I slipped into the main keep of Drakthar and made my way through the corridors to the library. Ever since I’d seen it the weeks prior, I’d wanted to come. I’d only gotten a peek as I walked by, but I’d never seen so many books before. They were scarce and precious in Neverglade. Kace had a shelf full at his house, but his mother wouldn’t let anyone touch them except family.
I’d been solely focused on training for months, and now I was obsessing over what was wrong with Vander. I needed a break.
A female assassin sat propped against the wall with a book in hand and nodded to me. If she wondered why I was an apprentice on my own, she didn’t voice it.
It smelled like cinnamon and spice in here. The sound of trickling water came from somewhere deep among the dark wood shelves. The ceiling spiraled up into a twisting cone of stained blue glass. Draping green plants hung from a few shelves, and the floor was made of wooden planks rather than dark stone like most of Drakthar. It gave the room a warm and cozy atmosphere.
I had no real idea what I was looking for. Something adventurous without war or death, or a romance story where their love wins against all odds. Was there such a book?
I made my way to the far-left wall, gazing up at a woman on a ladder, replacing a book on the highest shelf. She didn’t wear assassin black but the sage-green robe of a scholar. Then I turned my attention to the spines and titles. The brunette woman made her way down and asked if I needed help. I was too embarrassed to ask for a love story, so I just said fiction, to which she directed me toward the wall at the end of the aisle.
I found a title that readMy Heart’s Desireand pulled it free. The cover was of an attractive male and female lying in each other’s arms in a meadow of flowers. I glanced around to make sure no one was watching. Assassins were supposed to be tough, hardened killers, not young women wanting love and passion. I opened the book to a random page. The narrator spoke of hiding in the dark corner of a study with the man she was secretly seeing, then he slipped his hand under her dress.His soft breath rolled over the bare skin of her neck. “Evander,” she moaned,and I snapped the book shut. That was way too close toVander. I was here trying to distract myself from him.
“Bonecarver!” It sounded like Celine. I quickly whirled and tucked the book behind my back. Celine and Falcon marched past the scholar woman. Celine waved at me.
“Hi, Smoke, Falcon.” I caught myself breathing too heavily and slowed down.
“What are you doing here?” Falcon asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.
“Browsing for a book.” I hoped they didn’t ask which one I’d picked up.
“Where’s the man of the day? With his adoring fans?” Celine teased.
“Yeah, whereisViper?” Falcon glanced around like she’d find him close by. “I wanted to talk to him after the fight, but he ran out of there so fast. He did great! Dred will be in the infirmary for a couple of days. I was there the night Dred beat Viper so badly he couldn’t walk, back in our academy days. Dred kept kicking him in the ribs and face even after he lost consciousness. Three boys had to drag him off. Even after we thought Dred had settled, he went and kicked him again. Dred deserved everything he got today and more. We weren’t as close then, but I and a couple others put Viper in a horse wagon and dropped him off at his parents’.”
I winced even thinking about that. “He said he needed to see Commander Locke.” I cleared my throat. Falcon and Celine were a couple of the people here I trusted. “Between us, he was agitated after the fight and was acting... differently. I thought it was because of me somehow, but I don’t know. Could he be hurt and hiding it? I’m worried.”
Falcon ran a hand through her chin-length bronze hair and glanced back at the scholar woman who whisked away with a stack of books in hand. “He gets like that sometimes and wants to be alone. I’m surprised you’re just now noticing, although he’s probably tried to hold it in with you around. It started happening after the incident with his sister. He’s never been the same.”
My blood went cold. Both Celine and I stared at her. “What incident with his sister?” Celine asked before I could.
Falcon’s shoulders slumped slightly, and she let out a slow breath. “A vampire killed her. It’s been...” she trailed off in thought. “Damn, two years already. The few months after were hard to watch. He and I were in the same apprentice year and were friends, but he became distant, like being around everyone bothered him. He disappeared all the time and wouldn’t talk to anyone. He slaughtered vampires like a mad man, and he did it alone, which is against LOA code. The Commanders let hisbehavior slide for a time, until they didn’t. I forced Viper to go see his uncle and waited outside his study. Then the crashing started. The door was left cracked. Commander Locke smashed him into the bookshelves and then they crushed his desk and destroyed everything inside until they both broke down and sobbed in each other’s arms.” Her watery hazel eyes fell to the window. “She died just as the leaves were changing. The anniversary must be soon.”
I was sick to my stomach. Why hadn’t he told me? I told him about my grandparents’ deaths. That must be why he snuck away some nights, to be alone to grieve. I knew exactly how that felt.
It suddenly hit me like a punch to the gut. “His sister was his apprentice, wasn’t she?”
Falcon pressed her lips together and nodded. “She idolized him. He’s the reason she became an assassin, otherwise she would have been a scholar. But like him, she had a choice, and he blames himself for her death, and so do his parents. They won’t even speak to him or Commander Locke. It’s sad. He lost his sister and family too.”
“But it can’t have been his fault,” I said, defensively.
“No, but he thinks so. Trainers are responsible for their apprentices, and she was his little sister. He will always blame himself for it.”
Celine folded her arms. “Didn’t his other apprentice get killed too? I heard rumors.”
Was this the reason that Vander hadn’t wanted an apprentice?
Falcon sighed. “He did. At least a few die every year, but no one I know of, other than Viper, has lost multiple apprentices. I feel for him.”
“That’s rotten luck,” Celine added. “What happened to them?”
“With Wolf, we were all out on a night hunt. Viper, like all of us, told his apprentice to stay close. We came upon a battalion of warriors struggling in a battle against the vampires and joined in. Wolf was killed. It happens even to seasoned assassins. Viper always wondered what he could have done to prepare him better.”
This had to be why he was hard on me and yet fiercely protective. “And his sister? Her name was Oriana, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, but her assassin name was Redwing. He might not ever say exactly what happened that day, but I do know she was taken to Nocturnus.”
My eyes widened, so did Celine’s. I couldn’t imagine the torture she, an assassin, must have gone through. I didn’twantto imagine. “How do you know she’s dead? What if she’s one of their blood slaves?” I gasped.
