Chapter 7

"So you're sure you want to go?"

"Yes Clay, I'm sure." I sigh, checking my compass as we navigate through the forest. Clay collects more flowers as we walk. They're all sorts of shapes, sizes, and presumably colors. "I'm sorry for asking again." He says, "it's just that Thánatos is after you. He could attack you at any moment, and I want to be there to help." He tells me.

I smile to myself, secretly happy that someone cares enough about me to worry. It's been such a long time since someone cared. "All be fine. Besides, if you're that worried, you could just come with me." I say, internally wishing he will. He shakes his head, looking up at the tree canopies, it looks as if he's searching for something. "I told you. I want to head to my old hideout, just in case Nick is there."

Nick is the name of his old friend, from what he told me, it seems they were pretty close.

"Alright." I say to him. "Then stop worrying."

As we get closer to the city Clay suddenly stops. He points up and I look, it's a very unstable place. I stare in horror at the uneven footholds, and everything seems like the touch of a feather could crumble it. "That's your hideout?" I ask in fear, he can't go up there! I suddenly made many more theories about how he got all those scars, a fall from half the height of that tree could kill him, and it seemed so easy to fall.

He shook his head and I breathed a sigh of relief. "No, that's one of the old assassin camps." He tells me. "I'm sure you can tell why they abandoned it." I look back up at it. Besides the crippling safety hazards, the wooden structure is barely concealed by the canopy, and it sticks out.

"Is there any chance there's some supplies up there?" I ask him, a plan forming. He nods. "Absolutely. The elite assassins have the best stuff." He says. "Nobody's crazy enough to go up there though."

I think of our injuries and how much we desperately need supplies and smile slightly. "You're wrong, I think that there's someone crazy enough to go up there." He shakes his head frantically. "You can't, you'll die." He says, grabbing my arm.

I push him off and fasten my weapons, looking at the paths up the tree. "You aren't seriously going-." I run away, cutting him off before he can convince me otherwise. "Aren't you supposed to be the reckless one? And we need the supplies." I shout as I run off.

He follows behind me. I look up at the tree, there are more footholds than I first thought, and one of the paths doesn't look too hard.

Clay catches up to me, shaking his head in disbelief. "There is no way I'm letting you go up there." He tells me, examining the tree more closely. "I don't care. I'm doing it anyway, and there isn't anything you can do to stop me." I say to him, grabbing onto the tree.

We hear the sounds of leaves rustling nearby. Clay pushes me inside a bush. He sits down next to me. We see two boys walking past, one a little shorter than me, and one about the same height as Clay. The first guy is wearing all blue, he's Latino, his hair is quite curly, and he's carrying a knife.

The second boy is wearing a color I can't tell, it just looks yellow. He has short longish hair that I think is brown. He also carries a knife, but unlike the first boy he isn't waving it around.

Clay taps my shoulder. "The guy in blue is called Zak, his code name is Sky. He's very skilled with an axe. The other guy is wearing red, his name is Vincent, he's French, and his code name is Ace. They're both elite assassins." He whispers, so quiet I can hardly hear. Zak puts his knife in its sheath and starts grabbing at the tree, swinging around.

"Be careful! Darryl will fucking kill me if you get hurt." Vincent says, a prominent foreign accent in his voice. Zak just laughed. "I won't get hurt, and Darryl would also kill you if you cussed in front of him." Zak's sleeve fell down and I saw his soulmate band, it was blue. "Speaking of Darryl-."

Zak cut him off. "Vince, you're my friend, but if you laugh at me one more time for having a soulmate that isn't an assassin." He paused. "I'll stab you."

I was interrupted from watching them by Clay laughing besides me. "Wow, his soulmate is a guy, and he was always the one that swore he was straight, I guess he's Bi, pretty ironic I guess."

"Zak, get down!" Vince says an annoyed tone in his voice. "I'm not explaining this to Darryl!" Zak rolled his eyes, swinging recklessly from the branches. "I won't get hurt." He said, looking up to see where he would grab next. "That's what you said last time! Darryl's a great medic, but he could hardly fix your arm!"

Clay tapped my shoulder. "Zak's soulmate is the one working at one of the market stalls I think. He must be if he's a medic." He tells me. I nod. "Is it weird that an assassin is with someone who isn't one?" I ask. Clay nods. "Yeah, he could probably have joined the assassins if he wanted, but apparently he didn't. I guess he's too focused on being a medic. Nick, my old friend told me that Zak also hasn't killed his target either."

Zak slips, falling a bit, Vincent runs under him to catch him, but Zak just laughs at his terrified face, swinging up higher. Vincent glares at him and watches him climb.

Clay rolls his eyes. "He's even more reckless than me, and definitely the most annoying. Add to that he has a soulmate working at the market stalls. If he wasn't so skilled with an axe, he would have to be worried about being kicked out." I nod. "Can you tell me more about the other boy?" I ask.

"Vincent, or Ace is the youngest member, he's only 18, he was assigned very recently, he hasn't found his soulmate, but he has killed his target, and he's great with those swords." Clay says, gesturing to a pack that was one the ground near Vincent. I looked closer at it and saw two very deadly looking swords poking out of it.

"Zak, I swear to fucking god-." Vincent seethes, clenching his fists. "Relax Frenchie, I got this." Zak says, smirking. I wonder why Vincent is here and not France, across the seas.

Vincent sighs, tapping his feet on the ground, crunching the leaf that's under his metal tipped combat boot. The two argue like children, they're definitely assassins. They're out in the open, making tons of noise, because they know that nobody is stupid enough to attack them,

"You should've got your boyfriend to come watch you instead." Vincent said, still tapping his foot, his words earning him a string of insults from the trees. "Pity he's too much of a coward to be an assassin." He adds, smirking.

"You little bi-." Zak said, his voice becoming muffled as he climbed through a particularly leafy part of the trees. He exited that part and his voice became clearer. "As I was saying, you insult Darryl again and I will personally decapitate you." He said, pulling an axe from a pile of supplies in the treehouse.

Vincent laughed at his threat. "If you can reach me shor-." "Hey! I'm not that much shorter than you!" Zak said, indignantly.

The two argue jokingly like children as Zak fixes a rope around a branch, acting as a pulley, lowering packs of supplies to Vincent. "Also," Zak says, "Darryl saved your life you ungrateful idiot. If he hadn't bandaged you up that one time, you'd have bled out on the floor."

Vincent nods. "True." He says, "did you find any medical things for him?" Vincent asks. Zak nods, "lots of gauze and bandages and fancy colorful liquids." Vincent nods, "and do you know what any of them do?" He asks, Zak shakes his head. "No idea!" He says, smiling.

Vincent snorts. "Perfect." He says, "at least your boyfriend does. Dare you to drink one." Zak stops climbing down to look at Vincent. "Then I can die and his soulmate band can turn black, perfect idea Vin." He says sarcastically, and resumes climbing down.

"He can save you-." Vincent says, but Zak talks over him. "No, we already discussed this, Darryl doesn't kill people, he saves them. I offered one time to capture his target for him to kill and he refused. He isn't like us, he's better."

Vincent scoffs. "You mean he's a coward right? One of the elite assassins soulmate is a medic in the centre city. He saves people, and you kill them." Zak reaches the ground and rolls his eyes up at Vincent. "Hilarious Vin." He says sarcastically. "I don't care that you make fun of him, I love him, he's gorgeous, and he's mine. Also, don't forget how many times he's saved you."

Vincent gags. "Sappy." He says. "Speaking of, we better get these back to Darryl, he's been looking to heal Saps arm." Vincent dragged Zak off and they finally went out of view.

Clay pulled me to my feet. "Sap must be Nick, my friend. I used to call him Snappy as a joke. He must have used that for his code name." He told me. I nod, watching Clay walk Northwest, the direction the two assassins went.

"Meet you at the Market afterwards?" I ask him, knowing he'll want to see his friend, especially now that he knows he's injured. Clay nods and walks back to me. "Before you go, George." He takes a deep breath, and hands me his mask. "It'll help protect you from Athanátos seeing you. Not much, but it'll help."

He pulls me into a hug, "thanks Wi-." He puts his hand over my mouth. "My name is Clay, you wanted to know it so bad. Use it." He says.

I hug him back before pulling away and checking my compass, heading north as he follows Zak and Vincent. "Be careful, if you aren't back soon, I'll come looking for you." He says. "Thanks for the vote of confidence Clay." He laughs. "See you soon Georgie."