The Assassin And The King [Completed]

| Chapter Twenty-Two : A Tale |

▪︎ Kaitlyn Winchester ▪︎

Clad in the flowy off-white gown with honey-locust leaf patterns that I'd worn the first time I came here for the king's guard selection, I ascend the carriage and take a seat inside. Queen Narcissa followed right behind me with a deep frown etched to her otherwise carved face.

Shortly after Valerian had left the room leaving me in a mess of confusion, Narcissa had come in a few minutes later asking me to go along with her to Lycor, the lycan kingdom, as I'm the rightful princess of the Verakov royal family ruling the place.

At first I'd been ready to deny her offer outright but. . .

My eyes dart outside the glass windows of the carriage to Dulcamara standing silently next to Queen Eleanor and Marilla who are here to bid me farewell. As I tried my best to ignore looking at Valerian standing next to his step-mother, the ancient witch's words from earlier ran through my mind.

* * *

F L A S H B A C K

* * *

The very moment Valerian had walked out of the room along with Eleanor and Marilla's retreating silhouette following shortly behind him, my lycan spoke to me for the first time.

'HE'S LYING.' Were her first words to me. She had a soothing and baby-ish voice. Something about it reminded me of Marilla's voice.

'I know.' I retorted back to her as I took a seat on the couch next to the beige walls.

I knew he lied from the moment he said he was seducing me to save himself. You don't hold someone while they're in pain if you're trying to seduce them. You don't try to save someone repeatedly if you're trying to seduce them. And you definitely don't worry about them if you're trying to seduce them. There's a difference between seducing and caring. And if he thinks he can fool me by throwing a few harsh words of blasphemy, than he's oh-so-mistaken. I've seen the emotions in his eyes whenever he's around me.

But what I don't get is why he is lying?

There has to be a reason behind it.

As if hearing my thoughts,

"Every action has a reason behind it." Dulcamara said as she approached me.

I had totally forgotten she was here too. She'd been so quite the whole time.

"What's important is how you use this action to your advantage," Her scrutinizing gaze fell upon me, "Valerian might have his reason and his actions are going to affect him, in a good way or bad way, we don't know. But it's upto you whether you want to use it wisely for yourself."

I lifted my confused eyes to her wise brown ones, "How do I do it when I don't even know the reason behind his actions?"

"Sweet child," She smiled but there was something eerie about the glint in those sharp eyes as they bored into mine, "Let's leave Valerian for now. What do you know about yourself?"

"I. . ." I tried to speak but no words came out as the sinking realisation that almost everything I knew about myself was a lie digged it's path into my head.

"Find out about yourself first and then everything will fall into place." Dulcamara's unsettling smile widened, "But have you heard? In chess, the queen can move wherever she likes. That's the closest hint I can give you." The fortune-seer witch passed me a wink over her shoulder as she turned around and walked out of the room just as Narcissa walked in.