Page 19 of Decoy

I was about to pursue her when the shadows gently nudged me in the direction where I retrieved the foreign blade from the assailant’s throw. I sensed they’d rendered their assistance with the utmost reluctance, their displeasure at my ignoring the opportunity to seize the blood they craved. I’d study this weapon later. For now, I had a princess to catch.

Before I could wonder at my reasoning I was already following the princess, urgency guiding my movements—not to hurt but to protect. Saving her life went entirely against my mission; even so, the moment I drew close enough, I seized hold of her and hid us in a nearby passageway my previous careful study of the palace’s layout had made effortless to find.

She immediately flailed in an attempt to escape, but her frantic wriggling about felt more like a kitten playing rather than inflicting any actual harm. Her presence felt suffocating and my skin tingled where I touched her, distractions that made it difficult to concentrate enough to search the darkness outside our hiding place in order to detect whether or not the coast was clear.

I was forced to rely on the investigations conducted by the shadows guarding the corridor.The assailant is far away. Disappointment filled their report that without his death there would be nothing to sate their relentless appetite. They’d likely punish me later, but in this moment I could only worry about the princess.

The darkness shrouding the alcove masked her features, but once we stepped outside they were illuminated by the moonlight bathing the hallway. My memory hadn’t done her beauty justice, though it was more than her looks that seduced me but also the fire filling her eyes and the bravery guiding our spar of words that drew my interest like a blade to its target.

It took me considerable effort to push these distracting thoughts away; the more appealing I found my mark, the more difficult it’d be to go in for the kill…yet try as I might, I couldn’t force my hand to inch close enough to my weapon to do the deed.

What’s wrong with me?

This question haunted me as I had my usual fun in teasing her, something I took greater pleasure in than when I usually toyed with my targets. Even after I’d let her go, I revisited our interaction several times until the shadows’ deafening disapproval could no longer be ignored; it burned against my skin with each of its forceful words slithering through my thoughts.

How could you let her go?

Dread coiled around my reminiscences, tainting their precious light with the darkness brought by my failure to press around me along with the surrounding night: I’d not only rescued her but hadlet her go. The former I could easily explain away as my pride in being the one to kill her, but thelatter?

I scrambled for the nearest excuse to explain away my foolishness:I need her alive in order to access what I came here for.

Yet the rationalization felt weak against the shadows’ fury, an emotion I knew would only escalate should the curse learnwhyI wanted to search the forbidden tomes. Though I was loath to admit it, deep down I knew that seeking the princess’s assistance had merely been an excuse to appease my strange reluctance to murder her, one far more acute than my reservations during my prior missions.

The shadows dismissed my reasoning, as I knew they would.The royal tomes are not part of the mission and are thus irrelevant.

True, but they were part ofmine. My lingering desperation for the information they contained drew me back to where I’d spent the earlier part of the evening before encountering my rather alluring distraction. Unfortunately, the passage of time hadn’t solved the riddle of how to get past the lock faithfully guarding this section of the palace library, but at least it provided a much less aggravating puzzle than that of my unexplainable motives towards Her Highness.

The labyrinth of shelves twisted towards the back, where the door leading to the forbidden volumes awaited me. At first glance, the lock appeared entirely ordinary save for the faint enchanted glimmer surrounding it, which could only be manipulated by a wielder of magic…such as the princess.

I experimentally felt around the lock without directly touching it, my current state of distraction leaving me in no mood to engage with the guards the enchantment would summon, especially when the shadows’ prickling annoyance led me to doubt they’d offer their usual assistance.

The force surrounding the lock pulsed with energy far more intense than that protecting the royal armory, which unfortunately meant I wouldn’t be able to rely on my usual tricks to breach it, leaving me wholly reliant on the dangerous minx who refused to abandon my thoughts. I tried to ignore the part of me that was secretly pleased by any excuse to seek her out.

The shadows suddenly shifted as they often did when an intruder was near, this time alerting me to a much more familiar presence. I calmly faced this new arrival and found Malik leaning lazily against a nearby bookshelf, his curious gaze focused on the lock.

“With how much effort you’re expending, I hope for your sake that the princess is hiding behind that door.”

Only years of careful training prevented the guilt brought by his words from manifesting on my stoic expression. “The information this place contains is of far greater worth than even the princess’s life.” I couldn’t explainwhy,lest the eavesdropping shadows learn of my true purpose and interfere. “I expected you to arrive sooner or later. Did Father send you?” How I hoped he hadn’t.

To my relief, Malik shook his head. “Luckily for you, I came on my own accord to warn you: with the reputation you’ve supposedly built, His Grace expected to learn of your success within hours of your arrival…yet it’s been an entire day and the princess still lives.”

I had no explanation. I’d been alone with Her Highness several times and allowed her to escape each one, and though her title had remained a mystery during our first interaction, I’d been fully aware of her identity in the ones that had followed. If anyone else had been sent in my place she’d have been dead within hours—perhaps mere minutes if Father had been the one after her—yet she still breathed.

At my extended self-deprecating silence, pity softened Malik’s expression. “Would you like me to do it?” Surely he would, so quickly the princess would never see another dawn.

An inexplicable wave of aversion seared through me. “No!” The wrenched protest echoed through the still night and caused the shadows to stir restlessly. Malik lifted a puzzled brow and I desperately scrambled for any excuse. “I can’t rely on you forever. If I have any hope of living up to my family’s legacy, I must be the one to perform the deed.”

When I’d accepted this mission, I’d done so with the understanding that I wouldn’t be able to rely on my friend’s usual assistance. Even if I accepted his offer, I doubted Malik’s kill would be enough to satisfy the curse; it sought more than the princess’s blood—it wanted control over my heart, which meant it wouldn’t be appeased with the murder happening by any hand other than my own.

Malik sighed. “I know itshouldbe you, but the mission is too delicate for your usual…sensitivitiesto interfere.”

That was a generous way to refer to my pathetic weakness. “I’ll manage. I’ve already tried to poison her.” A weak attempt, but an attempt nonetheless, which was more than could be said for my previous missions.

“Poison?” Malik seemed to school his expression only through great effort rather than laugh at me like he was undoubtedly tempted to do. “I suppose such an unconventional method is better than nothing, especially considering it creates a possibility that illness claimed her rather than that an assassin was involved.”

He extended far more grace than my pathetic effort deserved. Murder via poison would be an insult to the Shadow name after the reputation prior generations had built, one elaborate kill at a time. Yet in the end our reputation mattered very little, so long as the curse’s demands remained sated.

I met Malik’s gaze, this time with greater determination. “I will kill her.” Ihadto.

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