by Zizi Cole
“You make an announcement that we are going to preserve food, so there will be limited portions until the siege has ended. While you are doing that, I will see what I can find out about the Pope and his forces.”
She nodded. As she made her way to the door, I stopped her. “Wait.”
She looked back at me. “Yeah?”
“I don’t want you going anywhere alone. But if you have to.” I approached her, pulling a gun out of the back sheath. “Take this. For Protection. If you are close enough, just pull the trigger. It will take care of the rest. With this kind of gun, you don’t have to be a good aim.”
She kissed me on the cheek and tucked it into the back of her pants. She walked out of the room, and I felt sick over letting her go alone. I had to keep telling myself that she would be okay and that she was tough. She was the toughest person I knew. I also knew that once she got her mind set on something she was as stubborn as a mule. She would be fine.
I slipped out of the room through the secret passage. I tried to keep my appearances in the castle as infrequent as possible. I slipped out of the castle using one of the hidden exits I had found when I was scoping out the place for the hit. The problem was, if I knew about it, then it was likely Satan did as well. That was something I couldn’t worry about at the moment.
Once I was clear of the castle walls and hidden in the woods, I slipped around trying to find out exactly how many the Pope had with him and what their plan was. I needed to know their end game. After exploring the woods and finding the placement of all the troops, I knew things were grimmer than I’d first imagined.
We were outnumbered by ten to one. It looked like he brought the majority of his guards and soldiers with him. I slipped through the shadows, trying to get close to the Pope’s carriage. If I could get close enough, I might be able to take out the Pope and end all of it quickly. I was within five hundred yards of the carriage when I found I couldn’t get any closer. There was nowhere to hide, they left it open, like they knew there would be assassins or spies working for Malina.
Before I made my way back to the castle, I realized I could hear the Pope and woman that was with him speaking to each other. I stopped and settled in to listen.
“John, I know I can do it. I know how to get in. It would be simple. I’ve been in the castle long enough to know my way around.”
“I know you can. I just don’t think it is safe for you to roam around alone. Especially after what the queen said. You are too important to me for anything to happen to you.”
They became silent, so I headed back to the castle. I hoped that the guards that were on their way, would be enough to handle this catastrophe. I regretted killing all of the guards now that we were in a situation where they would come in handy. I froze. I killed all the guards. There wouldn’t have been more than a handful left after the explosion, and I killed more on our escape, so there should have only been one or two. Come to think of it, most of the guards that were on duty that night were older, so the young guys were all killed.
That meant. Fuck! I had to get to Malina immediately. She was in more trouble than I had realized. I began to run to make it back to the castle. The door I used to get out was locked. I pulled; it still didn’t open. I ran to the next entrance, and I couldn’t get it open either.
My heart was pounding as I realized that I was locked out of the castle. I wasn’t sure how the fuck that happened either. I shouldn’t have been locked out. The door I came out of should have still been open. That meant one thing. Someone else knew what I knew. Satan was going to make his move.
I paced in the rendezvous spot I used, to meet with Declan, trying to figure out what I was going to do about being locked out of the castle. I punched a tree, trying to let my frustration out. Where the hell was Raynor? I hadn’t seen him since our fight. It wasn’t like him to bail on me in the middle of a job.
I wanted to beat the shit out of something and kill something else. I made another circuit around the log, and kicked it. I heard a twig break and turned to see a shadow watching me.
“What the hell are you doing out here? Aren’t you supposed to be watching the queen?”
Raynor. “Where the fuck have you been?” I snapped.
“Being smart. Now why the hell aren’t you with the queen, protecting her?”
“I’m fucking locked out.”
“What do you mean, locked out?”
“The bastard knows I’m here. He locked me out.” I threw a knife and it stuck into a tree. The knife vibrated from the impact.
Raynor yanked the knife out of the tree. “You have to stop thinking with that heart of yours and think with your brain.” He slammed me against a tree and held the knife to my throat. “This is why we train you to think, not feel. This is why we beat the emotions out of you during training. So you can think under pressure. You need to be heartless now and think of only one thing. The next step. You need to be at least one step ahead at all times and since Malina has come back into your life, you have been three steps behind. Do you realize you have missed important factors that could have ended this by now?”
“I know I fucked up. But why can’t I do both? I am calm, my head is in the game when I know she is safe. I can’t be heartless, when it comes to Malina or I would have just killed her and been done with it.”
We stared at each other with the knife at my throat. I could feel the cold metal touching my Adam’s apple, but I didn’t flinch. I knew he wouldn’t slit my throat. There weren’t any hits out on me and he wouldn’t kill unnecessarily.
Finally, he released me. We stood there, staring at each other. He broke contact first. I walked by him and sat on the log, dropping my head into my hands. Footsteps coming closer told me that Raynor was joining me on the log.
“You’re right. I’ve been fucking stupid. Now I have to clean up my mess and protect Malina in the process. She has a gun, so she should be okay, as long as she remembers she has it. We have to get back in there. I think I have figured out who Satan is. Plus, the Pope is here, and he brought an entire army with him.”
“Shit, son. This is quite the shit storm.”
“Right.”
“Tell me everything.”
I went on to tell him everything I knew. It was important that we had everything in the open, so we could attack the problem. We had to come up with a game plan. It was two of us against an entire army, plus a skilled assassin.
Raynor elbowed me after I told him everything. “Plus side?”
“Do we have a plus side?”
“I’m your plus side,” a voice from the trees said.
They both looked up to see Declan come into the clearing, with Scarlet close behind.
“When Raynor told me about the clusterfuck you got yourself into, we came as soon as we could. So now it’s three against the Pope’s army.”
Standing, I walked to Declan and clasped hands with him. “Thank you for coming.”
He nodded.
I stared at Scarlet for a moment, thinking she looked different, but I couldn’t figure out what was different about her. I decided to shake it off, but I was concerned about why he brought her with him.
I decided I would worry about that later, we had bigger fish to fry. I had to figure out how to get back into the castle. Then I had an idea.
“Declan, did you bring your grappling hook?”
Nodding, he produced it and handed it to me. I smiled and took off through the woods. When I made it back to the castle walls, I found the spot I had been looking for. There was one area in the castle that no one remembered to guard. It was over by the graveyard where the baby had been buried. No one paid attention to the walls there, thinking holy land was safe from intruders.
I threw the hook, and it caught on the wall like it was supposed to. Carefully, I climbed the rope quickly, to make it over before I was seen. Once I was over, I made my way to one of the secret entrances and opened the door to let Raynor, Declan, and Scarlet in.
Once we
were all in the door, Scarlet signaled that she wanted us to follow her. She knew her way around the castle better than anyone else. We made our way through the castle to the narrow passageway in the walls. We went down, instead of up and ended up in the cellars, where Scarlet grabbed a knife from Declan and cut her finger.
Pressing her finger to a sensor, a light lit up and the wall whisked to the side, to reveal a hidden room. We stepped into the room cautiously, but Scarlet walked in like she owned it. A light flickered on. There were journals, weird screens, and other things along the walls of the room. I opened one up and read the first couple lines of one of the journals.
Shutting the journal, I stared at Scarlet in wonder. “This is the room everyone wants,” I whispered.
She nodded. She opened a door to reveal weapons. There were weapons we had never seen before and some I had only read about in books. There were machine guns, tasers, some kind of laser guns, and other weapons I didn’t recognize.
My eyes landed on a bow and arrow set. I picked it up and examined it. The arrows looked different from anything I had ever seen before. Shrugging, I thought it may be useful eventually, but put it back. I turned when a dagger caught my eye, I picked up it. It has a symbol in it that seemed familiar, yet I couldn’t place it. I slipped the dagger in the extra sheath I had. Extra weapons never hurt. After she showed us around the room, we walked out, and the door slid shut.
I saw why so many people wanted it and shouldn’t have it. Those books had information on how to bring us back from the dark times. It also would turn the electricity back on with a switch she showed us, probably for a sustainable amount of time.
We took a minute to let the implications of what that room meant, sink in before we moved into action. I looked around.
“Now we have to get to Malina. Let’s split up. Declan, you and Scarlet should probably lay low. With her being able to enter that room, she needs to stay safe. Raynor, I want you to look out for the troops the duke called. They should be here any time. I’m going to Malina.”
I took off in a run to get to Malina. I just hoped I wasn’t too late.
Chapter 5- Malina
I couldn’t help but wonder what was taking Tobias so long. He should have been back by now. I had told the cooks what the plan was with the food, then made an announcement to the rest of court and village. I had even set up a food rations division where the kitchen staff was divvying up food equally to make sure that it was going to be evenly distributed.
The nobles were angry, saying they should be allotted more food than the commoners, but I disagreed. I felt that it should be even within all of the people of the kingdom. When we weren’t facing death, then it could go back to class systems, until then they would have to get over it.
I paced my parlor, trying to calm down, but it wasn’t working. My nerves were shot and I was on edge. I felt like I needed to scream, break something, or do something to show I was doing all that I could.
I felt the air shift in the room, telling me I wasn’t alone. I twirled to find Pippa standing there, glaring at me. The smile on my face began to form. Before I knew it, I was snarling more than smiling.
“I have one question, Pippa.” I said, voice barely above a whisper. “Were you responsible for Luquin killing my baby? It is the one thing I have never been able to figure everything out on. How did he know it wasn’t his baby, if he wasn’t told by someone? Who better to tell him than his whore?”
I watched her face change expressions. She went from smug and snarling, to slightly pale and nervous. I knew just from her expressions that I was right. She had set my child up to be murdered.
I felt the blood roaring through my body and thundering in my ears. I jumped at her, grabbing the first thing I could. Her hair. She tried to pull away from me, and I felt the hair separate from the skin.
She leaped, fingers bent to resemble claws. Her nails raked down my face. I could feel the heat and blood well up immediately. I punched her in the face, to get her off of me. She fell to the floor with a thud. I dropped on top of her, throwing punches to keep her down.
She brought her hand up, smashing it into my nose. Blood began to flow freely from my nose. My fist went down into her mouth. She managed to flip us, where I was on the ground and she was sitting over me.
Her hands came around my throat and she began to squeeze. She brought her face close to mine and whispered, “I should have been queen. Not you, a little bitch sent in from another kingdom. And why? Because you liked to play with your guards.”
I was having trouble catching my breath. She was doing a good job at cutting off my airway. I felt my eyes beginning to bulge and I knew I had to do something, quickly. I couldn’t get to the gun that Tobias gave me, it was digging into my back.
I slightly turned my head and saw the knitting needle wasn’t too far from me. I stretched my arm as far as I could, to get ahold of it. My fingers brushed the cool metal. I stretched again, my arm ached, and pain shot through my shoulder. I finally was able to get my fingers on it and slid it into my reach. Grabbing it, I arched my arm up and stabbed the needle into her neck. Her hands released my neck as she grabbed the needle with both her hands.
Her eyes were wide and she slid off me. I rolled to my hands and knees, gasping for air. I slowly climbed to my feet in time to see Pippa yank the knitting needle out of her neck. Blood spurted in an arc across the room.
She dropped to her knees, staring at me. I approached her, leaning down so I was nose to nose with her. “I told you karma is a bitch. Go to hell.”
I turned and walked out of the room, not even worried about being covered in her blood. I had no regrets for killing her, in fact I felt a little lighter. I was halfway down the hallway when I heard Greyson shouting.
I rushed toward his voice to find out what was going on. The few guards were scrambling to get into position. “Greyson, report.”
He stopped and looked at me. “It looks like the Pope’s troops are getting in. We need to stop them. I have the guards we have taking post. Let’s go talk strategy to see what we can do about this. I want to come up with a battle plan.”
I nodded and followed him to the office, where we had maps set up. I stood over one, staring down at it. I had an idea of where Pippa got in, but I couldn’t figure out where anyone else was getting through the walls.
“How many made it inside? Did you have those weak spots reinforced?”
“Yes, milady. But we aren’t sure how many got in before the alert was raised.”
“Okay, keep your eyes peeled and take down any and all intruders.”
“I’ll give my men the word.”
“Do you know where the Duke of Windsor is? I haven’t seen him since before the explosion in the throne room. Is he well? Have one of the maids fetch him.”
I continued to study the map as I heard Greyson leave the room. It seemed weird that all of the sudden the Pope’s troops knew a way in. Granted, Pippa knew the castle well enough, but a lot of the entrances would be too small for a full-grown man with weapons to get through.
I frowned. Something wasn’t adding up and I couldn’t figure out what it was. I felt like I was missing something big. I pulled a second map out and began to look at it. The door opened; I spoke, without looking up.
“Jacob, come tell me if this is accurate. I feel like I’m missing something.”
The door clicked closed and no one spoke. I looked up to see Greyson just standing in front of the door, watching me.
“Is there something wrong, Greyson? Where is the Duke of Windsor?”
“I’m sorry, I’m not sure ma’am. He wasn’t in his rooms, I checked myself.”
I stared at him dumbly for a moment. It didn’t seem possible that Greyson made it to Jacob’s room and back as quickly as he did. He wouldn’t lie to me, right? He vowed an oath to protect me and lay his life down for me. That meant he was trustworthy. Then why was I doubting him.
I straightened and smoothed out my outfit. “I will
go see if they have seen him in the infirmary.”
I strode up to him and stood, waiting for him to move so I could leave the room.
“I’m sorry, My Queen, but I can’t let you leave.”
“Get out of my way, Greyson. I am going to go look for the duke.”
He sighed and it was as if his whole face changed. He was no longer the smiling, easy going, young man that had been helping me since I got back. A stranger stood in his place. Cold. Ruthless. As I stared into his eyes, I knew I was looking into the eyes of a dead man.
Everything made sense. Tobias didn’t trust him, and obviously for good reason. I should have listened to his instincts.
“You’re the other assassin, aren’t you?” I asked, backing away to the opposite side of the room. I wanted as much space between us as possible.
“Women can really be dense. Well, I take that back. Tobias is so fucking stupid; he has no idea who he’s dealing with.” Greyson chuckled at that.
“Why are you exposing who you are to me?” I asked, my voice trembled.
“Because you aren’t leaving this room alive and I’ll be gone by the time anyone knows you’re dead.” He stepped forward.
“That isn’t an assassin’s motive. Assassin’s do the job and leave.”
“Not always.”
He came at me, and an involuntary scream escaped my lips. I moved out of the way, shoving the chair at him. I skirted around the table and made my way to the door. It was locked. There was no getting in or out of the room. He had effectively trapped me in the one room that I couldn’t escape from. I looked around for the key, but it was nowhere to be found. That meant he had it on his person.
He followed me around the room, in a slow, stalking manner. It was almost as if he were the predator, and I the prey. He reached out and grabbed my arm, dragging me to him. He held me against his chest. I tried to push away from him, but he held me tighter.
“I have wondered one thing,” he whispered in my ear. “Do you taste as good as you look?”