Free The Assassin Princess (The Legacy Novels Book 1) by Blake Rivers

clear, a girl with long brown hair and deep brown eyes. You looked out from the pool at me and lifted a brush to a canvas I couldn’t see.”
    The image of her filled the pool, floating upon its red-tinged surface like a portal into Ami’s world. She watched herself walk through the flat, a place that felt but a dream, filled with familiar things she’d treasured not so long ago: the sofa her parents had given her, a pile of magazines she’d collected by the side of it; the scarf she’d had since childhood; her music player and ear buds—never leave home without them—all these things that made her feel homesick, yet were somehow detached and far away, like photos in an album, fond memories of a past life.
    “I watched as you wandered through your flat, unaware of eyes watching you, unaware of another layer to your world, and I, unaware of you. I grasped the sword, meaning to rip it from the pool. But then voices came, filling the cave, filling my ears. I released my grip and the voices stopped. I gripped the sword again and the cave echoed with deep, thundering voices. I loosened my grip, and the voices quietened, allowing me to make out the words being said.”
    Ami heard them fading in as if tuned on a radio.
    “…could not be anyone else,” a voice declared.
    “It’s not in dispute, we can all read her, feel her, but she doesn’t know,” said a second.
    “It’s not our business. None of it is. Whether she knows, doesn’t know—the horn was stolen, our kind murdered,” a third voice.
    “And we should allow a whole people to suffer because of one’s act, thousands of years before?”
    “It is not our business, Xavier. Leave her be.”
    “Can you—can you feel that?” the second voice said. “I sense a presence. We three are the only counselling, are we not?”
    “We shouldn’t be interfering, I tell you, it’s their time to die out.”
    “I can feel it,” the first voice, Xavier said, “and I overrule you, Tantor. We must send one to Legacy to show what we’ve seen, to tell the captain of their Guard and bring him to action. We must help their kind continue to prosper, for they are the continuity of our fallen brother of ages past. The girl is in danger, and we must act.”
    “Yes,” the second one said, his voice calm and dreamy, “I can sense him. It’s a man. It’s the missing son of Legacy. He can hear us, and now he knows about the girl—I feel his anger, and yes, she is in danger.”
    The voices faded away, and Adam spoke.
    “I was angry, indeed. I saw you, and then knew you for who you were. You were the daughter of Graeme, and I was to have you. I pulled the sword from the pool and slashed into the vision with the blade. I was to find you and bring you to me.”
    Ami watched as he rose, pulling the sword from the water. Her image still floated upon it, and Adam’s blade cut through it, splitting the layers of the world, creating a blossoming white portal, spilling ribbons and sparkles of light.
    He jumped into it and the cave went dark, the set changing. The light returned, the fire blazing in its hearth, and the room came back as before. Ami tried to stand, but Adam pushed her down, green flames igniting on his hand, travelling to her shoulder and down her arm, into her skin. Ami shuddered—something changed within her.
    He sat opposite once more. “I was rash, filled with jealousy and anger. You lived, and were to be brought to our layer, into our world, to take your place in Legacy—to take my place in Legacy! I stepped out of the ripped layer, and into your world, and the rest you know. Except for one thing.”
    Adam knelt in front of her, his hands on the arms of the chair. His eyes were hypnotic, his red lips pulled tight in a terrible leer. Ami’s stomach churned with revulsion and fear, the want to run, scream, break back through the mirror to her own life; but there was a growing part of her, a strong part that was getting stronger every second. That part of her