“Now, Jory. You don’t understand the kind of men who will come after me if I fail. Who will come after you. We’ll arrange a place to meet. You must go quickly—”
“What are youtalking about?” My voice is rising, and I don’t care. “What body? What—”
“Damn it, would you listen to me? There are two people I’ve been ordered to kill.Youcan escape, but I don’t want Incendar to pin the blame on you. You need to be gone before I do it.”
I stare at him. “Asher. What are you saying to me?”
“The Hunter’s Guild has been hired to kill youboth.” His blue eyes are so fierce. “So nowyouare going to run.”
“And what are you going to do?” I say, but my voice is small.
Because I already know. My brain has caught up.
“I’m going to kill Maddox Kyronan, the king of Incendar.”
Chapter Eight
The Assassin
Jory is staring at me desperately, wetting her lips like this is a new puzzle she has to solve. “Asher,” she says firmly. “You cannot kill the king—”
I slap a gloved hand over her mouth again, then cast a glance at her chamber doors. “Maybe you could say that a little more quietly.”
She hesitates, then nods, so I let her go.
I reach into my jacket and withdraw the tightly folded orders that I hid from Hammish and Rachel when I dunked my hand in the bucket. “You need to see this,” I say as I unroll them. “I’ve been ordered to kill you both. If I fail, another Hunter will be sent. Soon.”
She inhales like she’s going to keep arguing, but her eyes must lock onto something on the parchment, because she finally snatches both pieces out of my hands to read. Her eyes scan the paper and stop on Maddox Kyronan’s name, then flick back up to the royal seal at the top.
“This has to be fake,” she says. “It has to be. You heard Dane yourself. He’ll do anything to ensure this alliance. He’s not going to have the king killednow—”
“Or he laid a trap where the king has no access to fire just so hecouldhave him killed. Read the next one.”
She huffs a breath as if we’re children again and I’m being stubborn, but she flips to the next piece of parchment and reads.
A line appears between her eyebrows when she reaches her own name.
“Look at the bottom,” I say. “It was paid with Incendrian silver. And the order was received this morning.”
“This doesn’t make any sense.”
The only thing that doesn’t make sense is the fact that she’s not wrapping herself up in a cloak and sneaking through the servant passageways.
“These are fake,” she says. “Someone is tricking you.” Jory thrusts the crumpled parchment at me with finality. “Ky wants this alliance, too.”
I was in the middle of wondering if I should just drag her over the windowsill, but my thoughts trip and stall when she calls himKy.
I don’t care. I don’t.
Ican’t.
My expression must shift anyway, because spots of pink appear on her cheeks. She squares her shoulders and stares up at me boldly. “I talked to him, Asher. He wants to protect his people. He didn’t do this.”
I take a tight breath through my teeth and cast a glance at her door. We surely only have moments before one of her maids returns. “Two hours ago, you were terrified of him.”
“That was before he came to speak with me privately.”
I have no idea how she can be so bold and so naive at the same time.
