by Lisa Daniels
“Yes, she would have. But she was needed elsewhere, and Ignacio would have had a very difficult time here.”
Itzel nodded, “That is very true. He’s still so new… to everything.”
“Fortunately, he has learned faster than almost any other assassin, so perhaps we are underestimating him.”
“The other task was a better fit for both of them, and no doubt it will finally settle him into the reality.”
When Darius didn’t respond, she looked over at him. She frowned, “Does it bother you that he fell for her?”
Darius shook his head, “It bothers me that you don’t seem to realize just how things are going to turn out between them.”
“Rosaline is level-headed, intelligent, and considerably older than him. She’s also incredibly responsible. She’s not the kind of druid to go and get mixed up in a relationship with an assassin. The sooner he realizes that, the better.”
Darius lifted an eyebrow, “It is a constant point of interest how well you can read people without understanding them. It’s almost as if you can’t see the path people will take unless you are the one to manipulate that path.”
“Only the seers are able to see what path anyone will take.”
Darius placed a finger under his lower lip. “I suppose that is true for most people, mystics and druids included.”
“Don’t lump us in with those short-sighted upstarts.”
“It’s true that they have a lot more druid genetics than seer, so it makes sense.” He smirked at her, and she realized that he was just trying to rile her up.
“Oh, I see. You are trying to get me emotionally worked up so that I will just charge ahead with whatever plan you have. Very good, Darius. It almost worked.” Itzel began to remove her shawl from her shoulders.
“How about a wager?”
The shawl fell from her hands, but before it hit the ground, Darius had caught it and offered it to her, a smile on his lips.
Itzel took it, her hand brushing his as she did. “You are enjoying this far too much.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I don’t think I have seen you smile this much in the last 500 years.”
The smile was quickly gone. “I’m sorry if you find it offensive. Perhaps it is the air in this land. It is too thin, causing me to act in ways that are unbecoming.”
“If that is the case, I would be happy to remain here for a while.”
He frowned at her, but didn’t ask.
Sparing him from having to figure it out for himself, Itzel tapped his shoulder. “I love your smile. I have never seen a shifter with dimples.” Her hand moved from his shoulder to his face. Pushing in a little, she indicated where one of the dimples was.
Darius’s expression was frozen, his blinking eyes the only perceptible movements in response.
Itzel giggled and pulled her hand away. “I’m just saying what is true. Oh, don’t worry, I’m not going to tell the other druids. This is our little secret.”
“It isn’t a secret.” His voice was almost pouty.
“Oh, so you are alright with me going into detailed description about how your stern, cool, handsome demeanor is significantly improved by a smile? The way the right side of your face—”
A hand clamped over her mouth. “Yes, do keep it as a secret if you are just going to make me sound like a complete idiot.”
“Our secret,” her muffled words were still easy enough for him to discern.
“It is your secret because it isn’t something I am likely to go around discussing.” Letting go of her, he moved away, his back facing her.
“But you are the one who doesn’t want word spread about it.”
“I don’t want your words to be the authority on my smile. You will twist and warp it, and then I will be hounded until I smile at every druid in the place.”
“Oh,” her eyes widened, and a part of her really didn’t like that idea.
“Took you long enough to figure that out.” He removed his hat and placed it in the little hollow in a tree. “I suppose that means you will definitely tell everyone.”
“No,” Itzel frowned, “I won’t tell them.” Something about the idea of him smiling at all of the other druids bothered her. They don’t deserve to see his smile because they don’t appreciate him.
“I can’t stop you if you wanted to, so do what you want. I will hold it against you, but not too long.”
“I won’t tell.” Itzel walked over to see what he was doing. “So, about this wager?”
Darius removed his jacket and slipped it into the hollow. “I am taking your side, so you must take mine.”
“What?” Itzel put a hand on his arm, causing him to look at her.
“I will take your side, and say that Rosaline will turn him down.”
“What is the wager?”
“First, we need to establish our sides.”
“I know that she will turn him down, so I want to know what I lose by going against that.”
“You are certain that is what will happen?”
“Absolutely.”
“Alright, then, you can have your stance. If she turns him down, what is it you want?”
Itzel scratched her head for a second, then a wicked grin crossed her face. “I want you to smile at me every day for 100 years.”
Darius stopped moving for a moment. His head turned slowly, and his eyes were a mix of confusion and surprise as he looked at her. “And just what do you gain out of that?”
“Something that will make me smile every day. But you can’t smile when anyone else is around.” She nodded at her own words, glad that she thought to add the stipulation before he accepted her stakes.
Darius frowned at her, “You will lose, so I accept.”
Itzel smiled, “And what is your wager?”
“I say that she will reject him twice more, then as soon as he gives up, she is going to realize her mistake and jump him.”
Itzel’s mouth fell open for a moment. Shaking it off, she asked, “Just what do you mean by jump him?”
“Exactly the way you are obviously thinking.”
“But she is celibate. There is no way that she is going to do anything like that after she took that pledge.”
Darius smiled and narrowed his eyes, “As for what I want if that happens…”
Itzel held his gaze, her eyes enjoying the view of the stoic assassin looking so out of character. “What is it that you… want if you are right?”
“I want to take you out again.”
Itzel felt like time stopped. She heard nothing and the world around them seemed to fade into the background as she looked into his eyes. Her mind pushed the first thought away, and she said, “You want to do another mission outside?”
He looked at her for a moment longer. His voice was low as he said, “With you.”
There was a lot of potential meaning to those words. Itzel tried to sift through the most likely reasons for such a request. “Are you trying to help me get away more often? Despite your aversion to leaving?”
“I never said that I was averse to going away. They just always request assistance from others, and I see no reason to argue with them.”
“But you never ask to leave like the others do.”
“I know that it will cause discomfort.”
“But by letting people get used to having you around, you have ensured that they think you don’t want to leave.”
“I am not in the habit of correcting other people’s misconceptions.”
“Why with me?”
Darius stood up and his smile widened a little. “Because I have enjoyed the conversation over the last few weeks. Even when we disagree, our discussions are always productive. It is a… nice change from the usual.”
Itzel placed a hand on her mouth to hide her smile—she had already thought the same thing a couple of times that day. Not wanting to over think his wager, she nodded. “Given what you think will happen, you have to know that you aren’t go
ing to win. Sounds to me like you don’t actually want to leave. I accept.” She held out her hand.
Darius’s face relaxed and his eyes softened as he reached out and shook her hand.
Itzel couldn’t help but notice how large his hands were compared to hers and how warm they were. She held on a little longer than was necessary as her mind wandered to what kind of mission they would go on together. Won’t happen. Rosaline is not going to give in, let alone initiate a physical relationship. Her thoughts seemed a little disappointed even to herself as she considered the likelihood that she and Darius would go out together again. Maybe I should have let him bet as he originally suggested. The thought surprised her, but Itzel wasn’t about to explore where that particular train of thought would take her. Not in the current circumstances. She placed it in the corner of her mind to find out what it could mean later.
Chapter 5
Outline of a Plan
The long handshake was brought to her attention when a pair of pink eyes looked at hers from only a few inches away. “Are you okay?” Darius was looking at her a little oddly, his hand still in hers.
“I don’t know.” She dropped his hand and turned around. Pacing, Itzel asked, “You tell me what the situation is and what you need me to do, and I will let you know how I am.”
“Don’t worry. It isn’t anything beyond your abilities.”
“I wasn’t worried about that.”
“That’s good. I’ll remember you said that.”
“Darius,” her voice echoed around them a little, the warning clear.
“There is a nest and they have been trying to build a heart there. It is where they intend to take the queen, so we are going to make sure they cease to exist within the next 24 hours.”
Itzel’s eyes narrowed, “They were building a heart right across from the mystic city?”
“There were four corrupted on the mystic Council, so there has been plenty to divert their attention from what is happening so close to home.”
Itzel shook her head, “Okay, I hope you don’t mind me starting with the obvious question, but I feel it’s going to get lost if I focus on the primary part of what you just said.”
Darius just looked at her.
“What do you mean ‘were?’”
“It’s past tense. It means previously.”
She gave him a scathing look, “Thank you for the finer points of language. Let me be clearer with the question. What do you mean ‘There were four corrupted?’ You are talking about this morning, right? There were four on the Council since two were corrupted while they were traveling on the mainland.”
“Yes.”
“Darius,” Itzel already knew the answer, but wanted confirmation, “did you already kill two of them?”
He nodded.
Itzel covered her face with her hands. “An assassin slipped in and killed two women on the Council. Oh gods, you are going to start a war.”
“Not at all. I sank their ship when they were returning.”
“Well, that will make it difficult to say it was our fault. Still, that was incredibly risky.”
“Riskier than the mystics being unaware that they had corruption in their ranks?” He looked at her without any expression on his face, but Itzel thought she saw his eyes flash. She could almost imagine he was amused. “They still have two on the Council.”
“Please tell me you aren’t planning on killing them, too.”
“I am not planning on killing them, too.”
“Good, because—”
“Hector will.”
“What?” Itzel stopped pacing and looked at him. “No, he won’t. He has to take care of Freya.”
“Yes, he will. But not until a few weeks from now, after they have abducted her.”
“The Council is going to abduct her?”
“No, the Unwashed will, using their corrupted seer currently living in the palace. She is going to abduct the queen, Hector will go save her—largely thanks to what you did to him today—and then he is going to kill the two corrupted members after their marriage.” It was a small hint of encouragement, but it made Itzel feel that her work had not been for nothing. She had been confident that it would work, but Darius was recognizing her effort after weeks of trying to dissuade her. It was likely the only acknowledgement she was going to get that he was admitting she had been right. But there was something about what he had said that bothered her.
Itzel narrowed her eyes, “Why do you sound so certain about what will happen?” Then the rest of his words registered. Squeezing her eyes closed, Itzel felt it necessary to get a little more information. “Wait, did you say marriage? Whose marriage?” She opened one eye to look at the assassin.
“Hector and the queen. What we are about to do is buy them the time to get around to what they have been wanting to do for years.”
Itzel rubbed her face with her hands, “So you already knew how things were going to go when you met up with me, but you asked me how it went because why, exactly?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t know at the time. I only found out while we were walking here.”
“And how exactly did you find out?”
“I will back walk twice, once at the end of this encounter, and again in a month’s time.”
“Wait, you can—you know how to back-walk?”
Darius gave her a mirthless smile, “You realize this isn’t helping us at all.”
“So what we are doing now, you are at the other end of these events?”
“Yes.”
“Well,” she shut her mouth for a second. “I guess just tell me what I do and I will try to keep up better than on the way here.”
“I can’t tell you everything.”
“So we get split up.”
He nodded.
“We will come back to this conversation from the other side of your walk. And don’t think I’m going to forget.”
He gave her a small smile, “I am counting on you not forgetting.”
Itzel popped her neck, part of her very concerned that Darius had felt it necessary to do something as risky as back-walking so close to a large number of mystics. That kind of magic would be difficult to miss because it had a very wide frequency. Seers could see into the future without having to risk being found out, and they could do it by simply looking at people. There was a small percentage of assassins who could actually reverse the order of time and move backward through it if something went incredibly wrong, giving them something near to what the seers could do. However, back-walking would reverberate forward and backward, creating a distortion that would be easier to pinpoint later. Something about what they were about to do was so risky, something would go so wrong, that Darius would relive it in reverse to change the outcome. He already knew how it would work out, but he wouldn’t know exactly how to bring those results to fruition until the time came.
“Will you tell me what we need to avoid?”
“Getting killed.”
“You mean we died?” She found that incredibly hard to believe.
“No, but it is definitely something we need to avoid while we are making sure things work in our favor.”
“Darius,” Itzel was beginning to feel a little frustrated at the way he kept failing to answer the questions she was asking. It was obvious he was being intentionally obtuse. “Thank you for stating the obvious. I do tend to try to avoid death as much as possible.”
“No, you don’t.” His eyes watched her.
Feeling somewhat self-conscious, Itzel shifted. “Spending time with assassins doesn’t count.” He lifted an eyebrow but didn’t say anything in response. His gaze was intense, and she wasn’t sure how to react. “Will you tell me what it is you are trying to avoid?”
“No.”
Itzel took a deep breath before saying, “At least that was direct. And could you please stop looking at me like that? You are making me feel very…” Itzel wasn’t exactly sure what was happening, but his intensity was making her feel anxious. Just w
hat happened?
“I apologize for making you feel uncomfortable.” He stepped away and looked toward the mountains. “We had best start moving toward the target. There will be several boats that are about ready to launch by now, and they are going to get out of range if we don’t reach the shore within the hour. I will tell you more about what we need to do as we head that way.”
“Are you going to shift?” Itzel watched him stretch in the shade of the trees.
“No. I will have to swim.”
“You are going to what?” It was another bizarre turn of events in too short a period of time. “Darius, why in the world did you go and start all of this while we were supposed to be on a mission of peace?”
“I am helping to keep the peace the way all of my species does. Of all people, you know that I am not very persuasive. My approach in assisting your mission should not come as a surprise.”
Itzel could not argue with that. The druids kept peace through negotiations and meetings. Their magic was based on life. Assassins kept peace through the death of others and through doling out justice when it was deserved. Their magic was based on death.
Knowing that she shouldn’t ask, Itzel pushed a fist against her mouth and tried to fight back the question that was forming. Darius was as calm and detached as usual, but there was something in his movements that suggested he was unnerved. There was a point during their rapid walk to the forest where she had felt him tense, but she had thought he was sighing. Now, she realized that was probably the point to which he had back-walked. And he knew that he was going to do it twice. That meant he had not only needed to come back to their current point, but he had needed to overlap the times to coordinate something later in the month. He had made a huge gamble, but Darius was keeping the reason behind it to himself.
“Telling me may help you make the right choices.”
“No, it won’t.”
“How can you be so sure?”
He turned to face her, “We are losing time we don’t have.”
Itzel’s shoulders slumped as she began to walk forward. “We are supposed to work as a team, but I guess you don’t remember how to do that after so many years.”