Page 45 of A Kingdom of Lies

“You don’t scare me,” Duncan said, leaning into the blade.

You should be scared.When Erix once asked me what my greatest fear was, I told him it was the dark, as if I were a child holding onto a pathetic horror. Now my answer was different. I feared the assassin who stood before me. Briar was horror in the flesh, a real-life monster with unlimited potential to kill.

Duncan was a fool to ignore that.

I blinked and saw a vision of Duncan’s naked body and the scars scattered across his skin. It was no wonder he didn’t flinch at the presence of her blades; he had clearly experienced many before.

“I don’t care for fear, Hunter. I care for coin. And this time” – her head turned back in my direction; face still covered by the veil – “I will finish the task.”

I stepped forward, bravery burning in my heart. The feeling was sudden, perhaps conjured by the feeling of having my back pressed up against a wall with no possibility to get away. If Duncan was not prepared to aid me, then I would have to do it myself.

“What have I ever done to you, Briar?”

The question hung in the air between us.

Briar slowly lifted the knife from Duncan’s back and used the sharp tip to remove the veil from her face. That opened up the opportunity for Duncan to make his move, but he didn’t. He kept still and comfortable, as though he enjoyed witnessing what was occurring, even with a blade to his throat.

Finally, I could see her. Dark, jade eyes brimming with arrogance. Her hair, still short and cut close to her head, had been slicked back from the veil she had worn. Her soft pixie-like features had not changed, still the same trusting face that had fooled us all, Althea more so than anyone.

“Nothing,” Briar answered, grin lifting her pretty lips at both sides. “Don’t let your ego run away with you. This is purely business.”

She returned the second blade to Duncan’s back without glancing away from me. “Except, between the three of us, I made a rather large discount this time round. King Doran believed the death of his son was fair trade for a discounted price. Of course, I was happy to oblige, just for the chance topersonallywatch the life drain from your face. It is frowned upon for an Asp to let a hit slip from the net, so to speak, and you certainly are one slippery fucker, Robin.”

“And what would Althea say if she heard you speaking in such a way?” I questioned, hoping to see some sort of reaction. And there it was. The slight flinch of her stare and faltering smile. “I trust you already know she’s here,” I said, taking the moment of her distraction to look for something,anything, to use as a weapon against her. “It must’ve taken true restraint to come for me before visiting her… although I can confirm she doesn’t share the same eagerness to see you.”

Duncan’s eyes widened as he filed that piece of information away, silently connecting the dots.

“When I am finished with you, I will visit her. Consider it my reward,” Briar replied, gaze unseeing as she slipped into a daydream. It only lasted a moment before she shook herself out of her thoughts and regarded me with a snarl once again.

“Your quarrel is with him, and I see no need for spilling unrequired blood. I just had the floor cleaned.” Duncan murmured.

I expected Briar to refuse him, but she didn’t. “You can go then.”

She lowered the blades, one by one, and Duncan stepped aside. “Not worried I’ll come back with a league of Hunters?”

“Even if you did, I will not be long.”

Duncan tipped his head in a strange bow. “If there is room for requests, I ask that you try to keep his death as… tidy as possible. Not that it matters, but it would save the clean-up.”

“Go,” Briar growled. “Now.”

He didn’t wait around.

“Duncan,” I spluttered as his hand reached for the doorknob. I had become invaluable to him so quickly. When he looked up at me as though he had completely forgotten my existence. Until he winked, mouthinggood luck before slipping out the door and closing it behind him.

Then it was the two of us, just like it had been in my room before she drugged me, and in the dark pit that I had become prisoner in. Briar and I were alone, but this time felt different.

I was confident it would be the last time.

My lack of hope dropped in my stomach like a rock. If this was the end, I would drag it out for all its worth.

“Since we last saw each other it has become painfully obvious that you have a way with losing the men you spend time with. Tarron, well, we both know how that turned out. That Hunter left the room without much effort. And Erix, oh yes, I heard all about him. What a terrible thing to lose your last living relative to the same hands which had been all over you. There is something both tragic and poetic about it.”

Bile crept up my throat, burning with every inch. “If you are here to point out my terrible taste in men then I fear you are not getting paid enough.”

“Oh, believe me, the price offered for you is handsome. Doran is keen to see you dead.”

“A sentiment we share,” I said. Then I ran. Not to Briar, but away from her, towards a side door around the edge of the bed. She sprung after me, leaping over furniture, fingers grappling air to get a hold of my shirt.

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