Free Two-Faced (Assassin at Court Series Book 1) by Nia Davenport Page A

Anthame’s future Queen clear.  Soon, it would be impossible to keep my deception going. Once selected, a proclamation would go out across the kingdom. Whoever contracted me to kill Zander would know immediately that I had gotten close enough to the Prince to make the kill. I would then be forced to show my hand. I obviously was not going to kill, but I now realized I could no longer simply disappear without an explanation either. Once it was clear I was not going to complete the contract, the Assassin’s Guild would send someone else to kill Zander, and probably me out of spite. It would not be as clean and as untraceable as whoever took out the contract originally wanted, but if he wanted the Prince dead as badly as I suspected he did, then he would make an exception. The only option I had left was to come clean about everything. I needed to tell Zander what I was and the real reason I was at the palace. My fate would then be in his and the King’s hands. I would be executed for treason, but I was willing to accept that over the alternative: save my own skin by fleeing the palace without revealing the truth and leaving Zander vulnerable to a threat he was not aware of.
    Resigned to my fate I parted my lips to confess my deceit, but a small, hyperactive voice interrupted me.
    “Zander, is it time to go yet?!” Kiera bounced up and down excitedly.
    I eyed him questioningly.
    “I promised her she could go riding with us today. I hope you don’t mind?” he said in an apologetic tone.
    Was he kidding? She was his little sister. It would be selfish beyond all reason for me to have a problem with her spending time with us.
    “I don’t mind at all,” I assured him. “But you and Kiera should go out alone today. I am sure she misses having you all to herself?”
    The hopeful look that crossed Kiera’s face confirmed it.
    Zander thought I stayed behind out of thoughtfulness. He was correct, but not in the manner he assumed. It was me trying to place distance between myself and the two of them. I was telling Zander the truth the very next time I had a moment alone with him. My time with him was up, and there was no use dragging it out any farther. Any additional moments we spent together would only twist the knife deeper I was about to drive in both of our hearts.
     
     
     
     
    I returned to my room to a folded piece of paper sitting on my bedside table. A sick feeling started in my stomach and grew as I unfolded it and read the short, concise words printed on it:
    Be outside the palace walls at sunset.

Chapter 21
     
    I crouched behind a bush outside the eastern edges of the palace walls and waited. I purposely arrived half an hour before sundown. I did not like the idea of walking into an unknown situation. I wanted to see whoever I was meeting arrive before they saw me. A warm body pressed against me from behind as a rough hand slid closed over my mouth to keep me from screaming. I bit down hard on the offending flesh and my assailant released me with a startled jerk.
    “Gods damn, Skyler, did you have to bite me?”
    I spun around and faced the person behind the familiar voice. “Kade!” I said in surprise. I did not think he would hurt me, but I held my knife at the ready nonetheless.
    A fellow guild member and my kind-of-sometimes-boyfriend grinned at me from ear to ear. “Put the knife down babe. You and I both know this face is too pretty maul. You would never forgive yourself.”
    I rolled my eyes. “I think I would manage,” I said through clenched teeth. “What the hell are you doing here?”
    His expression immediately turned sour as if the words he were about to say were being forced out of him against his will. “Delivering a message.”
    “About what?”
    “You know what.”
    “From who?” I probed.
    “You know I can’t tell you that.” He actually looked as if he regretted not being able to. Kade was a part of the Guild, but he was no killer for hire. Instead he worked as a go between