by Lisa Daniels
“I dare say that is exactly what they were doing, but it isn’t the full truth and never has been. You have been sent to kill, and often my missions don’t end in death. Have you never wondered why, when a druid leaves Marlyon, it means either that many people have died or will die?”
Rosaline’s expression fell, “That can’t possibly be true. We… we are meant to protect life.”
“As do we.”
“But, the primary purpose of an assassin is to judge and kill when needed.”
“Almost right. Our primary purpose is to judge. We kill when needed, just like anyone else. Druids are sometimes asked to judge. Of course, your magic sustains life, while ours helps to extinguish it, but our magic does not provide our purpose. This is something that I thought that the priestesses understood.” He was looking at Rosaline with uncertainty. “Are they really teaching a future high priestess that our primary function is death?”
Rosaline felt guilty as she looked at him, “It’s what everyone says.”
Ignacio rubbed his forehead with his hand, then stopped walking. “Rosaline, would it be alright if I spoke honestly with you?”
She turned and looked at him, not sure why he had suddenly stopped. “Is something wrong?”
“I have often thought that the other assassins might be a little harsh on the priestesses. They aren’t friends or anything. Unlike the other shifters and magic users, druids and assassins don’t tend to mix much. Sure, we come and go from where you reside, but it is almost always because of work. With the exception of Darius, assassins and druids don’t really know that much about each other. Do you think it has always been that way?”
Rosaline frowned and pushed her hair behind an ear, “I think that we interact as much as is needed. We are very different creatures, and being together may cause an imbalance.”
“What kind of imbalance?”
“I… don’t know.” She began to pick at her lip, “They just say that we should keep our distance because we don’t have the same purpose.”
Ignacio nodded, “I have heard that before, always from a druid. Do you believe it?”
“I have never thought it was wrong.” Rosaline’s frown deepened, “It never occurred to me to question it.”
He stepped toward her, “Do you think that your purpose and mine are so different?”
Rosaline looked up into his green eyes and smiled, “Of course, silly. I am supposed to become a high priestess. My path is very different than almost everyone else’s.”
“Do you feel that is right?” Ignacio’s eyes looked so earnestly into hers that Rosaline’s smile faded.
“Why are you asking, Ignacio?”
“Ever since I met you, you have seemed sad. Your smile is fake more often than not, but no one seems to notice. To me, it seems like you are trying to follow a path that you don’t see for yourself. Like you are wandering in the dark, following the words that other people tell you. Your execution is nearly flawless, but there is no joy in it.”
Rosaline covered her mouth with a fist, her long forefinger fighting to start picking at it. “Are you trying to make me start to doubt my path?”
Ignacio blinked. Before she realized it, he had taken her hand in his. “I think that you already doubt your path, but are too afraid to face it. You have fooled almost everyone, but both Darius and Orion have started to see the cracks in the façade. It has always been there, you just hid it well. Why?”
Rosaline shook her head, “I did not say you were right.” Her heart was beating quickly and she felt as if she couldn’t breathe. “It is the path I have been on for almost my entire life. Just as you took the assassin’s path.” She tried to pull her hand out of his.
“No. I chose my path because I have no parents. There was no one to put me on the path. No assassin can be put on the path by someone else. I had thought that the druids worked the same way until I met you. I don’t think that you are certain this is the life you want. I think—” He stopped talking and closed his eyes. “I won’t ask you again, but please tell me if you honestly believe that you are doing what is right for you.” He let go of her hand and stepped back.
Rosaline placed her hand on her chest and her eyes drifted toward the ground. “You are right. I have been having doubts. They are getting louder, and I don’t know if I can keep going down it. I almost… Darius risked himself.” She looked up at Ignacio. “I don’t know how he did it, but he pulled me back when I strayed too far.” Again she shoved her hair behind her ear. “Dammit. Still not long enough,” she muttered.
When she looked at Ignacio, he was smiling at her. “If you would like, I am willing to help you find a new path. I can help you find where you are meant to be.” He stepped close so that they were only a few inches apart. “I can keep you safe from whatever danger you are facing. If you will let me.”
Rosaline stared at him, then began to shake her head. “I… I can’t.”
A voice from a little further in the woods startled both of them. “Ignacio!” Both heads turned to see a woman with dark chestnut hair running towards them. As soon as she reached them, she threw her arms around Ignacio’s neck, her legs dangling as he spun her around.
Chapter 8
A Glimpse into His Past
“Dulce! You wonderfully foolish woman. Do you have any idea how many years you took off my life with worry?” Ignacio placed her on the ground and started to reprimand her. “I won’t stand a chance of reaching half my potential age at this rate.” He picked her up and swung her around again, his face covered by her hair.
“I am so sorry, Ignacio. I had absolutely no idea that the powder was poisoned.”
“You would have done it even if you had known,” he said, putting her on the ground. “That’s just the kind of person you have become.”
The gorgeous woman placed a hand over her heart and stumbled backwards. “Oh, you have fatally wounded me. There is no recovery from such a cruel accusation.”
Ignacio laughed, “You seem almost back to normal. Dulce, this is Rosaline. Obviously by the startling hair and eyes, she’s a druid. Rosaline, this is Dulce. An old friend.”
Dulce placed her head on his arm, “I’m so glad to hear that you still think of me that way after everything.”
Another voice caused all three heads to turn again, “Ignacio, given your history with Dulce, I would be most appreciative if you would be a little less handsy with her.”
“Don’t be jealous, Draven.” Dulce wrapped her arms around Ignacio’s arm and squeezed. “He’s my first love, so he can be as handsy as he wants.”
Draven stepped into the dim light of the woods. “If you suggest that he help work the poison out of your system—”
Dulce laughed, “He wouldn’t know what he was doing. You are the expert in that area.” She skipped over to Draven, “It feels so good to be out in nature, traveling with friends, fighting evil again, after all of these years.”
Draven looked down at her, “That is not what you said yesterday. I believe that your exact words were ‘I can’t take another night sleeping in these dank, dark woods. If I ever make it back to civilization, I will never leave it again.’ Your words.” One of his eyebrows rose as he waited for her response.
Her laugh was melodic as she spun around, “That was yesterday. So much has changed since then.”
Finally a smile spread across Draven’s face, “And here I thought you were starting to be a little more stable. Looks like I still have my work cut out for me.”
“Damn straight.” She smiled up at him.
Rosaline watched the entire exchange, not quite sure what to think. One second she and Ignacio were having a serious conversation, the next that woman came bounding in, throwing herself at Ignacio and saying he could touch her if he wanted to. A part of Rosaline wanted nothing more than for the woman to disappear. She hurt Ignacio. He has forgiven her far too quickly. What if she is just trying to draw him in to hurt him again? Rosaline began to feel very uncomfortable as th
e three chatted.
“Anyway,” Ignacio cut into the banter, “Draven, this is Rosaline, whom I’m sure you have heard about.”
“Ah, yes.” He bowed deeply. “My mentor spoke very highly of you, though he did say—” He was interrupted by a swift elbow to his ribs, causing him to drop a few items he had been carrying.
Dulce acted as if she hadn’t done anything. “His mentor is Caspian, so surely you don’t want to hear anything that has been said about you.”
Draven was rubbing his ribs, “It was almost all honorable, I can assure you. What assassin in his right mind would hit on a priestess? That stuck-up lot of self-important hermits wouldn’t have the faintest idea of what a compliment was unless it came from one of their own.” Both Dulce and Ignacio were looking at him with shocked expressions, and Ignacio’s eyes drifted to Rosaline. Draven shrugged, “I’m sure she is fine because she has left, unlike most of her kind. But don’t expect me to sugarcoat anything if she turns out like her sisters. I can honestly say that up to this point, I have never met a priestess I liked.”
“Have you ever met a priestess?” Dulce asked meaningfully.
“Yes, several. They clearly did not like that Caspian took me under his wing.”
Rosaline spoke up, “It was a very strange move to have an assassin train a jaguar shifter who was part of a group of outcasts. It was a very dangerous move that could have blown up in our faces as much as it could have worked in our favor. I don’t even know how Caspian came up with the idea, but—”
“He didn’t.” Ignacio picked up the items from the forest floor. “It was someone else’s idea, he just doesn’t get credit for it. Nor would he ever complain about it.”
Rosaline was about to contradict him when Draven spoke up, “That’s what Caspian said, too. With more curses and less elegance, but yes, he definitely wanted me to understand that he was not my savior. He would never tell me who ventured the idea either, said that the person wouldn’t want anyone to know.”
Dulce nodded, “I bet it was Caspian, but he was just being humble.”
“No.” Ignacio smiled at her, “You obviously don’t know Caspian well if you think that he would allow anyone else to take credit for his work.”
“Oh, he will take credit when it is something bad,” Draven said, reaching out for the items Ignacio had picked up.
“How would either of you know? You weren’t there,” Rosaline said, feeling that she would know more, having been a priestess when the druids had finally agreed to take Draven and Maverick in. “Caspian made the case that we should adopt children instead of using adults. I saw him.”
Ignacio and Draven shared a look, then Ignacio held up a hand toward Draven. “Of course, Caspian sold the idea. Can you imagine anyone else being able to persuade the druids like him? With almost half of them being in love with him themselves?” There was something behind his words that Rosaline didn’t quite understand and she just looked at him. Ignacio pushed a little further, “I know you are aware that he doesn't exactly enjoy spending time with the druids, but there is… there are a few other assassins who know the druids best, know what they need, and how best to persuade them.”
Darius, the name sprang to her mind and her expression changed.
Ignacio nodded and smiled, “Caspian knows his place among the assassins, and he will always do whatever he can to ensure that we succeed. But he is certainly not the brains.”
Rosaline couldn’t help but laugh. She covered her mouth, trying to hide how amusing she found the assessment of the most famous assassin as Dulce spoke.
“He seemed so charming, so charismatic when I met him.”
“Which time?” Draven asked, trying to yank the items out of Ignacio’s grasp.
Rosaline spoke across them, “Why not just put that in the space?” The three heads turned, each with a different expression. She didn’t quite understand Ignacio’s as he realized what she was trying to suggest. “Like what you did with my bag, Ignacio. That way you don’t end up fighting over who carries it.”
Draven turned his head and looked at Ignacio, “What did you do?”
Ignacio rolled his eyes, stretched out a hand, and opened a small area. “If you would like, you can put your stuff here, but you won’t be able to retrieve it without my help.”
Dulce began to look into the space, then stuck her hand in. “It’s so cold! Oh gods, you couldn’t do this when we first met.”
“I hadn’t worked it out quite yet.”
Draven looked at the space, then shoved the items into it. “I don’t expect we will need any of that for a while. It will be nice to walk without having to tote so much around. Who else knows that you can do that?”
Ignacio rubbed the back of his neck and squeezed his eyes shut. He opened one eye a fraction, “You mean other than the three of you?”
Draven nodded.
“I think… no one else.”
Draven closed his eyes and looked away, “Then how did you learn to do it if no one else knows?”
“I spent a lot of time reading about the theory. Figure out how the theory works when applied to reality, and you can pretty much do anything.”
“You do realize that is not something that anyone is supposed to be able to do.”
“Says the jaguar shifter who is assassin-trained and unfettered to any one group.”
“There is a world of difference between the two.”
Ignacio frowned, “Perhaps you have noticed, but there are a lot of things that are going wrong in the world at the moment, it's a sign of something worse. Like you, I have grown up with a completely different understanding of the world because we were born into that broken version of it. You were gifted in physical prowess, and you have used that to be better.”
Draven nodded, “And you were gifted in everything, and have used that to better everything and everyone around you.”
Ignacio laughed and pointed toward Rosaline, “She can attest to that being untrue. Shall we? If you guys are already here, the others can’t be too far behind.”
The small group began walking and talking. Not quite feeling like she belonged, Rosaline kept a bit of distance between her and the rest. A few times, Dulce tried to engage her in conversation, but Rosaline was reluctant to get to know her better. The image of Ignacio lying helpless on the ground kept crossing her mind every time Dulce looked at her. Remaining polite, Rosaline kept her responses short and uninteresting.
After a while, Dulce started to seem a little tired, and she started to stagger a little. Ignacio caught her after she tripped over a root. “Draven, I think you had better help her.”
Draven nodded, “I think that I will need to get to work soon.”
Dulce giggled, and they began to chat.
As soon as they were preoccupied, Ignacio fell in step with Rosaline. “How are you doing?” His voice was as kind as always, but he kept his eyes on Dulce.
Rosaline bristled a little, “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. You are enjoying your friends, and I wouldn’t want to keep you from enjoying yourself.”
Ignacio frowned and looked over at her. “Clearly you are not alright. Are your feet hurting you?” Without waiting for a response, he shifted and began to walk beside her.
“I said I am fine, Ignacio.” As soon as she said it, Rosaline could hear that she was snapping at him. “I am sorry. You are just trying to be nice.”
His stunning green eyes moved into what looked like a smile, and he moved his head in a way that indicated his back.
“I shouldn’t.” Rosaline stepped away from him.
Ignacio growled, then swung his haunches, knocking her off her feet. Instead of hitting the ground, she found herself sitting sideways, the feel of strong muscles moving under her. Blushing at the idea of sitting on Ignacio, she wanted to hop down.
He quickened his pace so that she couldn’t. Looking around for Dulce and Draven, Rosaline realized that they were following Ignacio’s lead.
Not long after
that, they found the rest of their party. Draven and Dulce slipped away to work out the poison. Rosaline watched them disappear, wondering what kind of treatment required them to slip away, but no one else seemed keen on asking.
Four days passed with the group traveling through all kinds of terrain. Whenever it got too difficult, the shifters would carry the magic users. She had no idea how far they had gone because the shifters seemed to be racing each other when they got bored, which meant they had traveled much further than planned in those two days. Word arrived that a champion named Maverick was supposed to join them in a day or two, which meant that Ignacio and Rosaline would be able to return home. They were getting close to Dulce and Draven’s destination, and Rosaline was beginning to get a few pricks in her mind from priestesses wanting to know how much longer she would be gone.
On the fourth night, the calm was broken. The air around them was bothering Rosaline and she was sitting off to the side, trying to ignore what was happening in the forest nearby. As hard as she tried, events were unfolding too close for her to ignore, and after she heard a prophecy, she knew that she couldn’t ignore it any longer. That kind of seer was supposed to be dead a long time ago. Her mind walked out into the woods and watched a bizarre series of events unfolding. To her surprise, Caspian appeared and began fighting alongside a strange man who didn’t fit any shifter description that she had heard of. Things were not going well—one of the women was captured, and the ancient seer was stolen by a champion named Maverick.
He was supposed to join us, wasn’t he? Where is he going? Her mind was about to follow when a familiar voice caught her attention. Turning to look at Caspian who had just finished muttering to himself, Orion emerged from the shadows. She didn’t hear what they said. Too afraid that they would see her, she fled back to the camp.
Once she was back in her body, she held her knees to her chest, her eyes constantly scanning the forest. Where they coming to drag her back? Did they realize what she had done?