Ashes to Ashes | ✓

50k Milestone Special (pt. 1)

A/N: I can't believe I'm saying this but... Ashes to Ashes hit 50k reads! Thank you all so much for reading and enjoying my story! I can't express this enough but it really does mean so, so much to me. To celebrate, I thought I would do a couple things: first, share the brand new chapter one from the rewritten draft (which I haven't posted on Wattpad yet)--that's this! Second, I'll be sharing a bonus chapter/oneshot. When it's ready, I'll post that in a part two. 

So without further ado, please enjoy this sneak peek at the rewritten version of AtA and the brand new first chapter!

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1 || An Invitation

Nobles favored anyone willing to get their hands dirty. This was one of the first lessons ingrained in Felix's mind by his master.

As long as greed exists in this world, you will never run out of work, the old man used to reason. Despite that twinge of humor in his voice, the light never quite reached his eyes. Even as a child, this never came as a surprise to Felix. His hands were steeped in blood, so stained that his pale skin might as well have turned crimson permanently.

Like him, Felix found that nothing filled his pockets the way that feuds between kingdoms, nobles, wealthy subjects, and desperate schemers did. Anyone could turn to spilling blood if pushed too far into a corner.

It was for this twisted ideal that Felix had stuffed himself into a dark corner of an alley where he could watch the bustling street. The sun had just begun to set, dusting the cobblestone in a warm golden light. Many lamps were still unlit in the town center; the lamplighters always started out by the lord's estate and made their way into the rest of the town. Unlike the Furvus's capital city, Dena, the rural settlement of Illee was slower to ease into the night activities. All except for Felix's target, who seemed impatient for the cover of dark to hide his lustful sins. Or so Felix was told by the lord of Illee who hired him.

"I will not have my daughter taken from me by that low class drunkard," Lord Dominick had sneered. "Kill him. I do not care what you have to do. Get rid of him."

Felix shrank back into the folds of his cloak, hiding his pale skin from the fading rays of light that fluttered over him. He could not afford to be spotted. It would be all over the moment someone recognized him. He knew that, he didn't need to be told, yet he kept repeating the warning in his mind. As it knitted with the tangled web of his thoughts, it echoed in his late master's voice.

Two minutes. He yanked his hood down over his head to conceal the upper half of his face. The lower half he covered with a mask pulled up to his nose. The scent of bitter herbs overtook his senses. These days, he couldn't afford to be spotted. After his screw up as a kid, too many knew his face. The goal of an assassin is not to be seen, his master used to say. It was yet another one of his teachings that Felix had botched in a fit of blind rage, his carefully constructed blank shattered as his emotions spilled over like a flood.

The reminder sank its teeth into his flesh and bit down until he could almost feel it draw forth blood. Never again would he lose himself that way. Never again would he find himself so closely attached to another that his mask could be broken.

His finger tapped the hilt of his dagger, the only show of nervousness that gave away the anxious buzz in his mind. The sound was muted. No one could hear it. Yet it rattled in his ears along with each breath he took.

One minute.

A couple passed the entrance to the alley, their long shadows trailing lazily across the cobblestone. Felix shrank back into the corner to avoid their prying eyes. They never once looked his way, their gazes locked on each other and their hands intertwined. Laughter rang through the air behind them as they disappeared from view.