The Golden Chalice

✰✦✰ Chapter 17 ✰✦✰

✰✦✰ Chapter 17 ✰✦✰
" Assassins & Acting "

PEOPLE WENT ON with their evenings, chatting and chuckling, as though the Haunted Mansion hadn't just had its every surface licked by deadly flames.

"Ides," Darius growled under his breath.

"Messed with our heads, didn't he?"

"Of course," he replied. "Damned Olympian fucking gets off on fooling the shit out of people—even his own. Should've known when I saw that symbol."

"But what—"

I stopped talking the second I noticed them. Guards. Guards who appeared very normal as they strolled down the path with their golden uniforms on, very clearly showing off their swords. There were three of them and they were scanning the mass. Somehow I just knew it was me. I knew instantly they were looking for me but then it dawned on me—why would Guards want me? Guards were royal soldiers—soldiers whose job it was to protect the royal family and The Golden Castle. There were few of them nowadays, only rarely employed by the different Heads of Isles.

This trio of idiots? Whoever they were, they weren't authentic.

"What?" Darius turned his head. "What are you. . ."

When he trailed off, I knew he'd spotted the Guards too.

"What are they doing here?" I asked, my tone a lot calmer and quieter than only moments ago. "Is this routine?"

Darius's eyes stayed glued on these imposters. "No. Those aren't Guards."

I furrowed my eyebrows, my heart already slowly sinking. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," said Darius, facing me again and blocking my face with his tall body, "those aren't Guards. Look at their uniforms—where are their badges?"

I gradually tilted my head until I could get a clear sight of the "Guards" again without them seeing me. Squinting my eyes, I tried my best to focus on their uniforms and then gasped when I realised—"They don't have any."

Darius sighed in frustration, pulling me back to stand straight in front of him. I ignored the way he'd done it gently and how it somehow pissed me off that he'd done it in the first place.

"Who are they then?" I asked quietly. Even though I knew the "Guards" couldn't hear me, I was still too fearful to raise my voice, even in the slightest.

Darius looked to the side, as if unbothered. Then back at me and I couldn't help but note the worry whirling in his eyes. "Assassins."

My body seemed to lock—I could hear the damn key turn, as if my body was recalling every single tip that Sarinne had ever given me about physical combat. This wasn't going to end well. However, a tiny part of me worried that he was lying, that for whatever stupid reason there was behind it, Darius was lying to me. So I asked him how he knew they were assassins.

"I'm from Crimson Isle," he said. "You don't think I know what assassins look like?"

I swallowed. He was right—if anyone knew who these guys were it would be him and Rinne, and she wasn't here right now. I wanted to be tough and figure out how to get out of this myself but their mere presence scared me more than I knew it should.

"What're we going to do?"

Darius's eyes slid across the sea of madness. There was nothing here but a few food stands. Sure, there was another ferris wheel and a second carousel. But—I caught sight of it. A photo booth.