Free Shattered Assassin by Wendy Knight

hurt. Every time she spoke to him, her heart hurt. She desperately wanted to make it stop, but she didn’t know how. So instead, she stripped out of her wet clothes and scrubbed her hair with a towel, trying to wring out the blond curls before she piled it on top of her head, out of the way. The bath Crystali promised waited by the fire, and she sank into the steaming water, finally warm enough to stop shivering. Just before she fell asleep and drowned herself, she escaped from the bath and got dressed, curling up in her armchair. She closed her eyes and relived her race through the forest.
    For those moments, she was free.
    Outside, the storm raged, thunder roiling so loud she could barely hear Luke yelling in the hallway.

CHAPTER SEVEN

    F INALLY, FINALLY, IT WAS TIME to move. The storm made the assassin uncomfortable, but the noise it made couldn’t have come at a better time. She stuck her blades in the coils of her hair, surveying the rest of her weapons. Which one would make the least mess? She didn’t relish the thought of being covered in blood. Wind and rain raged around her, making the limbs of her tree knock against the windows of the estate. If she believed in ghosts, she would say the dead had come back to exact their own revenge. But she didn’t believe in ghosts, and the only one who could be trusted to exact anything was her. A dark, cruel smile lit up her pale features.
    She moved like a wraith through the shadows of the big house. Near the Princess’s door, several guards stood watch and she was glad that wasn’t her target. There would be no getting past the Captain of the Guard.
    Even now he stood resolutely, his eyes scanning the dark hallway for threats. She moved past that floor and up one more, sliding through the darkness as the shadows claimed her as their own.
    Lady Kristina had only one guard, but he wasn’t standing at his post. Instead, he was entertaining his mistress inside her room. The assassin frowned, disgusted. Lord Jeffery had been gone mere hours. She paused at the door, weighing her options. The guard inside certainly complicated matters. Disgusting as he was, she didn’t wish him harm — he was an innocent with no blood on his hands to pay for. With no other option, she stepped back into the shadows and waited, pulling a blade from her hair to use on her fingernails.
    Fortunately, it wasn’t a long wait. She had just finished cleaning under the nails of her left hand when the door cracked open. The guard risked a glance up and down the hall before he scampered away like vermin, letting the door swing shut behind him. The assassin’s small foot shot out, catching it before it clicked shut.
    Lady Kristina was so sure she was safe in this big expensive estate, so sure that the only threat was the one she posed — to the Princess.
    She was so, so very wrong.
    “Come, Nakomi.”
    Kazia drew her blade across her hand, waiting as blood swelled and pooled in her palm. Then she smeared it across her chest and stomach, like her mother’s wounds. She trailed blood from her eyes and the corners of her mouth, drawing from the image of her mother’s lifeless body that hadn’t left Kazia’s mind since that night. Not even for a second. Kristina wanted ghosts? Kazia could give her ghosts. Nakomi slunk through the shadows after her as she edged the door open and slid inside, turning the lock with a small click. Slowly, oh so slowly, tore the pins from her hair and dropped them on the hard floors. Clink clink clink.
    “Boyd? Is that you? I asked you to leave.” Lady Kristina’s arrogance grated on Kazia’s ears and made her teeth ache. She moaned, low but just loud enough that Lady Kristina paused in the next room.
    “Who’s there?” she whispered, holding her candle high. Kazia slid back into the shadows, welcoming them as they folded around her, keeping her invisible. The light at Kristina’s hand rattled. She screamed as thunder exploded outside her window, and another bolt