The Fae's Assassin

Chapter 1

The house rumbles against the freezing wind as I squat down to replenish the wood logs laying in the fireplace. The floor behind me squeaks and I turn around abruptly to see a little girl, light brown hair flowing down to frame her bright blue eyes. My 10-year-old sister stands in front of me, her stuffed bunny buried in her arms.

"Are you ok, Delilah?" I ask her, looking at her downward angled chin.

"I had a bad dream," she says in a quivering voice much different from her usual happy tone. I lean down in front of her and look at her in the center of her glowing irises,

"About what, Del?"

"That a bad man was coming to take you away from me," the shakiness continued and tears started to brim her eyes. I offered her a sly smile to show her I wasn't afraid,

"Trust me, the bad men should be afraid of me," I explained with a wink as I gave her a light kiss on the top of her head before standing up to check on the newly freshened fire blazing a few feet away from us. But Delilah tugged on the back of my shirt and continued,

"Don't go tonight, Ophelia, please." I turn back around,

"How do you know I'm leaving tonight?" I ask her, confused about how she might know my nightly whereabouts. About what she might know.

"You leave every night. You don't think I notice that once you tuck me in and make sure I'm asleep that you sneak out? I may be ten, but I'm not stupid." I sigh a long exasperated sigh and respond with a nervous smirk along my face,

"Of course I don't think you're stupid. And exactly what do you think I'm doing when I leave then?" She looks at me with a look on her face as if she's trying to study me to find every dark thought buried within my soul,

"I think you're doing something really dangerous," My smile immediately drops,

"I don't know what you're talking about and I don't think you do either."

"Mother and father wouldn't like this," Delilah says softly,

"They wouldn't like to see you like this."

My blood starts to boil at her words,

"Well mother left and father died, they don't get to tell me what to do anymore and as far as I'm concerned, I'm older so you're my responsibility now. Not mother and father's."

She doesn't say anything, she just looks at me with sad eyes and walks back up to her room, and doesn't come back out until noon to eat. We both eat our soup in silence, the grain in the sludge making me almost gag. We don't get great food these days, we never really had. Our mother was a seamstress and made the most money for our family. She used to braid my hair every night and sing me to sleep. Mother left us shortly after Delilah was born when I was eight.

Father was devastated of course and so was I for that matter, but I knew I needed to be there for my father and little sister from now on. Father used to hunt when mother was still around so we could save the money mother made that we would have had to spend on meat, but after mother left, he had to get a better paying job; even if he hated it. So he began coal mining. He got five years into it when there was an explosion at the mines and he died instantly. That was it for us, I was only fifteen and Delilah was just five years old. Word spread the town of our orphanized selves and many people regarded us with sympathy. Others didn't care, as long as it wasn't affecting them, they didn't give a rat's ass about us.

One night, however, was different than normal. It was about three days after we were declared parentless that I received an offer. He appeared in all black, sizing me up as if trying to judge my full capabilities before he spoke,

"I'd like to offer my condolences on the recent passing on your father. I have since learned of your mother's... disappearance along with the age of you and your sister and I'd like to help."

Of course, I was suspicious of this man standing in front of me, but I was still interested in what he had to say,

"Thank you and what is it that you have to offer me?"

He gave me a smirk and replied,

"If I provide you training and enough money to support you and your sister while under said training, you'll do me a favor in return. It won't just benefit me afterward, I'm sure you could find some use for it after we're done."

My warning signs started blaring a bright red as I answered,

"What kind of favor?"

Now that he could sense I was interested in his offer, he took off the hood of his coat and the moonlight draped across his face as he stood on my ragged front porch. The first thing I noticed was the massive scar running across his left temple down through his eye, leaving it void of any color. His other eye though wasn't much different from the white of the other. It was a bright grey, almost looking like it could glow at nighttime. His black hair tightly pushed back and his wrinkles showing his age were being displayed across his forehead. He showed off his white teeth as he said,

"I need you to kill someone for me."