Ashes to Ashes | ✓

10 || A Broken Mask

It wasn't long before the hurried footsteps of the guards came down the steps. The monotone tap of boots against stone blanketed the silence with a lull that Aiko had grown accustomed to. A sound that signified the end of her game. They were sent by Ameris, who didn't trust her alone with the stranger she spoke of. Their appearance put a chink in her perfectly laid out plan. Her smile faltered and she lifted her foot from Kou's wrist.

A small group of soldiers appeared at the landing, hands against their swords, their faces twisted with concern as they met her eye. Aiko couldn't help the bitterness that rose up inside her. It was all exactly like Ameris and the court had said it would be.

Kou, the unnamed man from Furvus, was an assassin. Thinking she couldn't handle the issue herself—thinking her curse might rebound again—Ameris had put a failsafe in place. He was as dull as the rough stone that formed the walls of the room around her. Under his rule, Niveus was crumbling away.

If he could have kept to himself, she would have broken her curse and been well on her way to safely ascending the throne, retaking the position of ruler from him. He was her regent, yet he didn't think highly of her, and thus had butted into her game, knocking over her pawns in the process.

Her lips twitched. The gold sashes across the chests of the guards signified that they were under his command.

They weren't good pawns either.

Dust stirred as the guards rushed toward her and the assassin, who was still pinned beneath Mae's snarling form. Not one of them stopped to check on her, and she stepped out of their way, her gaze fixed on the knife Kou had dropped. The scene blurred around her—distant and muffled—as two of the guards pulled Kou to his feet while the other two hauled Mae away. Still bound to his monster form, Mae roared and snapped, lashing out. His claws tore through the guard's arm, staining the blackened dirt with scarlet droplets. While the guard was busy with the wound, he broke free and rushed toward Kou.

Fear cracked the man's perfect mask, shimmering in his viridescent eyes. It choked Aiko, like thorny vines winding tighter around her heart.

"Mae," she said calmly, forcing the tremor out of her voice. "Stop."

For once, he obeyed immediately. His massive paws dug into the dirt, bringing him to a skidding halt mere inches from Kou. Growling, Mae turned to face Aiko, his blue eyes flashing in the dim light—brilliant sapphire against warm amber. As he turned and padded back to her side, his form shrank until he returned to the familiar shape of a lithe, harmless cat. When he was by her side again, he mewled up at her impatiently, having lost the ferocity of the beast form's roar.

She expected to be simmering with fury, but the fire in her chest remained complacent. Even as the injured guard left the scene, helped by the second brave soul who had tried to wrangle Mae, she felt nothing. A hollow void had settled in her soul. It ached painfully, but it registered nothing.

The pleading look in Kou's vibrant green eyes tugged at her heart. She straightened under his gaze, curling her fingers into fists at her sides. The ghost of his lips against hers brushed across her memories and she shivered involuntarily.

Even those words and that touch had been empty, and yet there was something painful about the way it had ended.

If things had gone her way, she would be free of the Core's hold on her soul, and he would be nothing to her. Yet, somewhere along the line, the game had shifted.

She wasn't sure how to win anymore.

A scuffling sound broke her out of her trance. The guards had wrestled Kou to his knees; one pinned his arms against his back while the other drew his sword from its sheath. Metal scraped against the sheath, echoing loudly in the stillness of the room. The Core hummed behind her. It almost seemed pleased with the action she had brought to its lair. Knowing what it demanded of her and the weak flame, perhaps it was.