Bound by Deception

1.3 Dance to Death

"...and that's how they named the font," Lord Garmond finished triumphantly. He was sweating rivulets and his whole face was red, but he looked prouder than he'd ever looked in any picture that Aria had ever seen him in.

"Interesting," Aria said, glancing again at the staircase. Sterling, what's taking you so long? "So, your great-grandfather invented the font to write to his mistress?"

"Yes!" Lord Garmond was pleased with her understanding, and the night and drinks waned his senses, numbing them like the sting of a bee. "She was sadly killed. A shame. We never discovered the culprit."

"A shame indeed," Aria murmured. Of course, the death of Viscountess Angeline deFou was one of Madame's greatest accomplishments. She would always make the new recruits hear about it. "What happened to your grandfather?"

Lord Garmond shrugged. "He patented his font and stayed married to his wife for the rest of his life. I don't remember much about my grandmother, but she and my grandfather were never on good terms with each other."

"How sad." Aria resisted a yawn. Her dictionary of compliments and fake encouragement was thinning. As Lord Garmond was beginning to launch into the next chapter of his family history, Aria saw Sterling jogging down the spiral steps. His clothes were nearly immaculate save his tie, and his hair started to release itself from the gel he'd patted down on the strands earlier.

"Lord Sundance!" Lord Garmond greeted him first. "You took quite a while, didn't you?"

"Apologies," Sterling responded. "Lady Garmond suffered a fainting spell, so I carried her to a nearby bedroom before heading to the restroom."

Lord Garmond's brow furrowed. "Is that so? What happened?"

"It seems that the heat and drinks have gotten to her," Sterling said. "Give her a few hours and she'll be fine."

"I see..."

"My husband was a doctor in the Blues district," Aria added when she caught a glimpse of a suspicious, albeit tamed, glimmer in Lord Garmond's eye. "He treated Duchess Arill's knee injury." By removing the leg.

"I have no doubt in your expertise, Lord Sundance," Lord Garmond said. He tried to put his glass on a passing server's tray and swayed. He would have fallen had Sterling not grabbed his arms.

"You've gotten quite red," he noticed. "Bring us to the kitchen. I'm sure there are some remedies that I can give you."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to burden you..." Lord Garmond began to say, but Aria quickly grabbed his other side and began to pull him into the adjacent hallway. In his drunken stupor, Lord Garmond had no autonomy and stumbled along with the duo.

Reaching the kitchen, Sterling set Lord Garmond against the island counter, pressing his belly against the edge so that his back was facing him and Aria.

"There's no exit here," Aria said, tossing Sterling her bag so he could set up the gun. "The main exits are in the ballroom and in the third hallway. If we shoot him, we'll have to go out again with blood on our clothes."

"Madame gave us dark clothes for a reason," Sterling said. He cocked the gun and handed it to Aria. "We'll have five minutes, tops to get out of here."

"Right...How do you-!"

"What are you doing?" Lord Garmond's lazy voice called their attention. "Where's the medicine?"

"Oh, it'll be over soon," Sterling said quietly. "Just relax."

"Relax? It's not a shot," Lord Garmond said. He hesitated. "Wait-!"

He began to turn, and Aria didn't waste a second. She released the trigger and the bullet shot out of the gun, spiraling into Lord Garmond's head. It went through his skull and collapsed on the floor, taking with it Lord Garmond's body and a fissure of blood.

"A silencer does wonders with our jobs," she said, cocking the gun again and putting it on her hip. The clip of the gun snapped into the belt of her dress and the anti-metal detector that Yasmine had created popped off the holster. Sterling caught it before it hit the ground.

"Yas will kill us if this breaks," he said and glanced at the body and blood that stained the pristine floor. "He's as good as dead, huh?"

"He is dead." Aria walked over to the trickling puddle. "Don't you doubt my shooting skills! I've been doing this for ten years too."

"I never said I doubted it," Sterling said with a grin. He was leaning against the island that Lord Garmond was previously leaning on and then pushed himself to his feet. "Come on. Four minutes left."

"Four?" Aria frowned. "Four what? Sterling!"

She should have known that he'd found an escape for them by now. Having been his partner for ten years should have given Aria the best possible understanding of Sterling's character. As always, though, he was a jack of all trades and once she thought that she was finally understanding him, he'd change again, like every new outfit brought upon a new personality to him.

Like wild horses, they rushed out of the kitchen, zigzagging through the crowd. Nobody noticed them. They were all under the spell of alcohol and just like Lord Garmond, their autonomy had been snatched away from them.

"They'll spend their last moments on Earth in bliss," Sterling said ominously, meeting Aria at the gate. "And the rest of their spiritual lives in hell."

"We didn't shoot any of them!" Aria's face was red with perspiration. Sterling just smirked, and Aria's eyes narrowed. "Sterling..."

"Get down!" Sterling shoved her through the doors, taking the force of the push with his weight. He and Aria toppled down the steps and past the guards onto the grass with his body falling over hers like a shell.

"Sterling-!"

BOOM!

Aria's voice was replaced with a shatter that rocked the earth. Heat burst onto her back and the air was filled with the song of screams. Shards of the materials that Cross Manor was built on sprinkled on the ground like rain. The forest bristled, seeming to rejoice. Cross Manor was no more.

"Damn, you..." Aria coughed, pushing her face up from the dirt. She turned her head and glared at Sterling, who was grinning like a madman.

"I told you I'd use the lighter," he said. "And best of all, all our evidence has been virtually wiped."

"Madame is going to kill you, you know?" Aria grinned, her face ashy and patchy with dirt. "She told you not to do any more dramatic displays."

"She'll come around," Sterling said confidently. He lifted his arm and formed a scissor shape. "Mission accomplished?"

Aria smiled and linked her finger scissors with his. "Mission accomplished."

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un-edited

The last part of chapter 1 is up! We have our first accomplished mission...what will we see next with these two assassins?

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