Chapter The Assassin

She awoke just as the sun was beginning to rise, darkness still predominantly covering the room. The hair on the back of her neck had risen and the Princess had a distinct feeling of uneasiness. She threw the sheets off of her and stood up swiftly blinking rapidly to adjust to the darkness. She had left the balcony doors open, she realized and breathed out a soft sigh of relief. The breeze must have woken her, she thought as she crossed the room and shut the doors.

There was a soft noise hardly more than a muffled hum and instinctively Amira ducked. A staff swung over her where her head had been not second before and her eyes widened in surprise. She pushed off the ground and lunged rolling to her left before springing to her feet once more eyes flaring violet fully shifting to see clearly in the dark. A staff spun around in the hands of a dark figure, their face and body obscured by a black bodysuit.

“Where’s the Prince,” a distinctly female voice asked, taking a threatening step forwards. Amira had cornered herself, the chain had wrapped around the bed frame in such a way that she only had steps left to move.

“Not here,” Amira answered, attempting to buy time. “Who are you? What do you want?” she demanded attempting to pull some strength in her voice. The woman smiled sinisterly, “What do you think I want?” She took a step forward and Amira took another backward. “Unfortunate that his highness had to be playing with a beautiful innocent thing like you,” she tsk’ed “you see, I can’t let you live, you’ve seen me, and well, some very important people paid me handsomely to tie up their loose ends, and you darling now fit that category.”

This one certainly liked to talk, Amira thought as she backed another step and ran into the desk behind her. She couldn’t yell for Rollo, the assassin would be on her before she had the time. Her hands wrapped around the top of the chair behind her back as an idea sprung to life. The assassin pulled a dagger out of her waistline, “We can do this the hard way, or the easy way. Your choice,” she offered as an equally dark smile lit up the Princess’s face.

“You don’t know who I am,” She purred, “I’m not just his highness’s plaything,” she said, eyes flicking down to where the woman stepped up right next to her chain. “I’m his mate,” she hissed before she moved, bending down faster than she’d ever thought she moved before, she flung the chair over her back sending it flying crashing into the woman’s face. She sent her chain flying next, snapping into her legs and tripping the assassin sending her crashing into the floor. “ROLLO!” Amira screamed at the top of her lungs lunging past the woman towards the door while she had a moment of opportunity.

Seconds passed like minutes. Amira ran for the door as the assassin lunged up from the floor. She sent her dagger flying at the back of Amira’s head as the door flew open revealing the Druhan male. He moved without hesitation, throwing himself on top of the Princess knocking the two of them into the floor as a lithe hellhound launched itself through the doorway after its commander straight into the assassin. There was a short scream of surprise from the woman and then it was cut short. Other guards in their human forms poured into the room moving systematically securing the space, others sweeping the hallways ensuring none others had snuck in past them.

Rollo pushed himself up and off the Princess quickly helping her to roll over, “Are you okay?” he asked, panic written on his features as his eyes scanned her body, hands still resting on her arms from where he helped her sit up. His heart was in his throat, and his whole body was on high alert, his senses straining to catch any advance warning on any other threat.

“I’m okay,” she said softly looking up to the wall where the dagger had embedded itself where her head had been, “thanks to you” she added looking to the guard who was inches from her face and smiled softly. There was a long beat where they remained close like this, enough to breathe in each other’s breath before Rollo cleared his throat and drew away quickly letting go of her arms as if he suddenly realized he was still touching her and that she wasn't wearing any clothing outside of her undergarments.

“You ah, don’t need to thank me, Princess. It’s my job” he said with a small smile trying to lighten the mood. Amira smiled in return and nodded “Yes, but you still did it, and for that, you deserve the thanks” as he opened his mouth to argue with her she pointed a stern finger at him and he sighed bowing his head, “Thank you, your Highness,” he said shaking his head smiling softly in defeat he stood before helping her rise to her feet as well. As he assessed the damage in the room he nodded approvingly, “You did quite a number to that one,” he observed earning a devious grin from the Princess.

“I think I could have made her puke if I had been able to shift,” she said as the two of them stood side by side as the assassin’s body was dragged out of the room. “I would have at least stood a chance if I had my weapons,” She said pointedly looking up slightly to the tall male beside her.

“We’ve discussed this already Princess. You aren’t allowed to have sharp things.” Rollo scolded her and Amira rolled her eyes and huffed in mock annoyance.

“Mother hen,” she jabbed at him playfully, “Not without good reason,” the guard responded with an easy smile looking down slightly to his Princess. He didn’t want to think about the pure panic that had filled his heart at hearing her scream. One of the other guards, Eries, approached and delivered a swift report to Rollo, “All clear Sir, it appears she came in through the balcony, there are no others, word was sent to the Crown Prince. He will be returning shortly.” Rollo winced slightly at the news that Cal was on his way back and Amira looked up to him confused, eyes narrowing slightly giving away her thoughts and allowing Rollo to answer her silent question.

“He’s going to be… unhappy… with this.”

“And?” she demanded shifting her stance and crossing her arms over her chest in a manner that suggested that she didn’t give a shit about what the Prince thought.

“I’ll likely get in trouble,” Rollo elaborated with a heavy sigh running a hand through his hair.

“Absolutely not,” Amira said firmly. Eyes flaring violet for a moment before fading back to gold as her temper raised its ugly head. “I’ll have none of it. You saved my life, I was the one who left the doors open. If anyone is in trouble it’s me.” She said stubbornly. “I will make that abundantly clear. Just-” she paused a moment as she thought about how she wanted to handle this.

Males were so insufferable sometimes, and in all honesty, she knew that Rollo had every right to be stressed. Caldwin had expressed every trait to display that he was going to be just like the rest of the possessive, protective, and aggressive males. The only difference is he happened to be one of the strongest creatures on the continent and possessed the power of a title attached to his name as well. “Just stay out of his path until I talk to him.” She said at last earning a small nod from her friend. If she didn’t know any better, she would say that his shoulders relaxed a bit at the news.

“We’ll put you in another room-” Rollo started moving to unchain her from the bed, but with a simple hand on his back, Amira stopped him.

“I would like to stay here,” she said offering him a small tight smile. “Besides, moving me around is quite the hassle, and it’s not like I’ve never seen blood before,” there was a beat of hesitant silence so the girl added, “I do eat living creatures you know,” she said poking him in the side getting the male to loosen up a bit as he shook his head in disapproval.

“You know you probably shouldn’t advertise that,” he said with a huff before giving in, “very well… is there anything else you need from me then?” He asked as Amira moved over to sit on her bed once more she thought quietly for a long moment and her eyes were drawn to the dagger left in the wall she looked at it for a while before she slowly looked back to Rollo who waited patiently.

“Can you stay?” she asked softly fully aware she had just asked him to stay out of Caldwins path and yet now asked him to walk directly into it. Rollo smiled faintly, eyes dropping to the floor as he also recognized the hypocrisy in her request before he walked over and sat beside her on the bed.

“Of course Princess,” he answered. Time passed in silence for a while and Amira drew strength from his quiet presence. Eventually, she shifted closer to him and closed her eyes resting her head on his shoulder, Rollo hesitantly wrapped an arm around her middle. He was wide awake acutely aware of every bit of contact he shared with the Princess. The stress of the past evening had finally begun to strike her and exhaustion pulled on her bones. She adjusted once more to lie down, placing her head in his lap.

“Thank you for being my friend Rollo,” she murmured as he hesitantly stroked her hair in a relaxing manner which nearly had her falling asleep. Just as she was drifting off he softly said in return, “Thank you for being my friend too, Amira,” using her first name for the first time since they’d met.

~

“She’s asleep,” the soft warning came from Rollo. He hadn’t moved from where Amira had fallen asleep in his lap hours ago. His bright blue eyes met the near-black ones of the Crown Prince pinning the male in his place as he stormed into the room, his energy immediately lowering and softening upon seeing her safe and asleep.

“What happened?” Caldwin asked his eyes not leaving Amira even as he spoke to Rollo, “An assassin was sent for you. They found her instead,” A short, succinct summary of the events that transpired, the details were not important to the Prince at the moment and Rollo knew it. The Prince snarled, low and vicious and Amira stirred and mumbled softly as she shifted in her sleep. The Prince froze as did Rollo, neither of them speaking again until she had quieted again.

“and this?” The Prince demanded gesturing to his mate sleeping in the lap of another male, Rollo could nearly taste the jealousy in his tone. To his credit the Crown Prince hadn’t immediately shredded him on sight, so he supposed he had some form of restraint.

“She didn’t want me to leave.” He explained. “She was stressed, rightfully so from dealing with you, and then all of this.”

“What’s that supposed to mean.”

“You’re quite much to deal with Cal,” Rollo scolded the Prince, perhaps pushing his boundaries, but he had been friends with the male before him for quite a long time and with the sleeping Princess between them, he was a bit emboldened. “Maybe you should try to be her friend first.” He advised him, “and maybe give her an ounce more of freedom?” he said looking down to Amira, “it’s killing her to be chained up in here despite the brave face she puts on.”

“And how do you know all these things.”

“I actually listen to her,” Rollo deadpanned. He could see that one cut deep as Cal nearly flinched away from his words.

“I did listen, I stayed away,” he said softly.

“You did that for you. You wanted to punish yourself for what your parents and grandparents did. She told you to go away, but you didn’t fight it. You didn’t fight for her, not where it mattered. You’re damn lucky she’s giving you a chance,” Cal stiffened at his words, but he was right, he couldn’t argue with him, or even get mad.

“You can go now, I’ll watch over her,” he said moving towards his dresser, his tone didn’t leave room for debate. Rollo was tempted to disobey, to argue that she had asked him to stay, but the tenseness in his friend’s shoulders said more than he did. Cal was moments from snapping and losing it on his best friend. So Rollo moved carefully. getting up and carefully positioning the Princess on the bed so she was comfortable on the pillows. She mumbled a few various words in their native tongue and he blinked once in surprise, he kept the information to himself however as Cal didn’t seem to have noticed and left, without another word.