong hands had already grabbed her waist and pulled in her through the open window. Set on her feet, she teetered like a baby deer with her heart pounding loud enough she was sure he could hear it.
“You didn’t even notice me opening the window.” His deep voice normally settled around her like a warm blanket, but today the subtle reprimand sank beneath her skin, grating against her already raw nerves.
“MaybeI have a good reason for being so distracted, did you ever think of that?”
His dark eyes twinkled, amused at her rancor. “Please, do share.”
A small laugh rumbled in his chest, and with her temper filed to a point, Elysia glared but didn’t say a word, knowing she’d regret whatever came out of her mouth.
Making his way to her, he pried her arms apart from where they’d been folded across her chest and looked down at her with genuine affection. Her frown softened, the tight ball of anxiety and anger melting a fraction under the warmth of his friendship. Moments like this made it easy to forget the man was a trained assassin who’d been born to continue his family’s empire.
Gage rarely talked about his family, but from what she’d gathered, they were indigenous to Bellia, the next closest country to Kava, and it remained the seat of their power. No matter where they called home, you could find a Reyez in every important kingdom and city, keeping a finger on the pulse of things. The family business extended far past the unseemly matter of relieving people of their lives, but as Gage said, it was important to stick to your talents, and there was no use crying about what they were.
Kingdoms were intricate and complicated pieces of embroidery, stitched together with lies and truth and dead-end dreams. People like the Reyez family were the back of the needlework. They were the knotted and tangled mess everyone was happy to pretend didn’t exist.
But they did.
The false beauty of the many kingdoms in their world lazed on. And the Reyez empire counted their coins, knowing their business would never cease. Because people were knotted and tangled on the inside, too.
Gage rested easily in front of her, and even after so many years of training beside him, Elysia still noticed how his body was an instrument that sang with even the most simple of movements. He waited patiently for her to tell him what was going on, his stare quickly becoming an uncomfortable weight against her.
“Let me guess, you went after a tip without an exit plan, got lost in the thrill of it, and now you’re in trouble? Or is this about what’s actually been going on with you?” His voice was torn between brotherly amusement and parental concern.
Elysia remembered the feeling of adrenaline as she attempted to escape Topp’s rooms only hours ago, and her mouth pinched at the both accurate and inaccurate observation. Shedidenjoy the thrill of chasing secrets, but she also had nochoice about working for her father. And more importantly, that wasn’t why she was here at all.
Gage noticed her reaction and clamped his mouth shut. She could tell he was itching to pry. Her behavior over the last few months had likely been driving him up a wall. He wasn’t a man who did well with information being withheld, but he also knew she was about as skittish as an alley cat and would bolt if he tried too hard to get her to open up.
His current silence was probably for the best, considering she didn’t want to hear anymore of hisconcernedquestions. Not today and probably not tomorrow, either. She could practically hear the questions stuck behind his lips and even the thought of them left her feeling exposed. “What’s wrong? I’ve noticed how you’ve changed. Please tell me, so we can fix it.”
She wasn’t ready for that conversation, and for once, she had an easy card to play to get him off her back. Elysia pulled the note out of her pocket, handing it over to him. He looked curious until she tacked on what felt like pertinent details.
“Came with a box and a bloody tongue.”
Elysia stepped back, wrapping her arms around her middle as she watched his face work through flashes of emotion. Surprise. Anger. Resigned violence. Yes, this is what she had expected.
It was a strange miracle that she had ever met Gage. Even now, it was a puzzle to her why he had made himself such a permanent fixture in her life.
In some circles, Gage was a legend.
The one you brought your plea to and prayed to the undead gods that his price was not too steep. Because for his kind of work, there was always a price unseen. It was never going to be just coins. In other circles though, Gage was no one. He simply did not exist because how does one even trace a shadow in a city without the sun?
