Assassin's Heart

by Sarah Ahiers

  I cast my eyes to his. This time I was able to hold his gaze without looking away. “Your Family killed my Family. Tried to kill me!”

  He held his hands before him, palms up. “Lea—”

  “You took my key,” I interrupted. “Is that what you used to get into our house? The key you stole from me in the guise of our game?”

  He didn’t answer, but I could read the truth in his eyes, in the lines of his frown. I groaned. He had used me. I had loved him and he had destroyed me.

  “How long had your Family known about us? From the beginning? Was it ever even a secret?”

  “Of course it was! But they found out. A week or so before . . . before. It was do what they said, Lea, or die. Prove myself a Da Via once and for all. So I did what they told me.”

  I stopped shaking. I would be a statue. I would not let him affect me anymore. “Were you there that night? Did you fight my father or brothers in the dark smoke?”

  “No! I wasn’t there!”

  I would never trust him again.

  “I only learned about the full plan a few hours before,” he said. “And when that happened . . .” He scratched the top of his scalp, mussing his carefully groomed hair.

  “I asked you not to go home, Lea.” He rested his head against the bars as he studied the ceiling. “I asked you to come with me, but you refused. I wanted to save you. To keep you safe.”

  My blood turned to cold silver in my veins. “You could have told me,” I whispered. “I could have warned them, saved us all. . . .”

  He shook his head. “I couldn’t betray my Family. It was a test for me. If I had told you the truth, they would’ve had my heart. Estella does not suffer traitors in the Da Via Family.”

  “There were other options, Val,” I scoffed. “There could have been other plans. But you chose to save yourself instead of saving me and my Family. And now you come here and expect me to be happy to see you? I don’t ever want to see you again.”

  “Don’t say that.” His voice emerged quiet and small.

  “I wish you were dead and gone from my life.”

  “It doesn’t have to be this way. I’ve come here to bail you out. To take you home with me.”

  Back to Lovero, where lanterns lit the night and the sea air tasted of salt and brine.

  But home was for family, and Ravenna was the place where my Family had died. It wasn’t only angry ghosts that haunted the night.

  “Your Family doesn’t want to accept me,” I said.

  “They thought you were Rafeo.”

  Ah. They’d let me in not because I was somehow worth more than Rafeo, because my life had more value. No. They thought I’d be easier to control than Rafeo. They thought they could manipulate me with Val, like they had before with the key. They were wrong.

  “Rafeo’s dead. He bled out in my arms, and I have you and your Family to blame for that. I’m not going with you, Val. Ever. I’m going to kill your Family, and if you value your own life, you’ll flee now while you can.”

  He glared at me. “You watch! Yvain will hang you from a noose as if you’re nothing more than a common cutthroat! Is that what you want?”

  I shrugged. “I couldn’t stand to look at you for the rest of my life and remember how warm Rafeo’s blood felt as it washed over my hands.”

  And I realized it was true. Yes, Val was beautiful, and once upon a time I’d thought I loved him, but now anything I felt was just an echo of that old Lea, the one who had died with her Family in the fire. Val didn’t make me feel safe. Val didn’t make me feel warm. And he only ever helped himself.

  He banged on the bars with his fists. The frustration rolled off him like a cloud of black flies. “Why did you even come here, Lea? You wouldn’t be in this mess if you’d stayed in Lovero!”

  “And what was there for me?” I shouted. “Your Family, hunting me like a rat? The Addamos, trying for a piece of the prize? In Lovero, I felt like an orphan!”

  He stared at me, his anger turning his hazel eyes black. Then his anger vanished.

  “What?” I asked. “What are you looking at?”

  He turned and banged on the cell door. “Lawman!”

  “What is it?” I stood and grabbed his shoulder. Something had changed. Two seconds ago he was practically begging me to forgive him, to go with him to Lovero, and now he was in a rush to leave. “Val!”

  Lefevre walked down the hall, keys in hand. Val faced me again, taking my hands in his own. A war of emotions played over his face.

  “I can’t help you Lea, not unless you want me to. I wish you’d believe me when I say I love you and miss you and wish more than anything things hadn’t happened the way they did and you’d come home with me. But I can’t change the past, and I can’t ask for your forgiveness, because I’m not sure I forgive myself.”

  Lefevre unlocked the cell, and Val slipped out. “Good-bye, Lea. I’ll come if you need me.”

  He strode down the hall, his boots clicking sharply on the stone floor.

  Lefevre faced me and grinned. “Lovers’ quarrel?”

  “No.” I sat on the bed. There was no love left between us.

  Once Val left, I mulled over everything he’d said. My Family was dead. His Family killed them. There was no reconciliation possible. There never could be.

  Lefevre chuckled from outside my cell. I ignored him. But Val had been right. Two more lawmen soon arrived to help Lefevre escort me to wherever we were going.

  “Ever seen a gallows before, girl?” Lefevre sneered as he locked my wrists behind me in a pair of shackles. He shoved me away from my cell.

  “No,” I replied. “In Lovero we trust steel or poison to do our death work. Rope is for sailors and the sea.”

  One of the lawmen laughed. We continued to march.

  Outside, the sun brushed the horizon. It would set soon and then the ghosts would rise to search for bodies they could steal.

  “We wanted to deal with you as soon as possible,” Lefevre said. “You are more of a threat to the good people of Yvain than the ghosts.”

  My lip curled. “I only kill people who deserve it.”

  They marched me around a corner, and there, in the center of an empty square, stood a large wooden platform raised on stilts. Above it towered a beam with a dangling noose.

  My heart beat faster. Val was right about one thing: this wasn’t the death for me. I was a disciple of Safraella! About to dangle from my neck.

  Lefevre shoved me forward. He and his men laughed when I stumbled, but I kept my feet.

  We reached the stairs, and I stopped. My legs wouldn’t move, my body wouldn’t respond. I couldn’t walk up those stairs.

  The two lawmen grabbed me under the arms and carried me to the platform. I must have seemed a child to them, easy to manage. If I died here, then no one would avenge my Family.

  I needed to do something. I needed to save myself!

  I jerked my arms forward, trying to break free of the lawmen, but they squeezed their fingers deeper into my flesh. They dragged me to the noose as I struggled and kicked and tried to bite myself free of them. I would not go quietly!

  We reached the noose, and Lefevre jerked it over my head. I swung my foot at him, trying to snare his ankle. He danced away.

  Another lawman slipped a hood over my head. The musty burlap pressed against my face.

  “It’ll go quick,” the lawman mumbled, tightening my noose. “A quick snap and it will be over.”

  Every breath pulled the burlap across my lips, but I couldn’t slow my breathing, couldn’t calm the racing of my heart. This was it. The end of it all.

  A rushing reached my ears, the sound of my blood roaring through me. Then a man’s shout from behind. A grunt and a loud thump. Yells and the smell of smoke erupted around me, heavy, even through the burlap covering my head.

  Someone slammed into me. I staggered. The noose pulled taut against my neck, choking me. Below, something creaked, then banged.

  I dropped through the floor.


  I didn’t fall straight down. Instead, my ribs slammed into the edge of the trapdoor, interrupting my fall and saving me from a broken neck. Pain erupted across my already bruised chest and vanished again as the noose around my neck tightened.

  My throat closed up, the rope clenching my neck like a snake crushing a rat. My eyes bulged as I swung back and forth.

  I kicked my feet viciously, trying to find anything to rest upon, to stop the choking, to free me.

  Something above snapped. I dropped, crashing to the ground in a painful heap. My bad ankle twisted beneath me, and the burlap sack flew off my head to land in the dust at my feet.

  I took a deep breath, coughing at the air that rushed into my wounded throat. Tears poured down my face, the salt reaching my lips. Dank smoke filled the air, an acrid smell that could come from only one source: a smoke bomb. I climbed to my feet. My ribs and ankle screamed at the movement. Above me, the lawman who’d showed me a touch of kindness lay dead, his body draped over the trapdoor, his throat dripping blood. Shouted commands from Lefevre bounced around me, but I couldn’t see him through the thick smoke.

  The noose rested against my chest, its end frayed from a cut. Someone had saved me.

  Les.

  I stumbled from the gallows, coughing with every step, my vision hazy. I needed to get out of here before more lawmen arrived. They’d already tried to hang me once.

  “Lea Saldana!” Lefevre called from the smoke. He must have been searching for me. “I’ll find you!”

  I slipped down a narrow side street, the smoke abating the farther I got from the square. The little street was almost as dark as full night against the setting sun. The ghosts would be out soon, and injured and bound as I was would make me easy prey. I tripped, crashed against a wall with my shoulder. I cried out at the pain from my ribs. At least one had to be broken.

  Before me stretched a canal, its waters dark and still. I stifled a sob. I couldn’t go back. The canal could keep me safe from ghosts, but I couldn’t swim with my arms bound behind me. I leaned over the water, looking for a way across. To the left a bridge spanned the canal. The building beside me had a small ledge that traveled above the canal along the building’s length, leading beneath the bridge.

  I slipped onto the stone ledge, pressed close to the wall of the building. My tied hands unbalanced me, and I wavered on each step. If I fell into the canal, I’d drown.

  Finally, I reached the bridge and slipped underneath to a shadowed, hidden area. I sat on the cobblestones and calmed my breath.

  I’d never come so close to death before. I didn’t care to repeat the experience. Ever.

  I inched my arms beneath my legs until they were bound in front of me. Metal shackles encircled my wrists. I couldn’t remove them without help, but at least now I could slip into the water and hang on to the ledge if I needed to.

  I tugged the noose off my neck and tossed it into the canal. It sank slowly into the dark water. I leaned against the curved base of the bridge and closed my eyes. I needed to rest a moment, then figure out what to do.

  Footsteps on the bridge. I stiffened. It was too late for a commoner. It could have been a prostitute, but more likely it was a lawman, searching for the prisoner who’d killed his brothers and escaped.

  The footsteps reached the bottom of the bridge and paused. I could picture Lefevre searching the dark streets for me. The footsteps headed around the side of the bridge. I scrambled to my knees, watching, waiting.

  A boot appeared. I jumped to my feet, hunched over in the tight space.

  A face peeked under the bridge.

  “Lea?” A whispered voice.

  Les had found me.

  UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

  HarperCollins Publishers

  ..................................................................

  thirty-two

  “LES.” HIS NAME BROKE FREE OF ME IN A BREATH OF relief. I leaned against the bridge and slid to the ground.

  He ducked under, his long legs bending as he hunched over.

  “Sorry I’m late,” he said. “I thought you might like these”—he passed me my weapons and cloak—“and this.” He pulled my mask from under his cloak and handed it to me.

  “How did you get this?”

  He smiled. “Let’s just say I’m overly familiar with the law office. And most of the lawmen went with you.”

  Les had known to bring my mask for me, had known it would make me stronger. A moment ago I’d been on the edge of panic. Then Les appeared and everything looked better.

  He sat across from me. “I didn’t realize the law moved so fast.”

  “I think they were worried I’d escape.”

  “You talked to your visitor for a while.”

  I pictured Les listening to Val and me. My stomach sank. It wasn’t as if we’d said anything secretive, but Val had pulled a lot of emotion out of me, things I thought I was through feeling. “You could hear us?”

  He shook his head. “I just waited for him to leave. He was in a hurry. Took off running as soon as he got outside. Afraid of the ghosts?”

  I furrowed my brows. “That’s unlikely.”

  “Anyway”—Les dug through his cloak pockets and pulled out a satchel—“look what I have!”

  Lock picks. Relief spread through me, and I scooted closer to him. “Do you know how to use them?”

  Les pulled my hands into his lap. He inserted the pick into the lock of the shackles. “It was the first skill I learned. Your uncle figured I couldn’t accidentally kill myself with the picks.”

  He smiled, and some of my worry over Val vanished. Les had a way about him that made it easy to overlook the darker sides of life, even though his hands were as red as any clipper’s. He began to hum as he worked on my shackles.

  They were so different, Val and Les. Val was arrogant and believed everyone was below him. Les was kind to people, even those who tried to push him away. Val tried so hard to be the person he was, with his appearance and his manner. Les didn’t try at all, and his nature came through in a way that made my heart stutter, my breath catch in my throat.

  I’d thought I loved Val. But maybe that love had been built on the prestige of his bloodline, his talents, and his wealth. Les had none of those things, and yet his very presence made me feel safe.

  He glanced at me. “What are you smiling about?”

  My eyes widened. “Nothing.”

  “Hmm.” He twisted his wrist and the shackles popped open, tumbling to the ground. “And you’re free.”

  He grabbed my wrists with his calloused hands and rubbed the feeling back into them. He leaned closer to whisper in my ear.

  “This was my first jailbreak. I think you’re a bad influence on me, Miss Oleander Saldana.” We were so close I could almost hear his heart beating. His hands slipped down to mine, and he stroked my wrists with his thumb. I looked up at him.

  He watched me, all traces of humor gone. Then his lips pressed against mine. He clasped my hands. I strengthened my grip around his, and for that moment everything else ceased to matter. All that mattered was Les—the way his beard scraped my skin and how his lips tightened in a smile against mine until he laughed and pulled away.

  “This has been an excellent jailbreak.”

  He held out his hand. I took it, and he pulled us both to our feet. My ribs pulsed in pain, and I hissed.

  “You’re hurt.” Worry flashed through his eyes.

  “My ribs. And my ankle. Landed wrong on both. I’ll be fine as long as we take it easy.”

  Of course, I couldn’t take anything easy with my enemies searching for me. “Come on,” I said. “We’ve got a lot to do before we face the Da Vias.”

  I ducked out from beneath the bridge. Les followed and we fled the area, heading deeper into the city.

  When we’d gotten far enough away from Lefevre and the gallows, we climbed to the roofs. Les had to help me up, and by the time we scaled the top I was winded and in even mo
re pain. When we finally reached my roof, I slid my mask to the top of my head and pulled him toward me for another kiss. I didn’t want to stop kissing him, didn’t want to let him go.

  We broke apart for breath. He tucked an errant strand of my hair behind my ear. “We should’ve been doing this all along.”

  “Probably. I just had some things to work out.”

  “And did you?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “Not really.”

  He laughed, and we got to work organizing our weapons. Les handed me another stiletto for my boot. “Who was your visitor?”

  I watched him dig through my packs. I sighed. “Val.”

  “Val. That Val?”

  I nodded.

  He snorted. “That must have been . . . interesting. What did he want?”

  “Truly? I think he thought we could still be together.”

  Les glanced at me, then went back to sorting the weapons. “Did he actually believe you’re so in love with him you could overlook the murder of your Family?”

  “I think he meant what he said. That he was caught between his Family and me and had to make a quick decision. I was so angry at him, but is that fair? If our positions had been reversed, would I have picked him over my Family?”

  “But what were his plans? That you’d go back with him and live among their nest of vipers and simply forget what they did?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t think he had much time to think it through. Until yesterday he thought I was dead.”

  “Yesterday?”

  “I ran into a pair of Da Vias.”

  Les stopped what he was doing and stared at me. “So there are other Loveran clippers skulking around the city? That’s it. You’re coming home with me tonight.”

  I shook my head. “No. Marcello won’t allow it. We have an arrangement. . . .”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Why don’t I know about this?”

  I could lie, but Les would probably drag the truth out of Marcello. “You didn’t know because it was when you were injured.”

  “And?” He gestured for me to continue.

  “And I promised him I’d stop training you, leave you alone.”