Darkness and Beauty (The Fated Series, #1)

Chapter 8 - Darius - The Fun Begins

"Seeing as you're not pregnant, sick, and have complete control of your own legs, you can stand on your own well enough." My jaw drops so low I'm not even sure that it doesn't hit the ground. I expected many things of the Ebony Nightingale, but not...that. I don't know whether to laugh or scream.

Well, at least I'll have something, or rather someone, to entertain me during my free time. Who doesn't love a little sass?

A Prince who's constantly being locked up in a castle to do nothing but learn languages from an old hag and waltz with any eligible women during balls and galas. That's who.

Realizing that I'm still gaping and my arms are still frozen out in front of me, I fix both. "You dare speak to your Prince in such a manner?"

"I dare do as I please, considering you need me more than I need you."

"And why is that?"

"Because the Assassins of Cressida are aiming to kill you, and I am now your last chance at not being killed with one of their blades in your heart." There will never be a dull moment will there? I'm horrified and excited about the new toy my mother has given me. Of course, unless I want my head chopped off, I'd never tell her or anyone my thoughts.

"You don't think I've been trained to defend myself?" I straighten my spine. If my mother could see me sit like this on the throne rather than hunchbacked and glaring, she'd probably throw another ball in celebration.

"Ever fight against an assassin?"

"Can't say I've had the honor."

"Well, I can tell you it's nothing like fighting a dull castle guard."

From up here it's hard to see her eyes since the dais is seven steps above where she stands, and the sun coming in through the windows is blocked by her hood. A fact she must be aware of since she fully turns her head toward the guard still on the edge of the dais. He doesn't move, but something tells me he's squirming in his skin.

I guess that makes Alister right.

Curious to see just how right he was, I rest my cheek on a fisted hand. "How So?"

Her head tilts, entirely casting her face into the shadows. I'm ninety percent sure she rolls her eyes. "The list is too long, and I'm not in the mood, nor do I currently have the patience to name them and then answer your pointless questions."

"Hmm."

Despite her tough guard, she seems to have grown up since my parents left. I think there's a softie hidden within. Deep, deep within that hard shell of hers.

Her stance looks relaxed, yet solid, and her eyes show a force to be reckoned with - when I can glimpse them...but there's something, just...something that's throwing this façade off. Like every other fighter, she has to have a tell. A fidgeting finger, or a habit of looking to where's she going to strike next. Something. But all I can see is her hands and eyes, and she's probably been trained since birth to hide her tells. Still, I'm going to find it.

Not to mention that there's something about her face that is familiar to me. I mean I've only seen her once and that was from afar and only within the span of a few seconds. The second she and her brother walked in, it was like the wind itself gravitated both away and toward them.

Great, now there are two things I must unlock about this secret of an assassin.

Garrison was right too. We can't trust her, but then again, we don't know anything about her or the "old friend." Speaking of which, I think I have an idea of how to see what, exactly, we'll be up against.