The Stars and the Flames (FREE PREVIEW)

PROLOGUE

A sickening smile stretched across the king's face as he stared into the hateful eyes of the incarcerated girl that appeared before him. Not just any girl, the esteemed Knife of Kentaurus, the most feared and well-known assassin across the galaxy. She was the final piece to the puzzle, the one the king needed in order to secure his throne, and the part that delighted the king the most was that she came willingly into his clutches, as if she could outsmart him.

Astrid Bruckis was her name—though why he even bothered to learn it, he did not fully know. At the time, he supposed it would be beneficial to learn all there was to know of his enemies, but the girl was never a true threat to himself or his throne. All she was was a wanted criminal with a bounty over her head that stretched into the thousands. Oh, how his subjects would praise him, and those on other planets, for capturing the esteemed Knife of Kentaurus. Not only would he get the money offered for her capture, but a public execution was exactly what he needed in order to secure a hold over the entire galaxy. In his mind, a planet was too tiny. No, he craved more, a bigger ground in which to exert his power.

The king curled one hand around one of the rusty, iron bars that separated him from the assassin. With such close proximity, he knew she could hurt him, do some serious damage to his fingers, but he also knew she was smarter than that. Any wrong move, and he could send one of his guards down to her cell and torture her until she was on the ground, broken and without an ounce of fighting spirit left.

"Tomorrow," the king said. That one word alone held more power over the girl than anything.

The assassin didn't respond. Instead, she spat at him, but quick reflexes allowed him to dodge it easily.

"Feisty, aren't we?" the king crooned. "Even without all your weapons and enchanted armor, you still find some way to retain that fighting spirit."

The assassin took a deep breath. "Did you expect any less from me?" she finally said. "After what you did, what you stole from me."

"Your life was forfeit the moment you made your first kill," the king grumbled in response. "An eye for an eye, Astrid. Don't you forget it."

Her hands balled into fists, and the king knew it was only a matter of time before the assassin lost her head and lashed out at him. "I only did what others were too scared to do," she said coldly.

"Because they fear rules and the consequences for breaking them." The king paused. "But you, you were never one for rules, were you? What is it about rules and regulations that grinds your gears? Or is it just more thrilling for you to break them?"

Once that final button had been pressed, he knew what was going to happen. With seemingly lightning-fast speed, the assassin launched herself at his fingers still curled around the bar and bent them at an unnatural angle. The king swore once before yanking his fingers away from her grasp. Luckily, she didn't break any of them, and now, she just made things worse for her.

The king massaged his aching fingers as he narrowed his eyes at her."Have fun rotting in Hell," he spat as he turned away from her and began tomake his way out of the dungeons. "A guard will be down here in promptlyfifteen minutes. Do not give him reason to break you more than he has to." Andwith that, he left the dungeons, leaving the assassin to contemplate hermistake. 

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here it finally is, the current working prologue for The Stars and the Flames, the first book in the Kentaurus saga! For publishing and copyright reasons, I am only posting a preview to Wattpad. However, I do plan to post the entire thing on another website, Inkshares (https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-stars-and-the-flames), in the hopes it will be picked up for publishing. If you have a moment, and you enjoyed this prologue, please head over there and give it a read and follow! It's still a work-in-progress, but I will update it regularly as I finish individual chapters. And also if you enjoyed this prologue, please remember to vote, comment, and follow me for more of my work!