Page 92 of Forgotten Fate
“The current King of Rimor, Callum, has a daughter. Princess Aurelia. She is your next target.” He nodded his head, indicating I could speak.
“How old is she?” I asked.
“Nineteen. Nearly twenty.”
So not a small child. Thank the gods.
“Her high profile is what makes this job more difficult?” I continued.
“In a way. She is very heavily protected. The king does not let hergo anywhere without protection, even in their own home.”
Hm. So she was a prisoner like me, in her own way.
“How do you want her death?” I asked, as I had done so many times before.
“Quick and silent,” the king answered. “I want no trace that you were ever there.”
A clean kill. Thatwasdifficult.
Volund continued. “With his daughter’s unexpected death, the king will crumble.”
I raised a brow. “Why not just kill the king?”
Volund’s face fell in anger, but Sarai was the one who spoke. “Don’t question your master, you dog. You do what he says, when he says.”
Volund raised a hand to silence her, and the witch immediately shut her mouth. She acted completely under his control, even though I knew that she was just as lethal as I was, with capabilities far beyond that of a mere human.
I had no idea why she worked for them – what sort of things they promised her. But I knew she was exiled from our homeland nearly a century before the rebellion, for killing her lover, a fellow witch, in a jealous rage. Perhaps the Sprathian king of the time of her exile promised her revenge, or made a deal with her, only for her to be forced to work for them and their successors.
But then when Volund took the throne, she formed an unhealthy obsession with him. Gods knew why. Maybe because his soul was as black as hers. He was the worst of the kings yet, by far. Other poor souls he threw into the dungeon – ones who never survived long – told me of the things he did to his people. Whipping them for speaking out of turn. Hanging entire families for not being able to afford his insane taxes. He was the epitome of evil.
“I need the king alive for reasons that do not concern you,” Volund sneered.
“How long do I have?”
“With the task being more difficult than your usual assignment, I will give you a few weeks.”
A few weeks of freedom. “When do I leave for Rimor?”
“Now. You’ll have enough time for the wolfsbane to leave your system by the time you reach the Stone City.”
He was right. Since I was only ingesting the poison through food, it wouldn’t be long before it left my body. It was when it was in my bloodstream that it could take much longer to dissipate.
“My warriors will give you a pack with enough items to last for a short while. Sarai will check in when I order her to. If you are not back in a few weeks, you know what will happen.”
I watched as a sinister smile spread on Sarai’s face, and I only gave her a death-glare in return. She was the sole reason I was trapped in this cycle. Maybe someday I would have my revenge.
I reached Rimor, but found it more difficult than I imagined to get to my target. Volund was not lying when he said the Rimorian King kept a tight leash on her. Whenever she was out in public, which was rare, she was surrounded by a fucking squadron of soldiers. So much so that I couldn’t even see her face. And I couldn’t kill the guards to get to her. My orders were to make a silent kill and leave no trace. So I decided to scope out the castle instead and find a way in. Killing her in her sleep seemed like the best option for an inconspicuous death.
It took a few nights to memorize the patterns of the guards outside Rimor Castle – when they had shift changes, how many guards walked which perimeters at what time, and so on. Once I had it down, I scaled the castle walls until I found an open window that Icould slip through.
The window appeared to lead to a kitchen. My inhuman sense of smell could tell something had been burnt earlier that day. They must have opened a window to waft out the smell and forgot to close it. Once in, I made my way through the halls, hiding in the shadows as guards passed.
The castle was like a damned maze, and I had to find the princess’s bedroom before the sun rose. After over an hour of searching, I began to smell a new scent – something that seemed sweet, delicate and…familiar. I followed it, more out of my own curiosity than anything. I scaled the twisted steps towards the top of the castle and was lucky to find that the scent led to her bedchambers. I knew it was hers because multiple guards were posted at its door. Of fucking course. I hoped I was lucky enough that her bedroom had a window I could get to from the outside.
That would end up taking another hour of searching. I went back out the kitchen window to scale the castle walls from the outside, shifting my nails into claws to dig into the castle stone. I checked window after window, room after room. There were so fucking many of them. But finally, I began to smell that sweet scent again, coming from high above me on the east side of the castle. I saw the window it had to be coming from, the one near the top of the tower, and climbed towards the strange, intoxicating scent. Whatever she had in there smelled immaculate.
I scaled the walls higher, propelling upwards with strength and speed no human could replicate. The scent grew stronger as I got closer to her window, and I was eager to figure out what it was. To my surprise, her window was cracked open slightly and I gently pushed it open further so I could enter. I finally made my way into her bedroom which was barely lit by a few candles. I didn’t need them, as my lycan eyes had the ability to see in the dark. I saw her form asleep underher covers, her face covered as she tossed and turned like she was having a nightmare.