The Mariposa

Chapter 41

This one is going to be a tearjerker, so prepare yourselves lol.

Maeve

Every morning I would wake and think to myself, maybe this will be the day. Maybe this will be the day he comes to visit me, or he has one of his guards come bring me to the castle. He throws rocks at my window, something, anything.

I should be thrilled. I should be satisfied. I'm not being sent on countless missions to kill people who were simply trying to do what was right. Instead, I was safely at the headquarters, training Veralians to become Mariposa. I was flying wings to the lower tier so the less fortunate had a chance at a better life. I was back at home, the home I was beginning to think I would never see again.

No one was keeping secrets from me. I knew exactly what everyone was doing and what everyone's purpose was.

But it wasn't enough. It was selfish. To have so much and still wish for more. But I couldn't help it, when his face kept returning to my mind. I had convinced myself that I felt nothing for him and if I was careful, I could pretend I didn't. But my mind was a fickle thing, flinging memories of him back to me that would make it clear as day that what I felt for him was not at all nothing.

It finally happened one day. Not a rock at my window, a guard at my door. It was a letter placed under my door late at night.

And all it read was "Meet me at the castle. Make sure you aren't followed and don't come through the front door. Sneak in like you used to, assassin. I'll be in my room. I know you know where that is, don't lie."

My heartbeat was erratic as I read the words in what I knew were his handwriting. I glanced over at where Kalon slept and saw that she was still deeply out. I crept over to our door and opened it, glancing around the halls for any sign of who had left the note. There was none, but it made sense. He had likely given it to one of his guards to slip under my door. Seeing that his guards were Mariposa, they would be highly trained in not leaving a trace of their presence.

I left the headquarters after grabbing my wrings and wrist gun. I would need the wrist gun if I were going to sneak into the castle. Why he wanted me to sneak into his castle, I had no clue. I had to assume he had nosy maids he didn't want gossiping about him, meeting some commoner. The thought kind of stung, but I brushed it off as I flew towards the castle.

I was going to see Elyas again. And for the moment, that was all that mattered to me. I hadn't a clue how he was doing and the last few days I had seen him, it had seemed like there was a change in him. One which worried me. One that was familiar to me. Part of me just wanted to know that he was okay.

Sneaking back into the castle was easy. Grappling, up the wall, sneak in through the kitchen staff window and through their door. There were guards patrolling the halls, but they were easy enough to slip past in the darkness. The hallways were so large with statues and pillars to hide behind. It was quite easy to get past them, all the way to the master bedroom.

He was right in his assumption. Of course, a Mariposa would know where that room was. The Mariposa had always made it a point to know where the king and queen slept and how to get there without being noticed. "Never know when you'll be sent to assassinate the throne!" they had said.

It was crazy how much had changed without really changing at all.

I slowly opened the door to the master bedroom and squealed in surprise when two arms grabbed me, pulling me in.

A hand swiftly went over my mouth, stifling my squeal as I looked up to see, to my relief, it was just Elyas. He rolled his eyes.

"I had a feeling you'd think I meant the master bedroom. You're coming with me."