School of the Crown Assassins

14

I jogged in place as I stared out the window and sighed, thinking back to the night Arielle took Nydia and me to the nearby town to "hang out" and "get to know each other". Her definition of a night out was busting a Streeter underground operation and slitting more throats.

As if I needed reminding that they were cold-hearted killers.

After Arielle and Nydia had me all dressed up, we went to a nightclub in a nearby town and sat at a table, the other two sipping drinks which they later revealed was just apple cider. We watched the Streeters dance and talk joyfully. They looked quite nice compared to some of the ones I'd seen entering Cressida just earlier that day, dressed in casual clothing that was on par with some of the ones the students at Evandor commonly wear when they weren't in their uniforms. It reminded me that even the Streeters had a hierarchy amongst themselves. Not all of them were poor and at the mercy of Assassins.

It made me feel better, but then the killing started.

Arielle revealed that even Alphas got individual missions and one had been waiting for her when she got to her room. She was allowed to take two others and I was surprised that she had decided to choose Nydia and me instead of the Kingston brothers. She simply shrugged and said that she figured she might as well use it to spend more time with us, as she claimed when she took me out of my room.

When I shook my head in mock laughter at her real plans, she simply gave me a look and said, "We're Assassins and not the regular kind. We're the Alphas, the best in the country and amongst the most well-known Assassins in the world. We always have a reason."

And then she had slipped away into a crowd of Streeters, leaving me and Nydia to do the same. We had slowly carried out the plan, spying, and pretending to be Streeters to get out more information on their operation. Arielle claimed the gang running the club had stolen from a well-known Streeter bank and frauding other wealthier Streeters of their money.

I was surprised to find that the Assassins would interfere with petty Streeter crimes much less send Arielle, an Heir Crown Assassin, but she told me they did it every once in a while to restore order on the streets. In other words, to make sure the Streeters still knew under whom they lived.

Somewhere along the way, they had recognized Arielle as a Crown Assassin and many gang members were sent to take care of us. After a battle in the pure confusion of flashing lights, screams, blind running, and stray gunshots, we had finally managed to corner and defeat the members of the gang. I tried my best to only knock them out, not kill. Their crimes were too small to deserve such a final punishment. But Arielle and Nydia had no problem killing if one pushed them too hard. I wasn't surprised, after all, Echo had been killed by the Crowns over a simple secret, but it was unnerving to find that it made me sad. It was almost as if I had begun to like them and was wishing they wouldn't kill, wouldn't give me more reason to hate them.

I cursed myself for ever letting any sort of emotion or sentiment arise for my enemies. I had known this was a threat all along. All those classes on espionage and undercover work had warned me that the hardest part was not getting attached to those you spent so much time around. When I had first started my revenge plot, I swore to myself I wouldn't get sucked in. Now, I would have to stick by that oath.

Luckily, Arielle made it easy.

When we had finally gotten the gang under control, Nydia dragged the leader out from the back of the club. I was surprised to find that it was only a sixteen-year-old boy, though Arielle was barely even phased.

"We're only a year older than him," she told me. "And look at how much damage we can do."

She had questioned if he worked with any other gangs during the heist and he said he hadn't. She then gave him the option of shattering the wrists of every single member or amputating his hand letting the rest go free of major injury. In the end, the boy lost his hand.