Page 25 of Court of Lies and Deceit

Pulling myself together, I quickly point towards the window two rooms away where I can feel a person standing and staring anxiously out the window.

Draven nods. Sliding out a knife from his belt, he starts in that direction. I follow him. Once we reach the right room, I motion towards the door. With very slow and careful movements, Draven pushes down the handle while I flood Danzo’s chest with so much worry that he shouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything else.

The door opens to reveal a neat study. And there, standing with his back to us and staring out a window, is a fae man matching the exact description we got from the Unseelie King. Danzo’s red hair is illuminated by the fire that still rages outside the window, and his tall and slim body is tense as he grips the windowsill before him.

“Hey,” Draven says.

Danzo whips around.

I only have time to see that his face matches the drawing we received.

Then a white bolt of lightning hits him straight in the heart.

His eyes widen for a second, and his body begins spasming violently. Then his knees buckle and he crashes down on the ground. I quickly cut off my magic so that the guards will no longer be distracted by their worry, but they apparently didn’t hear the thuds from Danzo’s body, because none of them start moving in our direction.

“Well, he’s dead,” Draven announces while watching the guy lie there and stare unseeing up at the pale stone ceiling. Then he turns to me. “Are they coming?”

I throw my magic across the house again, but those smalls sparks of worry are only moving back to their previous positions.

“No,” I reply. Then I glance down at the blade in Draven’s hand, which he unsheathed but never actually used. “What’s with the knife?”

“It’s for dramatic effect when we get caught.”

A laugh escapes my chest. Raising my eyebrows, I give him a dubious look. “Seriously?”

“Yes. When people hear the word assassination, they most often think about someone getting their throat slit.” He shrugs. “So I’m just making sure that these people understand that this was in fact an assassination.”

I let out another soft chuckle and shake my head. “Go signal to the others where we are. I’ll make sure the guards are coming.”

While Draven walks over to the window and shoves it open, I hurry to the pale wooden bookshelf by the door. Grabbing the ceramic pot on the middle shelf, I unceremoniously throw it down on the ground while reaching out with my magic towards the yellow-green sparks of suspicion.

The pot crashes down on the stone floor at the same time as Draven shoots a small bolt of lightning out the window.

I push with my magic at the guards’ suspicion. It flares up in their chests, but to my surprise, they don’t start moving in our direction. I scowl. They’re probably just suspicious about who started the fire. Not the crash from the pot. Did they seriously not hear it?

With a sigh of annoyance, I grab the bookcase by the side.

And then I yank the whole thing forward.

It topples like a felled tree.

A loud bang echoes through the entire house as it hits the stone floor.

Draven turns to me and arches an eyebrow. “Subtle.”

“Shut up,” I huff.

He chuckles.

Those sparks of suspicion that I’m increasing finally start running in our direction.

I grin. “They’re coming.”

“Alright, get to the window and get ready.”

While I dart across the room and position myself right in front of the now open window, Draven drags our already dead target over to the toppled bookshelf so that it will look like it happened during the struggle. Then he positions himself behind the dead guy and lifts Danzo’s chest up from the floor a little so that he can place the knife against his throat from behind.

Footsteps thud against the floor outside the door.

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