❝ Pain was my fuel, until the fire began bleeding from my veins. ❞
The girl without a name.
The black-haired fiend devoid of fear.
The sharp-tongued scoundrel always ready with a trick up her sleeve.
Thief and street rat Azura knows how to hustle a...
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I look between the man and the woman, brows raised, lips parted, waiting for them to laugh, to tell me this is one big joke and that I can go back to the mud of Warroll now.
Neither one of them move, observing me with a stillness that only makes my skin itch.
"You dragged me all the way here just to ask me to assassinate the emperor?" I question, my words uttered at a slow pace as I try to wrap my head around the absurdity of the situation.
This can't be happening.
"Yes," the man replies.
I open my mouth, only to close it again, no words coming forth. My frown deepens. "I've decided you're not so smart after all."
"I'm giving you an opportunity," the woman says.
I shake my head, taking a step back, distancing myself from this madness. "I can think of a number of less painful ways to die, and none of them include being captured and tortured by the Empire."
"You're not going to be captured and you're not going to be tortured," she reassures me but her words fall flat.
"I just saw the Empire's soldiers slaughter kids in the street. I have an idea of what they would do to someone who tries to assassinate their emperor. Nothing you say will convince me to go into the belly of the beast."
"Not even if we offer you a home and riches?" she asks and shifts to stand in front of the desk, looking down at me from the corner of her eye as she moves, a full head taller.
The offer has me running my tongue over my teeth like a hungry animal. "The rebellion can't offer me those things," I reply, clinging to my sense, what little there is of it.
"Can't we?"
My gloves squeak as I clench my hands, gaze flitting over the room. I take in the expensive rug, the shelves bursting with books and scrolls, the polished oak. A few hours ago I would've believed my own words without hesitation, only seeing the rebellion as an outsider, their numbers and resources limited, their influence lacking in Sharlikire. But my eyes have been opened and I'm seeing things clearer than I ever have.
The emperor. No one has seen the man beyond the Empire for over a decade, but his iron grip on Rupteran hasn't loosened. Reaching him would be an impossibility I'm not willing to gamble upon.
I lean forward with narrowed eyes. "You can offer me a golden fucking castle, I'm not bloodying my hands for you."
"If you're not with us, Azura, then you're against us. And you really don't want to be against us."
I rear back and bare my teeth. "Don't threaten me. I owe you people nothing."
"You owe us your life considering Erasmus here saved you from the Sharlik soldiers."
