Lovely Dark Things

SIX (ISELEN POV)

"You have to stop this," Ruby whispers quietly, looking at me angrily with her shiny and gorgeous bluish-green eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about. The Lords of the Towers are about to arrive and you have to talk to them, you won't be a Captain of the Black Guard without their support," I answer with a neutral tone of voice and the assassin takes a deep breath, trying to restrain herself. I'm pretty sure she'd love to yell at me right now but she can't lose her temper in the middle of the antechamber that leads to the Witch King's audience room.

"Iselen, do not take me for a fool..."

"I would never do that," I whisper holding back my tears. The truth is that I hate telling lies to her, or rather, I'm not telling her the whole truth. I feel I'm betraying her... We've been living together for more than a century and I'm still mad in love with her, I trust her with my life, literally, but we've never argued so much before.

"Babe," the assassin sighs wearily. "I know something's going on and you don't tell me about it because the King told you to keep it a secret, most likely, I understand it but you have to stop, change the strategy or something else... You can't go on like this. I can feel tension building up around us, danger is very close but I can't protect you if I don't have all the information I need. Rumours spread fast at the court..."

"I'm only doing my job as usual, Ruby, and doing some research about birth rate in Baalberith for the King..."

"Some people say that My Lord is plotting against his mother and sister helped by the human advisor." I look at her with my eyes wide open, in shock, surprised because the information is quite accurate and it means someone has found out about our plans. Only the King and I know what the real purpose of the study of blood samples is and he didn't rat me out so a very smart elf has been watching me closely for months and suspects I'm not being honest.

"If that were true, the Queen would've killed me herself," I answer firmly, pretending to be braver than I really am because I've felt my guts getting frozen when I pictured in my mind My Lady's wrath directed at me.

"Damn it, Iselen," Ruby shakes her head, rubbing her temple with her fingers. "Why are you always getting into trouble? Why can't you behave like a good girl, quiet, obedient, respectful...? A girl like..."

"The perfect little princess?" I ask with a mocking voice. "I'm sick of being compared to that goody-goody... I can assure you that Eldire is not smart enough to finish the chaos army, keep dark elves happy for more than a century and make those lovely dark things swirl in your chest every night in our bed."

"So that's the reason why you're doing this... You're jealous," Ruby Rose stares at me in disbelief and slightly offended too. "Don't you trust me? Do you think I'd cheat on you? Iselen, I remind you that I swore an unbreakable oath to Isha..."

"I don't trust her," I answer angrily. "But I don't know what you're talking about, I'm not doing anything behind your back... I promise."

"Then, why do I get the impression that a war is going to break out and it's because of you?" the assassin hisses angrily and I shrug, pretending to be confused, even though lying to her face is breaking my heart. I can't show my hand right now, I've been working very hard and I'm very close to solve this mystery.

"The Lords of the Towers are here," I answer pointing at the door. "I'll sit down there on the windowsill and will read my book, waiting for you to come back, not getting in trouble. The King's personal guards will protect me and you can focus on getting the support of these guys. Everything will be all right..." The assassin heaves a sigh, looking at me exasperated with her tattooed hands leaned on her hips, very close to her knives, before nodding and turning around. "I love you, Ruby Rose. You know that, don't you?" My girl stops and nods again but she doesn't turn her head to look at me while I feel unshed tears itching in my eyes.