Chapter 20

Chapter

Twenty

CRUX

S he doesn’t know I’m watching her.

I know she’s capable, and I know she can look after herself, but I can’t resist trailing her as she prowls around the palace, searching for information and her target. I have my little rats working overtime, so I know we will gather some information we need, but she is a target, especially now that they all know her face.

I cannot resist protecting her, even now.

When I see her meet the king, however, fury and jealousy twine inside me. I hide in the shadows and watch them, a vice around my heart as they spar. It’s something she used to do with me. I do not think she even realises she is smiling and enjoying herself with him.

I hate it. I hate the way she looks at him.

I hate the way he looks at her as well, and when he pins her down, both of them getting far too close, I swear I feel my heart break. I cannot look away, even as he drops his head to kiss her.

How many times have I had the same thought while we were sparring? Far too many, and now this man, this stranger, this . . . this fucking king is going to steal her kiss. For all her bravado and assurances, I see her hesitate. I see her giving into him. Her eyelids slide shut to kiss him.

My soul splinters, and the agony is hard to breathe through. It feels like I’m shattering into a million pieces right here in the shadows where I belong, where I cannot reach her in the light.

She smiled at another man, a man worthy of her and who is also level with her station, a man that can give her everything she deserves and more.

Did she lie to me about all her reasons for being here? Is she lying to herself? Does she want the king? The thought nearly causes me to sprint from the darkness, but I don’t. I stay here and watch as they break apart, as he cuts her and then walks away.

I stay in the shadows where she left me.

My heart is trapped in my throat, a fluttering, broken thing as I watch her right up until the moment she heads inside, and then I turn away, trailing the king. My heartbreak and pain turn to anger, which is directed at him for seducing her away from me and being a man she could love.

She cannot if he’s not here.

It’s an irrational thought, a foolish one, but my hand goes to my blade. I am not even thinking as I stomp after him, uncaring who sees as I chase the king, ready to end his life for daring to look at my Alyx.

She is mine!

I move on instinct, my hands fisting the dagger, ready to drive it into his back and end his pitiful life. She might mourn him and hate me for it, but she will be mine again. He is oblivious, playing with the tattered edges of his cut shirt as he walks between the shadows of his palace and the one she is staying in.

No guard, no protection.

A vulnerable king.

My assassin’s blade gleams as I draw it and move closer. I am about to strike when I see it, and I blame my own consuming emotions for not seeing it before—a figure. It darts out of the shadows of the small bridge separating the palaces and heads right for the king as he passes. I see a blade gleam and blink.

He’s stealing my idea, but I react before I can think.

I throw my blade, and it soars through the air with a whistle before sinking deep into the man’s shoulder. His hand twitches, causing him to drop the blade with a gasp, and the king whirls. I am a blur as I head to the cloaked, wannabe assassin. Plucking my blade free, I grip the cloak’s edge and slice the man’s throat, letting the blood spray over the king as he looks wide-eyed from the fallen dagger that was aimed at his back and the man dying in my hold.

He struggles before giving in, and I drop his lifeless body to the ground. My need to kill the king disappears as quickly as it came. “You should be more careful,” I warn, my voice deep.

I know all he sees is my silhouette before I fade back into the shadows as he searches for me, leaving him with the body and the blade.

If this is what she wants, then so be it. I will help her. I will kill them and free her of her revenge and her job. I will end this entire world before I lose her, even to a king.

Alyx is mine. She always has been and always will be. She just doesn’t know it yet.

I won’t wait a moment longer. I will make her aware. I was so worried about ruining us before and losing what we had, but I did not realise until it was almost too late that I was already losing her.

Not now.

My eyes go to her palace, where I see a lantern on inside, and my hand drifts to the carving below my belly button, above my trousers.

I made it the night I met her, when I realised what she would mean to me.

My fingers trace over the familiar, scarred letters as a new determination fills me.

ALYX.

She will be mine.