𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘

13) Niki

I'm so bored.

The night air is dark and heavy here where I stand guard in the courtyards outside the hotel. I can hear the pounding of music from the nightclub below and honestly I'd trade my kidney to be there instead.

I've been out here for hours and hours, there's no reason why anyone else would be here and I don't even know who I'm supposed to be looking out for, but this is where the Blessed-Cursed leaders posted me, so this is where I'll stay.

It's the first time I've been given a job like this, up until now I've always been their tool for spying on the royal family and the court. But now that I've brought them Jake, I need to prove I can still be useful.

The other members don't exactly trust or like me, and to be fair if I were them I wouldn't either.

I'm the son of the wealthiest family in Akra aside from the royals after all.

I almost got myself killed when I first sought out Blessed-Cursed almost 2 years ago.

I heard they'd somehow stolen an entire ballroom's worth of priceless items from the king's summer gala, then when soldiers and assassins were sent out to kill them, none ever returned.

Rumours spread about what they would do next, and Minho became more and more paranoid as the months went by and the robberies didn't stop.

He was always ruthless, but it got even worse after that. My mother is a duchess and his closest advisor, but even she wasn't immune to his violent outbursts.

I've tried reasoning with her, but she's blinded with love-sickness for him.

It disgusts me.

Minho only tolerates her, and it's clear to me that eventually he'll tire of it, and it will mean her death. I don't understand my mother, but I don't want to see her dead, which is why I have to kill Minho first.

So I went searching for the only thing he fears.

Blessed-Cursed were hard to find, even in the darkest corners of the city no-one would talk about them no matter how much money I offered for information.

After weeks of looking, I'd almost given up, and was making my way back to the palace late one night when I was suddenly attacked and pulled into an alley.

A gun was held under my chin, and I thought I was getting mugged, but then the stranger asked me why I was looking for Blessed-Cursed.

I figured there was no use lying, so I told him I wanted to join them.

He took one look at me and laughed.

It actually hurt my feelings a bit. Maybe I didn't look very tough but he didn't have to laugh that hard.

However, when I told him I could help them bring down the king, his laughter subsided.

"Tell me everything." He demanded, so I did.

After that he let me go, and we met again several times in the weeks and months that followed, as I set about proving I could be trusted by feeding him information for Blessed-Cursed to use.

I didn't learn the stranger's name until finally after almost half a year of covert meetings in back alleys, he took me to their base, and introduced himself as Jay.

I continued to spy for him, and in exchange he trained me to shoot and fight.

I could never be gone from the palace for too long without drawing suspicion, but whenever I could I would sneak out to go to Blessed-Cursed.

Then they asked me to get close to the prince.

I'd always seen him around, but avoided him thinking he was probably just as cruel as his uncle.