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Loud crashes echoed through the hallway. I wasn’t even sure what I was doing there. Why I had followed him. I usually stayed out of other people’s messes but there had been something in his eyes that I just couldn’t get out of my head. Stopping in front of a thick wooden door, I stared at it for a moment. After drawing a soft breath, I pushed down the handle and slipped inside.
A knife flew at my face. I jerked to the side. The blade produced a sharp thud as it burrowed into the doorframe. Turning my head, I looked from the weapon to the man who’d thrown it.
“You know,” I said, “if that had been... well, anyone but me, they would’ve died.”
“If you just knocked like everyone else, I wouldn’t need to throw knives at you,” Shade retorted.
“Ah, but see, I thought we had already established that I’m not a knocking-on-the-front-door kind of girl.” I flicked my eyes between the overturned desk, chairs, and bookcases littering the room. “Besides, I figured even if I had knocked, you wouldn’t have been able to hear it over all that crashing furniture.”
“Funny.”
“I know, right?”
Shade leaned back against the still standing wardrobe behind him and slid down its dark wooden front. Sitting on the floor, he pulled his knees up and threw me a disinterested stare. He looked... vulnerable, in a way I’d never seen before. For a moment, I wasn’t sure what to say but before I could figure it out, Shade beat me to it.
“So, have you come to lecture me or give me a pep talk?”
“I’m probably the last person who should be lecturing you on keeping secrets. And motivational speeches ain’t really my thing.” I lifted the bottle in my right hand. “I brought this, though.”
He snorted. “Where did you get that?”
“I swiped it from an unattended room nearby.” After taking a few quick strides across the room, I plopped down on the floor next to the assassin and passed him the bottle of alcohol I’d stolen.
Shade uncorked it and took a long drink before handing it back to me. I tipped some of the clear liquor into my mouth as well and felt it burn as it made its way down my throat. Crossing my legs, I glanced at the assassin.
“So, you’re the king, huh?”
Shade leaned back and rested his head against the wardrobe. “Yeah.”
For a long while we just sat there in silence, passing the bottle of booze back and forth. I had no intention of pushing him because sharing personal details wasn’t exactly high up on my list of enjoyable things either. If he wanted to talk, he would. Otherwise, we’d just drink.
“I wasn’t supposed to care,” Shade said at last.
I glanced at him from the corner of my eye but said nothing.
“I’ve been trained not to have emotions,” he continued. “Since I was a child, I’ve been molded into the perfect weapon. Ruthless. Cold. For Ghabhalnaz’s sake, I killed my own father and I didn’t even bat an eye! But now...” He gulped back some more alcohol from the bottle and barked a humorless laugh. “Oh, if my old Master could see me now, he would beat me within an inch of my life.”
“Your old Master?”
The weary-looking assassin was silent for a while, as if trying to decide how much to share, but eventually tipped his head back and released a long sigh. “Yeah. The man who took me, he was the Master of the Assassins’ Guild before me. Apparently, King Adrian had betrayed him, or something, he never said. But he wanted revenge.”
“So he kidnapped his heir,” I summarized.
“Yeah. And not just that.” Shade shook his head. “He raised that child to hate his family, to crave power, and to wipe the whole Silverthorn line from existence.”
Clothes rustled against wood and stone as I turned to stare at him. What a childhood that must’ve been. His mouth had taken on a hard set and something I couldn’t quite identify burned behind his eyes.
“It was the perfect revenge,” the Master Assassin went on. “His own son, his eldest son and heir, was destined to kill them all and take the throne for himself in the name of the Assassins’ Guild.”
“So what changed?”
Shade blew out a tired chuckle. “Edward. After I’d killed Adrian and become a trusted advisor to Edward, he was going to meet with some terrible accident and I would take the throne for myself.”
I noticed that he referred to the previous king as Adrian instead of my father but I decided not to comment on it.
“I was almost there,” Shade continued. “It was all within my grasp, everything my old Master had worked towards for almost twenty years, but then... I couldn’t do it.” A crazed laugh slipped from his lips. “All because the fucking Master of the Assassins’ Guild realized he had feelings.”
Arching an eyebrow at him, I passed him the half empty bottle of liquor. “You decided not to kill your little brother and steal his throne, I’d say that’s a pretty understandable decision.”
The dark-eyed assassin grabbed it and took another long drink. “Yeah, but don’t get me wrong, I still want it. My whole life I’ve been raised to crave it, and I still do. The throne. Power. Supremacy. You have no idea how much I want it.”
“But you care about Edward more?”
“Yeah, and trust me, no one is more surprised by that than me. I hated him. Hated them all. My Master taught me that all the horrific things I’d had to endure during my childhood, during my training, was because of them. If it weren’t for their actions, I would’ve had a happy and safe life. That’s what he said. And I believed him. Hate and anger and a lust for power were all that sustained me all those years.”
Knowing how all-consuming anger and hate could be, I just gave him a nod in understanding.
“I wasn’t supposed to care. Why do I have to care?” Shade picked up a book and threw it across the room. It sailed through the air in a flapping of paper and hit the floor by the overturned desk with a thud. “It’s so fucking inconvenient!”
“I know, right? Caring about people is so damn complicated and annoying. Like, why do we even have to have feelings at all?”
The assassin pointed the bottle at me with a look of surprised recognition on his face. “Exactly!”
Grabbing the dark brown bottle from his hand, I hoisted it in the air. “Well, here’s to the cold black heart that we apparently don’t have. May we one day find it.”
Shade chuckled and raised a pretend bottle in the air next to mine. “To a cold black heart.”
A sound came from the door. I squinted across the sea of furniture, books, and decorations cluttering the floor. Had I imagined that? Then I heard it again. A knock.
The Assassins’ Guild Master stabbed a finger in my direction and threw me a pointed look. “See! Everyone else knocks.”
I snorted. “Whatever.”
Shade ignored my sarcastic comment and instead raised his voice to a shout. “Come in!”
The thick wooden door cracked open and Edward stuck his head through. He drew back a little when he noticed the state of the room and the two drunk underworlders still sitting on the floor.
Shade scrambled to his feet. “Edward.”
“I’m sorry,” the king said as he squeezed into the room. “I didn’t mean any of that. You’re not the reason my mother... our mother is dead. I was just angry and confused. But I’m not anymore.” The sadness washed from his face and a genuine smile spread across his lips. “I have a brother! And not just any brother. You.”
Bracing myself on the wardrobe, I climbed to my feet as well. I might not have much respect for other people’s property or private conversations but even I felt that this particular conversation was one I shouldn’t be here for. The room swayed a little as I straightened.
I pointed an unsteady hand at the door. “I’ll leave you to it.”
King Edward gave me a grateful nod. “The reception will start in only a few hours and I would very much like it if you’re there for that. In case Lord Fahr and his brother try something else. That room you’ve stayed in before, you can sleep there if you want.”
Considering how much I’d had to drink, I didn’t feel like heading back to the Thieves’ Guild. If I did, I would have to talk to people and I was way too tired and intoxicated for that. Not to mention everything Shade and I had shared this night which had gotten both my head and my heart all tangled up.
“Thank you,” I said. “I’ll do that.”
Right as I was about to disappear through the door, Shade’s voice halted me.
“Hey, Storm!”
I stopped and peered back at him.
He locked steady eyes on me and held my gaze. “Thanks.”
The corner of my lips quirked upwards in a smile and I gave him a slow nod before slipping out the door.
Well, this day had certainly taken an interesting turn. In the span of a few hours, the lost heir to the throne of Keutunan had been revealed, two brothers had been reunited, and I had gotten drunk with the Master of the Assassins’ Guild. Soft carpets muffled my steps as I steered towards my temporary bedroom. Shade had shared much more with me than I ever thought he would and I felt like I understood him a bit better now. A bit. I mean, he was still an arrogant bastard. A grin crept across my face as I neared my room. Good thing I was too.