The King's Assassin

Chapter 14: Selene

Unedited

...

I woke to the sounds of birds chirping outside an open window and sunlight streaming in across my face. I stretched and nearly jumped and fell out of the bed when a deep familiar voice spoke, "Looks like someone finally decided to wake up," Azriel's voice was like breathing after almost drowning.

"You're here" I nearly cried as I stared at him in disbelief. A nasty scar sliced through his left-wing. I climbed out of the bed and walked towards him. Reaching out I gently brushed my fingers over the scar. Azriel moaned as he tilted his head back. He grabbed my wrist to make me stop and pulled me into a hug.

I felt safe again. I smiled pulling in closer to him as his wings covered us. My hands roamed his chest as his roamed my body.

Someone cleared their throat from outside the protective cover of Azriel's wings. Azriel growled before reluctantly opening his wings to reveal Zirra standing with her arms crossed tapping her foot.

"What were you thinking! Leaving like that in the middle of the night!" she chastised me. I ducked behind Azriel's wing and smiled at her. Azriel cleared his throat and gave our nursemaid a hard look.

"Is the sorceress here?" He asked, his tone far more serious than I had ever heard it before. What Sorceress? I wondered looking back and forth between them as Zirra nodded.

"Good," Azriel gently wrapped an arm around me and led me out behind Zirra.

I had not been in the fae palace in seven years. The beautiful halls and ornate designs carved into them made the human palace look more like a large house than a palace. The once lively hallways were now eerily quiet.

As we walked into the council room a woman with fiery red hair and golden skin sat at the head of the table. Her eyes completely white and long black nails protruded from her hands, sharpened into points as sharp as an obsidian blade.

She was a witch. I took a hesitant step back. There was a reason our ancestors and the humans had hunted these creatures into near extinction. They were dangerous and there were few checks against their unlimited power.

"If we have any hope at breaking whatever hold the King has over you, we need her," Azriel hissed in my ear. I could only wonder how he had managed to convince a witch to help us so quickly, and what he had offered her in return.

Then there was the other chilling possibility. What if this witch was the same one who placed the curse on me? Could she be the one that bound me to the King to begin with? The thought alone made me hesitate.

"I would never work with a human, girl. Rest assured I am not the witch that cursed you," The witch chuckled.

Hesitantly, I sat at the table beside Azriel. The witch held out her hands, motioning for me to place mine into her own. Reluctantly I did. I felt the power surge through me as soon as our hands touched.

The witch began chanting and I felt like I was pushed to the ground by an invisible force. I gripped her hands tighter.

Then it stopped. The witch let go and whatever hold she had on me was gone too. I looked at her skeptically. I prayed a silent prayer that she had not decided to curse me too.

"She has been linked to the King, much like the blood oaths your Knights take, yet hers was not a willing bond," The witch began speaking. "It also seems that your link to the king is what is keeping you from dropping the glamour you have up that makes you look human. He probably ordered you to appear human and, unable to defy an order, you obeyed."

"If we kill the king, will the link sever?" Azriel asked. The witch eyed him and nodded yes. Before Azriel could ask more the Witch spoke up.

"I am afraid if you kill the King before they are unlinked, she will die too," The witch shook her head, "Like your blood-sworn knights when you die the oath transfers to your heir. Her linking will either transfer to the King's son or kill her. Either way, she will not be free." The witch shook her head.

"There has to be another way," I leaned closer. The witch smiled and nodded her head, "Any spell that is made can be unmade, you just have to know the original spell. Get me that spell and the King and I can break it,"

"Then that is what we will have to do," Azriel rose from his seat and walked out of the room. I hurried after him, leaving Zirra behind as she thanked the witch. If I did not stop him, Azriel was going to do something that would end up getting himself killed.

We needed a plan, one that would not wind up with one or more of us killed for acting without thinking things all the way through. The plan I had in mind, Azriel was not going to like one bit.