Chapter Twenty-Four

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There's an art to killing.

A beauty to those of us who do it professionally.

For a very long time, I looked up to The Agency. After taking me in I was taught everything I needed to survive. And I liked it.

The murders aren't just senseless, that's my favorite reason.

They're carefully calculated by our leader.

And when they give us our orders, we have to obey. Not out of obedience, but out of love.

Because the reason all of us exist, the very reason we aren't targeted by the garbage nobels, is our leader.

They did everything for us. Each and every one of owes our future, past, and present to them.

So, why in the hell is Fontaine spitting in their face?

Taking this long to take out the mark can only mean one thing. Cold feet.

Which for Fontaine is unheard of. He is our leader's favorite. The one that gets his marks done in the fastest amount of time.

Hell, he trains all the younger ones so well they might as well be at our level.

So, when I saw the way he was looking at that bitch the night of the gala I couldn't believe it.

I had been kicking myself for almost a month now. Feeling guilty for even having doubts about him. But nothing could explain why he wasn't taking out his mark.

The night they met at the bar should have been her last night on this plane of existence. But of course she seduced him.

She sunk those royal fucking manicured nails into his skin, and he is entranced.

To say I was glad when I got the message to take over his task, would be an extreme understatement.

Come hell or high water I will finish this mission.

I will kill that nasty noble. No matter what, her blood will spill.

And then I will drag Fontaine back to his home and remind him who he truly is.

He should be proud after all, to be an assassin for The Agency.

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"There was fire everywhere. Why was there fire?" I pant, just waking up from yet again another nightmare.

This time, the entire palace was burning. And while I lay on the floor unable to move, I could hear the screams of everyone around me. In the dream I hoped Vivien was the last to die, but sadly that role would be reserved for me.

After a while all the screams just stopped and the crackling of the fire grew silent. My eyesight began to darken, and I couldn't breathe.

I woke up shaking, drenched in sweat.

Pacing from wall to wall isn't going to cut it this time, so a walk will have to do.

That's why I'm currently walking amidst greenery. Although the trembling hasn't stopped completely, I find myself a great deal calmer than before.

When I was little, after my parents had just died, one of the nannies was kind enough to stay in the room with me until I clocked out. The night terrors I had were terrible, and Mearie was the only nanny who had seen how I wasn't getting any real sleep.

She would stay in the room, and just quietly sit beside my bed until I dozed off.

Sometimes, if I couldn't go to sleep she would say to me: "Mi reina, monsters aren't scary its the people who create them that are."

Being eight years old, I would always ask her what she meant by that.

And she would always reply that I would get it when I was older.

Which she couldn't have been more right about, because looking at my aunt today I know exactly what she meant.

"Why oh why are you awake, at this unholy hour Princess?"

Shit. I spin, and come face to face with a man perched on top of one of the tables holding lilies.

So caught up in my own rambling mind, I must not have heard anyone nearby.

The man jumped down from the table and landed softly on his feet as though he were a cat. He seemed to carry himself in a calculated manner. I have a feeling that even if I had listen carefully this guy would have still snuck up on me without fault.

Something about him seemed very familiar, I've heard him before.

"You're one of the staff. The one Jasper knew." I rub the back of my head absentmindedly.

"We don't really know each other. And I don't believe we've met before. I just began working here.''

"Oh well in that case what are you doing here?" I ask, noticing his lie.

Either this guy was ordered by Vivien to keep an eye on me, or he's just looking for an excuse to get caught.

"Heh, funny you ask. I should be asking the same of you, but you are the princess so I guess it doesn't really matter does it? You're probably allowed anywhere."

I almost laughed at that. "You would think so, right?" I debate about whether I should push questioning him, or if I should just leave.

I should leave... But if Jasper really does know him I want to know how.

"How do you know Jasper?" I blurt out.

He goes quiet for a brief second before laughing it off. "I already told you we-"

"I don't believe you. You're lying to me, and I want to know why." I interrupt. Maybe if I can play all my cards right here, I can get an answer out of this guy.

I mean it can't be a coincidence that we run into each other here. And if that's not a coincidence, then he knows something.

"Look little miss heiress, I don't know what you're thinking but I'm not some spy I'm just a butler working the night shift."

Now I actually laugh at that. "A butler working the night shift? You are as much of a butler as I am a giant elephant."

"I may not know your name sir, but I do know that Butlers who are new arent allowed to work the night shift. They are also not allowed in this wing of the castle after hours, so however you got here, you most definitely did not have clearance. Which should frankly frighten me if not just a little, but for some reason I'm getting a feeling that you know more than you are letting on."

His eyes, dim and he swings around a tree nonchalantly.

"So, she has beauty and brains. I probably am not allowed in here ma'am, but I just had to see you for myself." A glint of something in his eyes blinked away as fast as I had recognized it. "Answer me this and I'll go away... why?"

He stops swinging and peeks out from the tree, narrowing his eyes at me.

"Why? Why, what?" I shrug completely lost now. I hadn't expected him not to deny anything.

"Why, you of course." He chuckles darkly. Stepping out from the shadow of a tree, and leaning against it. "He will murder me for this, but I am just dying to know."

Now frustrated, at his seemingly nonchalant attitude, and the increasingly curious mention of Jasper. "What are you dying to know?"

"Well, with observation skills like yours I want to know if you've yet pieced at least some of it together. I mean it can't be all that difficult to see? He found you so easily, it was almost like you wanted to be found."

Panic only makes my tremors worse as my throat clamps up. "What are you talking about?" I grit out.

His smile grows larger, his teeth a perfect row of pearly white. "Well, I can't tell you everything heiress, where would the fun in that be? However, something I can rectify is my own anonymity."

He stuck his hand out, "Verona Adria Celeste, you may know me as Sirius. I am acquainted with a mutual friend of ours. Do tell him of our meeting tonight, I have a bit of a flair for the dramatic and I like to keep him on his toes." He winked.

I shook his hand, and he turned mine over and kissed it gently.

A huge smile, never leaving his mouth.

"Oh, and if you didn't know, his favorite flower is nightshade. I thought it would be fitting for you to know given the setting." He turned his back after bowing, and walked right out the doors.

Gently folded in my hand, a small purple flower.

A deadly Nightshade.