Life or Death

Chapter Seven

               Queen Morana Ashbrook of Asmen has been the biggest threat to Tarnow for at least two generations. Before that, it was her father, then his father, and so on. And for as long as her bloodline has ruled over Asmen, they have been known as the Rulers of Death. This is because the god of death granted them an army of skeletons, filled with death itself. She sits on her throne and waits for war, ready to destroy the other kingdoms and rule over all of Lideria.

And on top of all of that, she's the woman who killed my parents.

Seven years ago, Morana, having sorceress blood, disguised herself and snuck into the castle to kill my parents. She planned to kill Matthias and me as well, but after she murdered my parents, the guards had come close to capturing her and she fled. This left us orphans and made Matthias the king at barely fourteen years of age.

And ever since, she's been waiting for the perfect opportunity to destroy Tarnow for good.

So, it made perfect sense that she would take Matthias, even if Morana herself wasn't in the castle. She has plenty of her soldiers to do it for her.

It had been a week since the revel, and I was sitting in the royal library, surrounded by books that talked about the history of Tarnow and Asmen. The message had already been scrubbed off the wall, but it replayed in my head with each word I read.

I already knew the story of how the kingdoms had formed, before even the Assassin Kingdom even existed, how they had once been one kingdom and had split due to twin brothers fighting over the crown, and how the kingdoms have been wary of each other ever since. There were multiple other kingdoms all over Lideria, but the two main ones have always been Tarnow and Asmen. It was only a matter of time before either attacked.

I read through every book I could find that had anything that had to do with Asmen or Morana, which wasn't much. Tarnow was surrounded by a huge forest, called Sybillia Wood, and on one end of the forest was the Thalren Mountains, and at the end of that was Asmen, which sat on a cliff overlooking the Siren Sea. It would've taken at least a week to get to the kingdom by foot.
If someone was working for Morana and took Matthias, they were most likely in Asmen already. So, if I didn't leave soon something bad would happen to Matthias.

For all I know, he could already be dead.

"Find anything useful?" I hear a deep voice say from behind me. I turn to see Raiden, tall and handsome as ever, although a little worn out from lack of sleep. I suppose I don't look much better in the tunic and trousers I threw on this morning and my unbrushed hair I haven't touched in days.

"Not really," I lie. I trusted Raiden, and that's why I couldn't tell him the truth. If he knew what I planned to do, he would put a stop to it before it even started.

He comes to stand beside me, eyes skimming over the map I was just studying.

Desperately trying to distract him, I say, "I feel like it's my fault."

He turns to me, leaning against the table. "What do you feel like is your fault?"

I purse my lips. "If I hadn't dragged you from Matthias that night, he might still be here. We wouldn't be in this situation."

He looks at me for a moment before responding. "There are more guards than you can count roaming this castle right now. Me keeping you company—keeping you safe, even if I didn't realize it at the time—had nothing to do with your brother going missing." He takes a strand of my hair then and starts twisting it with his delicate fingers. I force myself not to blush and instead look at him.

"Nessa, you didn't know that anything was going to happen. I'm glad I was with you."

My attempts at not blushing fail miserably. No, Nessa, no. You're trying to rescue your missing brother, remember? Now is not the time to get a crush, especially not on an assassin.

"Thank you, Raiden," I say, stepping out of his reach and heading for the massive oak doors. "I have to go, or I'll miss my lessons."

"It's Saturday."

I mentally slap my hand to my forehead. "Uh, I mean, I promised Andra I'd meet her." Praying he doesn't know I haven't talked to Andra in a week, I practically ran out of the library, away from my stupid heart and even stupider hormones.