Whispers and Shadows

Chapter 1

Blue

They’d come to kill me. They had clearly prepared, and trained, and taken every step they knew to take in order to end my life.

I smirked.

I was flanked by a group of five assassins, and they had flushed me deep into an alleyway, where all hope of escape was near-impossible.

But it was clear to me these hired goons had no idea who they’d been sent to take down. I snorted as I moved deeper into the shadows, quickly glancing at the only point of egress: a narrow crawl space that funneled out to another alleyway. I knew these grimy, cobblestoned streets like the back of my hand.

If they were smart, they’d have guards posted there.

But I could sense no other souls about. I muttered a spell and masked my face with magic, ensuring that anyone who gazed upon me would never fully recall what I looked like. Then I slowly and very intentionally withdrew the poison-tipped silver hairpins holding my pale blue hair in place.

It tumbled like a wave around my shoulders.

“Alright, boys,” I said fearlessly, with a slight note of humor in it, “who’s ready to meet their maker first? Hm?”

They came at me, all of them at once, moving with the grace and agility of trained fighters. My pulse didn’t even jump.

Moving like a blur, I grazed the first hand grabbing for me, then plunged a pin into the thigh of another attacker. He tried to scream, but the sound choked in his throat. The hairpins weren’t tipped with just any poison: they’d been dipped in the blood of a light priestess. And for these dark fae assassins, just a tiny scratch was enough to turn their hearts to stone and their lungs to dust.

Two down. I tossed the now useless hairpins aside.

The other three hesitated for the briefest of moments, and I laughed in spite of myself. It was only when I killed that I felt truly free.

Their frozen state didn’t last but a mere blink in time, but it was enough for me to retrieve the switch knife tucked into my bra. Then one of them was on me, and I had to roll in order to wrench free of the fingers clutching at my thin neck.

I was behind the black-clad figure in an instant. I was much shorter, and weighed at least half as much as he did. That problem was quickly rectified when I kicked his knee, knocking him off-balance before I sliced my blade through his neck.

Fountains of blood sprayed out, wetting my hands. I shoved him off me.

Two left.

One managed a kidney shot before I could escape his grasp. I gasped, sucking in a shaky breath; I might be good, but a kidney blow freaking hurt and I was seeing stars. This was probably the time to start making my escape. I spun and dashed for the narrow crawl space I’d spotted earlier, but their movements were swift, much faster than I’d anticipated.

They just had to attack right after a job, I thought. My magic was running low, and I didn’t want to drain myself completely dry. I’d never felt more human in my life.

Spotting a large stone ahead, I altered course, diving and reaching it just as I felt hands reach for me.

I poured my light magic into it, then spun and lobbed it with all my might toward the assassin diving for me. Their head crunched violently, but their now-lifeless body still landed on me.

Breath left me on impact, fire ripped through my lungs, but the body on top of me didn’t move. The worst part was I’d lost my blade when I’d been tackled; I’d heard its clatter as it’d fallen.

I didn’t need to wonder where the final attacker was. Because suddenly the body was flung off me, and though I rolled, I felt the tip of a sword slice right down my thigh.

I grunted, spasming with an involuntary convulsion.

The pain had not quite registered yet, though I already felt its burn working through me.I tried getting to my feet, but my left leg didn’t want to bear my weight.

The masked assailant suddenly threw off its black mask and I was met with the blue-eyed glare of an enraged dark fae male.

A man I knew quite well.

A man I’d fought alongside. I knew everyone in the Wolf Knights order well from years of fighting alongside them. The shock of seeing his face now caused me to drop my magical shield, revealing my face to him fully.

“Jhon?” I blinked, feeling suddenly cold and unsure.

He slowly began to walk toward me. I moved with him, keeping him in front of me at all times.

“Why? Why are you here?”

Still, he said nothing, just gave me a cold, penetrative stare.

Father’s Wolf Knights were his most loyal guardsmen. His best warriors, sworn to his service alone.

I blinked, wondering about the other four bodies behind me. Who had they been? I felt suddenly cold, and the ache of my wound was starting to make its presence felt.

“Jhon, step down.”

A chill snaked down my spine at the deep, accented voice behind me. The tenor was full-bodied. Smooth. Like a fine wine that’d been aged several years.

It was the voice of power.

It was the voice of the lower realm’s Prince of the South.

It was my father’s voice.

I turned.

“Fath—”

The flash of his hand and the glint of silver was all I saw before I felt the blade gut me from belly button to sternum. I felt the fire of rending muscle, sinew, and cartilage. Then finally I felt the steel stop, but not before it brushed over my heart.

I coughed. The pain was exquisite; I gasped, clutching onto his hand and holding him fast to me. I knew that the moment when he pulled that blade free would hurt ten times worse.

Time seemed to slow. I saw every flash of emotion cross his aristocratic face: cruel calculation, disdain, perhaps even a pinch of regret.

Then he pulled free and I dropped like a stone, watching as my guts spilled out like some macabre fleshy waterfall at his feet.

My hands weakly lifted toward my father, as if they could shield me or he could help me. And all I could was, “What had I done wrong?”

“Blue,” he said, diverting my thoughts. Then he knelt, his lavender eyes sparkling the way only a fae’s in moonlight could. He gazed at me thoughtfully. His thick mahogany hair was pulled back, and his horns were out.

I trembled.

He tsked. “Blue, you know I didn’t want to do this.”

His cajoling tone almost made me cry. I could feel the heat trapped in my throat. Because there was no way my Father, the man I’d long admired and wanted to emulate, had betrayed me in such a vile manner. There was no way. I was his right hand. His daughter. His Whispers and Shadows.

I gasped, finding it hard to speak.

Then his fingers were digging into my chin, holding tight, making me cry out for the first time in a century.

He cocked his head. “Is that emotion I spy?” He asked, almost sounding pleased. “And here I thought my daughter had none.”

I coughed, and again it felt like the fires of hell ripped through me. “Wh…why?”

“Well,” he sighed, “you know too much, don’t you?”

I shook my head as I felt the first of the quicksilver tears spill down my face. “I would never…I lo—”

He wrinkled his nose. “Let’s not speak such nonsense. We both know it wasn’t love that kept you chained to me like a dog.”

He was wrong. He was so wrong. If Father truly believed that then he’d never truly known me at all. I’d always told him I loved him. And he’d always just laughed and waved me off.

“You’re wrong. Everything I did, every soul I took, every person I killed was all. For. You.”

He snorted, releasing his grip on me. “Love does not exist, girl. And yet I’m unsurprised you cling to that ridiculous notion considering who your mother was.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. I’d committed all manner of atrocity in the name of love alone. To prove to him that I would never betray him. That I would be the one person he could always count on.

I’d thought I’d finally proven it to him. After all these years of loyalty, I thought he had realized I would do anything. Everything for him.

“I…I killed my brother for you,” I choked. “In his crib—!”

“It was for the good of the realm,” he said. “You should be proud, though; no one else could have done it like you did.”

“You made me into a monster.”

“No, Blue,” he said, smiling almost as if he was sad to say it. “You did that all by yourself.”

A terrible sound spilled off my tongue.

“You’re a loose thread. You know it’s nothing personal, right?” Then he reached into his black vest and withdrew a single long-stemmed rose covered in thorns.He tossed it at my head.

“If it’s any consolation, you secured the throne for me. You should feel good about that.”

Then he stood and dusted off his pants. He snapped his fingers for Jhon to follow, then turned and walked away.

My vision was going dark. It was already blurry. If I’d been human at all I’d be dead already. There wasn’t much blood in my body, and my heart had stopped beating a long time ago.

Nothing but light magic sustained me, and I could feel that failing rapidly.

I thought of that night, the one night that’d changed my life forever. Through dark magics and forbidden spells I traveled to kill my brother, my twin.

A prophecy, Father had said. One written in the stars. I’d had no choice if I wanted “good” to prevail.

I snorted.

And then I laughed.The movement was excruciating.

That bastard should never have betrayed me.

“One last time,” I whispered into the chilly night. “You can have my soul, Death, but let me fix this. Please, let me fix this.”

I dipped my finger into my blood and wrote my spell. The only way to travel in time was to sacrifice a soul. This time I would sacrifice my own.

I laughed and laughed as I shakily inscribed the deadliest of spells, and with my final breath I paid the piper his due. My last thought was a plea to the universe that my memories, my knowledge, my hate would somehow travel to the past,and somehow I wouldn’t make the same choice this time. Then a flash of terrible light consumed me.

I screamed and I screamed and I screamed.