Challenger of Fate

Chapter 5

A week passed by since her arrival to the palace, not having seen the human world from that night she teleported out of the city. The tips of Azalea's fingers brushed against the walls of the palace as she made her way down the hallway, her and the vampire have grown close over the days and for an unknown reason that made her happy.

Foolish girl, you're letting your feelings cloud your judgment. The assassin in her chided her. She ignored her, for once in her long twenty-one years of miserable existence, life didn't seem like a burden. So, Azalea clung onto the elated feeling and whatever its source was.

Perhaps it was the fact that she didn't have to struggle daily and hunt the streets of the city with hunger for scraps of food, didn't have to jump across rooftops or hide in the shadows slitting humans for a few gold coins.

Or maybe it was the handsome immortal she got to see every day.

Azalea rubbed her belly, having just stuffed herself with the most exquisite breakfast on her extremely comfortable bed, in her warm chambers in a grand palace. The thought brought a small smile to her lips before she turned around a corner, aiming for the map room. She had asked around for Sebastian when she hadn't found him in his study in the morning. Azar was the only one who pointed him to the map room. The human servant hasn't brought up the night he caught her—to her or anyone else it seemed.

The door to the map room was open when Azalea found Sebastian standing over a map that was sprawled across a large round table, bracing his hands against it. Azalea knocked on the open door, clearing her throat as she walked in.

"Good morning," she greeted.

"Morning," he said, not lifting his gaze from the map.

"I didn't know vampires needed geography lessons," she said in an attempt to make him laugh, but he didn't. Instead, the frown he already bore deepened some more. "What's wrong?"

He remained silent for a few minutes before lifting his eyes off the map, dread filling them, "War."

Azalea swallowed as she stared back at him, waiting for an explanation. He offered none as he reclined back into one of the chairs around the table and began stroking his chin, staring at the map.

"What war?" she asked, wanting further details.

"The threat of a war has been looming over my kingdom for a while," he added. "And I prepared for it adequately. I have amassed a mighty army; I have come up with the perfect attack plan and have even chosen the battlefield. Yet, there is something missing."

"What is it you're missing?" she asked.

"Tell me, Azalea, what are a group of assassins without an assassin master?" Replying to her question with one of his own.

"Lost," a short answer.

"Yet you managed to survive as a lone assassin, why is that?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

"I was my own master," she replied and his eyes gleamed.

"Excellent answer," he praised. "Everything needs a higher power to answer to, whether it be themselves or someone—something else."

She didn't understand was his point was but didn't push him as she watched him assess the map further, she expected war pieces to be littered across it, but it strangely remained empty. She didn't ask the reason.

"My army needs a general to answer to," he finally said. "A general I've spent months hunting for."

"Is there not a single skilled vampire fit to lead your army in this enormous empire?" she asked, bewildered.