-3-

Kade had left without so much as another word. Elle waited a few minutes, pacing across the length of her room. It was perfectly within her rights to try and do Mikel a favour and persuade him to drop her from whatever experiment they were holding.

Luckily enough, she ran into the man in one of the lower hallways. He raised his brows, crossing his arms against her onslaught of accusations. "Why am I not surprised you aren't in bed?" Mikel drawled.

"What in all ungodly hells is this teams business?" Elle didn't pause for breath."The killings last year happened as a result of forcing assassins to work together. We can't trust anyone, let alone work alongside them."

Mikel didn't so much as flinch as spittle landed on his expensive clothing. "It will work."

Elle cast her eyes to the ceiling, "oh-ho! Am I the only one here with a shred of coherency? In the months I've been gone you've all gone mad!"

"This is what the Order needs. Far bigger calculations and planning are being done over your head, little girl." Mikel stared her down, and as much as she hated to—she retreated. Wicked eyes glinting, he placed a finger on his chin, pondering.

"Frankly you don't have a choice. We hold your fate as long as the contract stands. Unless...suppose you relinquish your title as one of our top assassins—a title, need I remind you, that you fought tooth and nail for—and be sent back to paperwork jobs in some rotting guild? Fine by me."

Eyes flashing, Elle curled her hands into fists and let her sharpened nails bite into her palms. Mikel was having fun goading her. She bit her cheek hard to dissolve the bubbling anger, managing to force out, "I didn't know there was paperwork with assassinations."

He ignored her snarky comment, stepping out of her warpath. "Your first team meeting is at dawn tomorrow. Be there. We only have one shot at this."

The man was infuriating. As he passed she stuck out her foot for him to trip over, rather childish but she couldn't help herself. Mikel didn't smash his nose into the ground, instead before she could register his movements he shoved her into the stone wall.

A zinging pain shot from her shoulder as she toppled backwards. It made darkness cloud her vision for a moment as she slid down the wall onto her ass. That was where he left her with a mere "make sure that shoulder heals" before striding off. The assassin tried rolling out her shoulder but the wound she had bound earlier protested. Cursing, she made her way back to her chambers, head held high.

#

The cool relief of her sheets after weeks away was a welcome sensation, a greeting from her little rooms. However, the assassin couldn't get comfortable with her aching shoulder. Morning came sooner than expected.

Elle woke gasping, tangled in her bedsheets. Brushing back the hair plastered to her forehead, she rolled over and found the other side of the bed vacant. Pinching her nose, she swung her feet out of the covers, wiggling her toes on the freezing floor.

"Nightmares," she pinched her arm, then cracked open a window. Leaning out, she let the morning wind stir her messy hair, observing the slums beginning to wake.

Night women kicked their men to the street with a peck on the cheek and their mumbled promise to return. Sellers trundling their wares over cobbles to the livelier parts of Eryan, oblivious to the hidden pickpockets eyeing their carts. Streams of rising sunlight basked half her face in its weak glow.

Then the carriages would leave the bigger manors, the rich ferrying their children to tutoring and the men striding off to work. Once the main hubbub of chaos had crept back, the snake slithered back into its hole. Observing and analysing things had become second nature.

Her fingers probed the cracks beside the window. Elle hoisted herself out and shuffled to the rusting ladder on the side of the building. Clambering her way up, the rungs creaked more than usual. One of these days it's going to break under my weight.

Perched at the top, she tilted her face up to the lightening sky. Her limbs were leaden, her shoulder throbbing. Burying her face in her hands, she pressed a finger to her temple.

Gods, how did she get into this mess?

Mikel's outstanding idea to reintroduce multiple assassins on a mission was going to cost them dearly. It made for bigger targets, more chance of discovery and liability. Fourteen months ago the idea was abolished after DETRA's slaughter of the Order's finest assassins.

Betrayal cost them their lives.

If there was anything Elle had learnt; people can't be trusted. DETRA can't be trusted.

Just when she had figured out her future, something crumples it up into a paper ball, smudging the lines until letters swam and became illegible. A few weeks after the killings she had finally grown tired of all the whispers and sympathy; being treated like a ticking bomb liable to explode. It wasn't entirely her fault that Ravaryn ended up buried in someone's chest.

Last she'd heard the agent picking a fight with her recovered fine. Unsurprisingly, she wasn't welcome in the barracks anymore.

"You can't put it off any longer." Elle murmured aloud. She knew all too well that if she refused, Elle wouldn't be pushing paper. She was expendable. As soon as her worth tarnished she'd be destroyed. She couldn't end her life knowing she let the shadow of her past get away with his crimes against her. Revenge was due. 

(edited)