Assassin's Bride

by C. J. Scarlett

  “What do you think, Miss Smythe?”

  “O-oh.” I pulled my attention away from Reginald Horne’s distracting bald patch and attempted to remember exactly what he and the other members of the group around me had been speaking of. Something concerning the latest court gossip? I had never kept up with that sort of thing, not since I entered London society when I was eighteen years old, and not in the three years since. “I think you’re right, Mr. Horne,” I said, hedging my bets on this being an appropriate answer. He grinned in response—an overbearing gesture that made my skin crawl, though I managed to hide my response well, as I always did—and turned back to one of the other men present to continue with whatever they had been speaking of before stopping to ask my opinion.

  Whenever I attended a ball, a huge crowd always huddled around me, and that crowd usually consisted of a fair number of young gentlemen. However, I had made few friends in society, even over the course of three years. That meant that I had grown accustomed to speaking very little, even if I was the center of attention in these social gatherings.

  My mother had impressed upon me the importance of having a beautiful appearance and speaking very little from an early age. I had spent hours dressing up for this particular occasion. The gown was among the best in my wardrobe—a powder-blue affair trimmed in lace, with a neckline that my maid had told me cheekily showed off my décolletage to its best advantage before I left this evening. Not that I cared too much about showing off anything. I found the men that surrounded me boring—Reginald Horne especially, and he was the one who hounded me the most.

  “Would you care for a dance?” he asked as the rest of the gentleman in our gathering dispersed at the first signs of a lilting waltz, off to find young ladies to accompany them on the already-crowded dance floor.

  I smiled politely. Every ounce of my being wanted to say no, but I knew what my mother would say—more importantly, what she would do—if I rejected Reginald right now. So, I nodded and let him take me by the hand and pull me out to the edge of the floor, slipping his hand around my trim waist.

  “You’re always so quiet, Clara,” he said, using my given name. Again, my skin crawled. I hated how he had become so familiar with me lately, as if we were already calling on one another—or worse, betrothed.

  “Am I?” I replied, forcing myself to respond this time, even though more than anything I wanted to walk away. I tried to imagine how he would look if I did so—crestfallen and confused as he stood alone on the dance floor. Or maybe he wouldn’t care at all. He would just go on and find the next young girl to target.

  “Yes,” he said, giving my hand a gentle squeeze as we spun together through a line of other dancers. “So quiet. So timid. It’s one of the reasons I’m so drawn to you, you know. I always wonder what’s going through that head of yours.”

  Oh, wouldn’t you like to know? I fixed a smile on my face and hoped that it came off as mysterious. His eyes bore into mine, and it made me more uncomfortable by the moment. Already I ran through every excuse that I could think of to get out of that ballroom and make my escape once the dance was over. Perhaps I could tell him that the crowd made me feel dizzy, or that I had come down with a sudden headache. Surely, he would believe that a woman of my “delicacy” would need a little room to breathe after being stuck in such a huge throng of people for so long a period of time.

  “If you’ll excuse me… I feel just a little faint…” I stumbled over the words as the swells of the waltz came to a close and the people around us broke into polite applause, not accustomed much to lying but desperately needing to get away from Reginald. I thought that he would simply nod and let me go, or hoped that he would at least. However, the moment I spoke he got a concerned look on his face.

  “Feeling faint? Are you quite all right, my dear Clara?”

  “Oh, yes,” I said quickly. “Just a bit aroused from—you know—the ballroom, and all the people, and the dancing.”

  “Perhaps a bit of fresh air will do you good?” Still not having released my hand after the dance, he now slipped it underneath his arm and proceeded to tug me after him as if I was some sort of stray pup. I almost cried out in surprise and only just barely managed to contain myself as he walked me back off the dance floor and to the edge of the gathered pack.

  “Oh, there’s really no need…”

  “Nonsense, my dear,” he said. “I’m worried about you. Let me make sure you’re all right.” Then he gave me a bland smile, to which I wanted to roll my eyes in proper abhorrence—a reaction I hadn’t felt before but which I was certain Reginald inspired within me.

  The backdoor of the ballroom opened up to a wide garden. A few other couples it seemed had come out this way for air as well, so we weren’t alone— at least I could worry that we weren’t being improper in this outing. With Reginald still holding tight onto my arm, we made our way out onto a pathway that led through tall shrubberies. Lanterns hung from overhead lit our way, illuminating us with a pale-yellow glow. If I were here with anyone else, it would have been a magical scene. As it was, it all felt fake, like a bad theatrical production in which I was an unwilling participant.

  Reginald led me along the path, and I kept my head down, hoping against hope that we would only spend a short time outside before he got bored and wanted to go inside and speak to his friends again. But something was different about the way he treated me tonight compared to all the other nights that we had been together. Loath though I was to admit it, he was more attentive to me somehow. All his attention was fixed on me, as if I was the only person at the ball. Had I been any other girl, or he any other bachelor, there probably would have been something romantic about the moment that we shared together. But the more time I spent in Reginald’s company, the more I knew that I didn’t enjoy the interest that he bestowed on me.

  “A lovely night, isn’t it?” he said after a few minutes of silence had passed.

  “Hmm,” I responded, for lack of anything better.

  He tugged at my arm again, to stop me now, and came around so that he stood in front of me. I froze, acutely aware of the look on his face. It was eager anticipation now—more than just a bachelor enjoying a moment alone with a lady. Suddenly, a million thoughts rushed through my head, and none of them happy.

  “Mister Horne…”

  “Clara,” he said quickly, before I could finish what I was going to say. Then he kneeled on the ground before me, looking up, eyes glimmering in the lantern light. “I have spoken to your father and your mother, and now I am speaking to you. There is no girl more beautiful in London—no girl with a sweeter disposition. And so, I must ask… I am inclined to take you as my bride, if you will have me.”

  Oh. And there it was. I looked down for a long moment. Then, before I knew what happened, I pulled my hands from his and I ran. I ran far, and fast, as quickly as I could, away from Reginald, and away from the ball. It was unlike anything I had ever done before in all my twenty-one years—I had always been one to follow my mother’s rules, society’s rules—but now, facing down the prospect of marrying Reginald Horne had struck such displeasure into me that I had simply begun sprinting, as quickly as I could, doing the best I couldn’t to trip over the flowing skirts of my ballgown.

  “Clara!” Reginald called out from somewhere behind me, but I didn’t stop. There must have been others too who turned and looked as I continued on down the path, but I didn’t even look to see them. The only thing on my mind was getting away from there—finding some sort of freedom. I knew, beyond a doubt, that I wouldn’t find the life that I wanted being trapped with a man like Reginald Horne, forced to be his silent partner for the rest of my days.

  I don’t know how long I had been running when I first saw the lights. They sparkled up in the sky above me, like shimmering stars, but they were bigger than stars. Then I realized that they were coming closer and closer, until they were at the edge of the garden, enormous lights pulsing bright blue.

  Freez
ing where I stood, I stared at the lights for a long moment, transfixed. I didn’t notice the footsteps behind me, not until a hand touched down on my shoulder. Then, when I turned, a beautiful woman with dark skin smiled at me.

  “Clara,” she said. “I have been watching you.”

  Shrieking, I almost started to run again, but my legs failed me. Instead, I sank down into my skirts, and the woman leaned over me, taking hold of my chin and tilting it up so she could look down into my eyes.

  “Yes, I have been watching you,” she said. “And I can tell that you don’t want this life. It isn’t the life for you. Don’t you want something better? A life where you can be surrounded by strength and beauty?”

  Staring up at the woman, I felt my head go funny, as if I were being put under some sort of spell. All I could do was look into her eyes as she continued to speak to me.

  “I know a place like that, Clara. A place where you can find a strong mate, unlike the weak men of this world. Men like Reginald. Wouldn’t you rather be in a world like that?”

  The words surrounded me. They transfixed me. Yes, it seemed so wonderful, I thought. I had been running away from Reginald, but to find someone who could provide me with the strength that I wanted… the beauty that I wanted… Slowly, I nodded, my eyes sliding shut. The woman’s face was the last thing that I saw for the next eighty years.

  Chapter 2

  The ice floes stretched out as far as I could see. Standing there, it was almost easy to forget everything that had happened to me. Almost. I could be at peace for one brief moment. The silence enveloped me as the light glimmered down on the snow and the pale blue of the ice shimmered on the horizon line. However, that peace was short lived.

  “Clara! Come on!” I turned around and saw Shay waving at me. Just the sight of her was enough to bring out a smile on my face—a rarity, admittedly. She stood next to a deep-skinned, broad-shouldered Kamani. Her mate, Khofti, who at present had his arm possessively slipped around her waist, as if he was telling the world that he would ensure that absolutely nothing would take her away from him.

  Of course, after what had happened with the Ak-hal, it was clear to everyone that Khofti would never let anybody or anything take Shay from him, special gesture or not. The two of them had become something of living legends amongst the Kamani and the human women who lived among them. After all, they were our saviors. Had it not been for Shay and Khofti, the Ak-hal would still hold Gorodrim.

  No. Aman, I reminded myself. Gorodrim was what the Ak-hal had called it. Aman was this planet’s true name. The mental slip-up made me wince, even though nobody had been aware of it but myself. It had been many long years now since I was in the clutches of the Ak-hal—since I had been freed—but it was still difficult to separate myself from the time that I had spent under their control. Under the control of my mate, Kypher. Just the thought of him stopped me in my tracks, as it did every time he came to mind.

  I hadn’t seen him since the day that the Kamani brought down Argaram Castle, but he still lingered like a ghost at the back of my mind. How could he not? Thinking back, I remembered the days after I first awoke on the Ak-hal’s ship after Sarita offered me the chance to leave my life back home in England—a life I had detested, feared, wanted no part of.

  Argaram Castle, in all its glory, had been strange and beautiful, a welcome respite from the well-trodden cobblestone streets of London. The shining mithrim had entranced me, as it was so different from the ash-covered red brick of the buildings I had grown so used to back home. I had gazed on it all with childlike wonder as I was clothed in regal gowns adorned in alien flowers of rich burgundy, as gems were draped around my neck and my blond hair was curled with alien technology that I couldn’t hope to understand given the world that I had come from.

  And the Ak-hal themselves… I had never told Shay this… I knew how strongly she had felt from the first moment that she had arrived on this planet about her impending mating with the Ak-hal, but on seeing them, I had been filled with a strange desire. The world around me was strange and beautiful, but so too were the Ak-hal, and when I was told that one of them would choose me as his mate there, I felt not a hint of fear. Instead, I was driven by a need to be the best mate possible for the Ak-hal that would choose me.

  And then there had been Kypher. In the Ak-hal mating ritual, there is a first dance. I had danced with many gentlemen in my time on Earth so I hadn’t expected much of this ceremony. But I felt something when our hands first touched, and then once the dance was over, he allowed me to look up into his face—allowed our eyes to meet—and it was then that I knew he would choose me to be his mate.

  “You are a beautiful human,” he told me, eyes burning like fire as they bored into me, seeming like they could blaze their way into the very core of my being.

  “I cannot thank you enough for the compliment,” I replied, trembling—but not out of fear. Because we were touching, I knew that he could feel this, and wondered what he would make of my reaction, but his cold demeanor gave nothing away. He simply stared down at me passively, and all I could do was continue to look at him, taking in his pale skin and white-blond hair.

  “Give me your name.” It had been a demand—not a question. But I was more than ready to fulfill this request either way.

  “Clara.” I allowed a small smile to touch my lips. Another partner stepped up, prepared to take me away, but Kypher raised his hand to stop him. The Ak-hal stared from me to Kypher coolly, and then walked away with the young redheaded girl at his side, who gave me a pleading look as she was swept away. I didn’t quite understand that—what could have distressed her so much? Back in that moment, I had thought that the others had chosen to be here, the same way that I had chosen to be here. But I was only briefly distracted, because Kypher reached out to me and pulled me to him.

  “Come. We will walk in the garden,” he said, and then pulled me away with him. We left the room, and made her way out underneath the stars. “What do you think?” he asked me as we stepped out.

  “It’s wonderful,” I gasped, thinking again of the garden back in London and how different it was to this place—how much my circumstances had changed and how lucky I was to have been granted a new life.

  “Clara.” Kypher turned to me, rigid in his stance. “I have decided. You will be my mate. I have seen many women come through here, but none has impressed me so much as you.”

  My heart fluttered in my chest. “I will be a good mate to you,” I said. I wanted to say many other things, but I felt a hold on me that kept me from saying them. Instead, I simply smiled again and bowed my head as Kypher reached out and touched my cheek. Around us, the flowers bloomed beneath the stars, and the castle rose up, the mithrim glinting all around us. It was beautiful, but cold, and I didn’t yet know what lay in wait for me in the time that would follow the mating ritual.

  “Hey! What’s up with you?”

  I started and turned. Shay stood right beside me, staring into my face.

  “Oh, sorry.” I’d gotten caught up in memories for a moment. Letting out a small laugh, I stepped down off the cliff’s edge and followed Shay down as we made our way back to the compound. “Did Maggie say why she wanted to see us?”

  Shay shook her head. “Nope. Just said we should all get together, so who knows what she’s got in mind?”

  The thought of Maggie brought even more old memories to my mind. Though she looked like an older woman now, when I first met her, we were both young, or at least looked it, even if I was older by quite a few years due to the immortality granted by my mating with Kypher. However, by the time Maggie arrived on Aman, I had learned the truth of my relationship with Kypher, that it wasn’t everything I had dreamed it would be.

  It had been torture. It had been a nightmare that I couldn’t wake from—no matter how much I wished I were only dreaming. In those days, the only respite I had from that agony was the friendship I’d forged with Maggie. We spent hours together talking about o
ur lives back home and what we would do if we ever managed to escape the Ak-hal. To me, it had never been anything more than simple fantasy, but for Maggie it had been more than that.

  I could still remember the day that Maggie disappeared. The Ak-hal had been furious—their rage shook Argaram Castle to its core. However, all I could do was sit in my room and weep. On the one hand, I was glad that she finally found her freedom. On the other, how could she have possibly survived the freezing arctic wilds? I thought of her often over the years and when I found out from Shay that she had indeed lived, it had been a small miracle—a bright point in what had become an otherwise dim existence.

  “There you are, girls,” said Maggie as we came upon the entrance to her home. She rose from what she was doing—knitting something—and came to greet us.

  “You can leave me here for a while,” Shay said to Khofti, reaching up on tiptoes to kiss him.

  “I will return for you later,” he said, before ducking back out of the house, leaving the three of us alone.

  Maggie chuckled as she watched him leave. “As watchful as ever, isn’t he?” she said. Shay grinned and the two of them shared a knowing look. Maggie was alone now, but for a time, she’d had a Kamani mate herself. He had been killed by the Ak-hal before they were finally brought down. It was a show of her character and her strength that she managed to continue with all that she had been through. I hadn’t been through so much and some days I still felt like I could hardly get out of bed.

  “So, what’s up?” said Shay as she settled down beside the low fire that burned in the center of the room. I followed suit as Maggie did the same and we all got comfortable.

  “That’s what I wanted to know. Clara,” she said pointedly, turning her eyes on me pointedly. I sat up sharply under her gaze, surprised and uncomfortable with the attention that she suddenly directed my way as Shay’s attention focused on me too. “You recovered well after the Ak-hal fell, like most of the girls who came here. But the last year or so, you’ve changed. I wanted to know if something is wrong?”