Black Rose (Rose Kisses #1)

8

Isaline Winter

Killing someone had never been a problem for me. In fact, it was the exact opposite of a problem. As sick as it may sound, I found joy in the kill. Could you blame me though? I'd grown up in a family of Assassins. Killing had been as normal to me as soccer had been for other kids.

So why was I hesitating?

I paced the hall in front Lucien's door silently, gnawing at my thumbnail as I fought with my inner conscious. I wasn't even going to kill him tonight, I was just going to leave a warning that death would be coming, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Something about the whole act rubbed me in all the wrong places.

"Don't be a pussy, Isa," I whispered angrily at myself. "It's a rose, not a dagger."

I clutched the damned flower in my hand and stared at the dark mahogany of Lucien's bedroom door. I could hear the steady beat of his heart from outside, followed by the gentle inhale and exhale as he slept. It made me sick, wondering how he could sleep so peacefully under the same roof as the Black Rose.
He had no suspicions of me and I hadn't given him any reason to but it bothered me that he wasn't wary of me. He was so...trusting. That's the word: trusting. The boy trusted too easily and I was going to show him just how bad of an idea that was.

Sighing, I pulled a mask over the lower half of my face and prepared myself to enter the room when someone suddenly left the room a couple of doors down. Just as the person began to come closer, I slipped into Lucien's  room and slammed the door shut.

"What the hell?" Lucien mumbled sleepily from his bed.

I cursed again, aloud this time. "Go back to sleep."

"Isaline?" he asked. "What are you doing in here?"

I kept my back to him as I replied as calmly as possible. "I know I shouldn't be in this wing, I'm sorry. I was looking for the bathroom and I got kind of lost. When I heard someone coming, I panicked and went into the nearest room possible."

"Oh," he said.

"Please don't mention this to your parents," I said. "Or anyone, for that matter. I don't want to get in trouble on my first night."

There was no response and I'd assumed that he fallen back asleep when a hand touched my shoulder. I flinched violently but stopped myself from doing anything rash, like breaking the boy's wrist in two.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled the mask down from my face and glanced at him over my shoulder. "Don't touch me."

"Why are you so afraid of me?" he asked, moving his hand from my shoulder to my cheek. I stiffened, my mind running wild as I began to imagine every possible scenario that could play out in this room. I could snap his wrist in half and make a run for it. Or I could snap his neck and make a run for it.  All of my choices resulted in Lucien getting hurt and, annoyingly enough, it bothered me.

"I'm not afraid of you," I replied tightly. "I could never be afraid of someone like you."

He quirked a brow. "Someone like me?"

I didn't know how to respond so I smacked his hand away and shifted back as far as I could move. I managed to nick myself on one of the thorns of the rose still clutched in my hand and mentally facepalmed. I was just fucking up left and right today.

"I need to go," I said. "Before I get caught."

"You won't get caught," Lucien said.

"I need to go," I repeated.

"Why are you in such a rush for?"

"I need to go."

"No one even knows you're here, you're fine."

"I need to go."

"I promise you—"

"Let me go," I snapped angrily. "I'm not supposed to be here in the first place and I want you to let me go or I'll make you let me go. I don't think you really want to find out just who should be scared of who."

He stared at me for several moments, his eyes roaming across every inch of my face before he finally dropped his hand and backed away. I didn't waste anytime in leaving his room, sprinting down the hall as soon as the door shut behind me. When I was far away enough and sure that he wasn't going to try to follow, I slumped to the ground and held my head in my hands. The world was spinning around me and it was like I couldn't get enough air into my lungs to calm down.

"I can't breathe," I panted quietly to myself as I gripped at my hair. "Fuck, I can't breathe."

It felt like I was breathing through a straw. My chest burned and I tasted blood at the back of my throat but no blood was coming out of my mouth. Was I truly losing my shit?

I don't know how long I stared in the hallway, walking myself out of my first panic attack. At some point, I must have fell asleep because when I awoke the next time, I was being carried through the halls. My first instinct was to start fighting but as I caught a big whiff of the person carrying me, I felt my body relax and sleep began to take over once more.

"I got you," Kiev whispered as he brought me back to my room.

**********

When I awoke, it was to the bloodcurdling screams of the Queen herself. I shot awake immediately and threw the covers off my body, scrambling into the hall to join the rest of the guests as we all struggled to see what was going on.

"What happened?" I asked Amina as she stepped sleepily out of her room.

"She found a black rose," Vasili replied.

I groaned quietly. "Fuck me in the ass."

"You did it?" Amina asked.

"No," I replied. "Well, yes, technically, but I didn't mean to. I must've dropped it when I ran out of his room."

"Wait, you were in his room?" Vasili exclaimed.

"That's not the point," I whined. "I didn't mean to drop the damn rose."

"Well you'd better fix it fast because now they know something is up," Vasili said. "You don't want Aida to hear about any of this shit."

I hated that he was right. I'd screwed up big time and now I had to clean up the mess before things got out of hand. Lord only knew what Aida would do to me if she heard about my screw up.

*****
It's been such a long time since I've touched any of my books and I deeply apologize for that smh

I'd promised to try and update 1-2 chapters a day or something like that but obviously, that never went through but I am genuinely going to try and get back on top of my updates

I decided that it would be easier for me and for my readers, both new and old, if I unpublished the unedited chapters and kept the new ones up. I thought it'd be easier for everyone considering that I plan to change the story a lot and by having the old story line up, it'd confuse the crap out of everyone including me. I hope you all understand!

Laleh