Darkness and Beauty (The Fated Series, #1)

Chapter 1 - Fauna - He's Back

"Nyra, please - allow me to explain-"

"You can't explain away what's on paper, Cathan."

"I'll pay it back," he bargains, hands clinging to the side of the wagon full of boxes of personal belongings. His eyes plea for something he won't get, and he can keep begging all he wants, it won't change that simple fact. "Nyra, please, forgive me-"

"Forgive you!" The stunningly beautiful ebony woman whirls from where she stands atop the wagon platform, the box she was nicely setting down falling from her hands with a loud clunk. Didn't sound like anything fragile.

My eyes drop to her left hand as Cathan continues to beg Nyra for forgiveness she's repeatedly stating she will not give for the money he's been stealing from her - a reason you don't trust those who deal in nothing but lies and business. Or trust at all. Or marry those who strictly deal with promises they can never hold.

He made a promise when he put that ring on her finger and vowed to be loyal to her, through sickness and health. He clearly didn't just not uphold any of that, but he's probably going to pawn that ring now that she's chucked it at his head.
Fucking idiot starts searching the cobblestone street for the likely knock-off piece of jewelry while she leads the two caramel-colored mares down the street, heading northeast.

I don't watch her go nor yield to the heating urge to sock her now ex-husband. It's not the craziest thing I've seen happen in this rust bucket of a world.

I hate one thing in this world above all others: Betrayal. Ultimately lying in which leads to betrayal, but lying can be punished and then eventually forgotten given a few days or cycles, even if the forgiven doesn't fully realize it.
Betrayal...well, that's a bit more complicated.

Walking through the streets of Fernweh, the not so grand capital of the kingdom of Vandaria, you can always spot someone who has made the mistake of betraying those who once trusted them. Each house, family, gang, or worship group has its own kill mark.

The Firejay gang has a bird of flame, the family Moonbeam uses their crest of sun and moon, and my own group, the Jade Assassins, the most feared assassins in all of Ker, uses our house symbol. The Unforgiven mark. It's nothing more than an X connected at the top with a single line, but those who have betrayed us are given the symbol around their eye where everyone can see it and remember their face at the same time.
Anyone with a kill mark of any kind is seen as fair game. Not even the king would spare more than a glance at a man, woman, or child who has a kill mark. Though the King is a bad example, I suppose, with his negligence to care for even the most minuscule thing that occurs in his kingdom.
The point of a kill mark is that if you betray a person and receive their kill mark, you're then set free to be slaughtered and hunted down for the rest of your life. No consequences for the killer, and if you kill a Marked One then you simply bring the body to the person they betrayed and get a ransom. Easy money, but not my type of prey.

Being raised by the Jade King makes me a big target for many idiotic or stupidly vengeful people, but I've been trained since I was four years old to defend myself, walk on silent feet, memorize the layout of an entire kingdom, use all kinds of weapons, make weapons, speak five different languages and two dead ones, get information, get my way...
Pretty much anything.

The people of Vandaria are all too innocent. The king isn't necessarily vicious and cruel, but he's not very caring about his people's needs either. If it weren't for his kindhearted wife, Queen Claritia, Vandaria would be at war with our neighboring kingdoms, Cressida and Adaeric. Everyone hates him and pretends to love him to stay alive, but with Queen Claritia, no one needs to pretend.

Above the King, the Jade Assassins are at the top of the "don't piss off" list. Just walking through the crowded street marketplace dressed in the distinct rough vantablack charmeuse and blue silky-lined Jade Assassin cloak makes people form a clear path and avoid my eye contact on instinct. It never entirely bothered me since assignments always required me to do them with little distraction and as quickly as possible, but there are certain times that I wish this wasn't my life.