The Night Watch | The Nocturnal Chronicles {Book One}

ix. the sorceress

"Magic surrounds us all. It makes us up and is our natural life force. Some people, trained people, can manipulate it and bend it to their will."

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The Fear. It was the one thing she knew she was supposed to feel when she was this close to death, but for some reason, she just felt it was ironic. She had survived nine years of assassinating people, and none of them could manage to kill her. But instead, one of Rowe's knights would be the one to kill her. She just felt it was ironic because it was someone working on behave of the man she loved. Not only was it ironic but horribly sad.

     The knight stood above her now. His helmet laying on its side at the opposite side of the room. Erudessa refused to look at him. He was like a cloud of despair in the darkness. Dark brown eyes, black hair, and dark skin. Even in the darkness of the room, he was hit by the light from the window and cast her a look that filled her heart with despair. He was going to kill her. She was sure of it.

     "King Rowe has requested this. You must understand it was by the demand of the Council, though," He said and his sword came into her line of sight.

     Her bottom lip quivered. "The Council wants me dead? Surprise, surprise."

     He lowered himself down to eye level, but she turned her head away. He sighed, "Please, don't be mad at me."

     "Oh, these actions aren't against you, but King Rowe. Huh, and I thought that he loved me. How naive of me," She said, tightening her hand in a fist. Her knuckles turned white.

     There came to be silence between them. Erudessa wondered when he would just get it over with and end her. That was what Rowe had requested him to do, wasn't it? She inhaled sharply through her nose and met the knight's gaze. His eyes were soft even as they filled her with despair. She felt herself wanting to look away, but they were so enticing she couldn't.

     "Does he really want this?" She asked.

     The knight shook his head. "You might not believe it, but he loves you dearly. The Council... not so much. He has to appease them or else they'll take the throne from him."

     She nodded, gazing at the floor beneath her. "Yeah, I understand. So, why am I still alive? You need to kill me, don't you?"

     "Well, it should come as no surprise, I don't really want to kill you either," He said, studying his sword. "So, here we are."

     "Two people who want to be somewhere else."

     "Exactly."

     Silence came again. It did come as a surprise. She didn't know this guy, and all he knew about her was that she was the Assassin. There was a strong possibility she could have killed a relative of his. Why would he want to spare her life? Maybe he just didn't want a guilty conscious. She knew that it was a terrible thing to live with. Knowing day after day someone died by your hand. Several people died by her hand. They lined her back like an army, an army of scars.

     She didn't understand why he didn't just let her go if he didn't want to kill her. There had to be a deal she could make with the Council. They might hate her, but they loved their deals. There was just something about gaining advantages over people that made them purr with glee. She had seen them make numerous deals before, and most of them died for it. How could they pass up a deal with her? It would be like icing on the cake. Making a deal with the one who would strike them down for making a deal. One of them had to find that blissfully ironic.

     The more she thought about it she realized maybe it wouldn't be the best of ideas. They could get anything they wanted in exchange for her life. Really, she wanted her life. They had that over her, and she would do anything to get it back. Maybe death would be better, but sitting in a dungeon cell with a knight who didn't want to kill her didn't seem like the best way to go out. She would die of boredom before starvation could even start to eat away at her.