19 Chapter 19 (2/2)
I looked over at her, ”You think?” I ask, genuinely curious. She shakes her head, ”No, but he does have his eye on someone in this room.” I silently curse. I walked into that one. ”Which one of us?” I ask sarcastically. She sits straighter, ”You. He totally likes you.” My heart aches at that statement. ”I guess.” I say. She scoots closer to me, as if to say something, but I jump up as the doors open. The rest of the pinks walk in with a flock of oranges following them. The oranges are holding dresses. The orange the drew my dress walked up to me. ”Darling, I am so glad to see you. I have made your dress.”
I nodded gratefully. ”It looks amazing.” All the girls are squealing about there dresses. One of the oranges gets to the front of the room and says, ”Girls, we need some of you to go to different rooms so you can all change. I am instantly grateful for this room being so small. ”I will go up to the room I have been staying at.” The orange nods, so I grab my dress and run to the shared room. When I get to the door, I don't even knock, I just run in. As I head to the bathroom, I am caught with a dagger at my neck. I instantly freeze.
”What are you doing in this room?” I hear Garret ask. I turn my head as much as I can. ”Garret, it is me. Let me go.” He looks at my face, then steps away guilty. ”I am sorry. Didn't realize it was you.” I step back as well and hold up my dress. ”Well, here is the dress that was made for me.” He doesn't even look up, ”I will see when you walk out.” I nod and then walk into the bathroom. As I get changed, I come up with something to say to Garret. When I am changed, I look in the mirror and smile at the image I see.
For the first time in a long while I see the assassin who is confident, strong, unbreakable. Everything that I was before only changed. I am not one hundred percent, but I am better. I put my hair up and wash my face, then I walk out. Garret is in a suite. On the bed is two bags. The bags we brought. I start putting the under tones of makeup on. The ones that where infused with the antidote, so I didn't poison myself. Then I put the poisoned makeup on. When I peeked over my shoulder at Garret, I noticed he was still looking into his bag. When I was done with the makeup, I painted my nails.
The tricky part was putting on the clear coat. On my right hand, the clear coat was infused with a falaziac, the left on with Calveis. This way if I back handed someone, or scratched them, the poison would take them down. When I was completely finished getting ready, I looked into my bag again, then let out a small sigh. I had left my daggers at home. ”Well, todays mission just got a lot harder.” I said. ”Why Garret asked finally looking at me. I saw his eyes quickly scan over me.
”Because,” I started, but I noticed his eyes wouldn't leave my dress. He was frowning at it. ”What is wrong with my dress?” I ask. His eyes swung up to mine and he shook his head. ”Nothing. It is beautiful.”
I shook my head, not trying to pry the true opinion from him. ”Well, I forgot my blades at home.” He smiled, reached into his bag, and pulled out two blades. ”Luckily, I didn't. He handed them to me along with two sheathes. I smiled at them; they were beautiful blades. Simple yet pretty. After inspecting the sheathes, I figured out how they worked. They went around my thighs and where held in by a simple band that would release when I pulled on the hilt of the dagger.
Garret turned away so I could strap them on. When he looked back at me, he frowned again. ”What?” I asked. He tried to shake his head, but I snapped at him. ”Don't you dare try and blow the question off.” He tilted his head to one side and sighed. ”Fine, I hate the idea of Azeel having his hands on you. I couldn't help but laugh. ”You think this is bad? I have had about half a much as what is covered now, uncovered all week. That didn't bother you.” ”Oh, trust me, it did. But at least then you were working. Tonight, you a basically his, having to be at his side.”
I took a step closer to him and put my hand on his shoulder. ”Don't worry Garret. I can take care of myself. Plus, I have enough poison on me, that is he tries to do anything I can kill him ten times over.” Garret laughs slightly. ”Well, are you ready to finally finish this mission?” I nod and he walks out the door with me. When I split off, going down a sepreat hall, I don't miss the fact that he stares after me for a few seconds before walking down his hall.
When I get to the pinks room, almost everyone is back. The first person I notice is Lilith. She looks like some sort of sun goddess in her outfit. ”Lilith, you look amazing.” I say as I walk over. She looks me over and says, ”You're the one everyone is going to be looking at.” I sigh because that is the last thing I want. ”It will be hard to kill Xalem if every eye is on me.” I think. ”Well, I guess I am going to be bringing more attention to Azeel then.” She nods, noticing how I switched from talking about me to Azeel.
Janel walks up behind my, and hear her say, ”Five minutes until we head to the reception room.” My nose scrunches up at the mention of that room. ”Thank goodness we get to stay standing.” I say. She nods. ”Yes, my back is practically cheering to that.” I smile at her as she starts talking about how boring being a pink is. I blank out her conversation and start forming the plan to kill Xalem without getting Garret or myself killed. I am pulled out of my thoughts by the head pink saying, ”Girls, to the middle of the room. Now please.”
We all went to the middle of the room, and she started speaking. ”So, tonight we are here to make sure the Princes have a good time. Each of you will be with your respective prince. If he needs anything, and you don't know where it is, find me or one of the other heads and we will help. We need to be the best. This could be big for us. We could be gaining another ally.” I tilted my head slightly. ”So, no one knows that Xalem is helping to kill them.” I thought.
She puts a wide smile on. ”Let's go ladies. Remember, tonight isn't working. Just have fun. Relax. You have all worked so hard this week. You deserve the night off.” I scoff slightly. ”Yet we still have to answer to the princes. My perfect day off.” I think. We all walk into the reception room, and it is decorated. The first thing I notice is the guards are in suits, but they all have at least four blades on. There are also extra blades stashed in the huge plant vases.
I put that information into the back of my mind. All the pinks around me are walking up to the princes. I look around but Azeel is missing. The one who catches my eye is Garret. He is on the far side of the room and watching everything. He mouths one word to me. ”Plan?” I nod slightly. I have a basic plan on who to get this mission done, but I need information from him. I am about to walk over to him when two hands cover my eyes. I almost throw my elbow into the persons gut, then I remember I am supposed to be Kiya.
”Guess who?” Azeel says. I try and turn to him, but his hands prohibit that. ”We both know it's you Azeel.” I say. He uncovers my hands and spins me around, wrapping his arms around my waist. I nearly push him away, but I restrain myself. ”Where have you been?” I ask. He smiled at me. ”I have been talking with Xalem. Today is no longer your last day with me.” My straight face let a small twinge of horror into my eyes. ”What do you mean?” He pulled my slightly closer. ”Well, you are coming back to my homeland.” I pulled away. ”What do you mean?” He laughed slightly. ”Xalem has let me bring you home with me.” I could tell he wasn't telling me the full truth. ”What do you mean?”
Azeel shook his head. ”Are those the only four words in your vocabulary?” I realize the only thing I had been saying was what do you mean. I quickly say something else. ”Why would Xalem give me away.” Azeel's smile died a little. ”He didn't exactly give you away. He left the deal with a mighty hefty pile of money.” I growled slightly. ”He sold me to you?” Azeel pulled me to him again. ”Don't think of it like that, think of it like having an all paid trip.” I swallowed a retort. ”I don't want to go. I don't want to be with you. I want to stay here.” Azeel looked surprise. ”Most girls would be fainting in happiness at the opportunity to come to my homeland.”
I can't keep my next words in. ”Do any of those girls have any dignity or self-respect. I can assure you they all just want your money.” He pushes me back to arm length away. ”What did you just say?” His voice is angry. I immediately bow my head and look at the ground. ”I...I...I...nothing.” ”Tell me what you said?” He said. I opened my mouth say something, but then closed it again.
I felt a tight grip on my chin that forced me to look into his eyes. ”That wasn't a request. Say it again. Now.” His grip on my chin was tightening to almost painful levels. ”I didn't me to let it out.” I said quickly. His eyes were pure anger. ”But you still would have thought it.” He said. I could see he was about to burst when a hand efficiently removed his hand from my face. I was pushed behind Garret. ”Avi.” I said, grateful that he was here.
”Get out of here.” Azeel said taking a step towards me. Garret pushed me further back, stepping in front of Azeel again. ”I need to talk to her about some security related details real quick.” Azeel scowled. ”She is a servant. She doesn't need to know anything about the security.” Azeel tried to get closer to me, but Garret wouldn't let him. ”This important Azeel. I am taking her now.” Azeel stared at me for a second. ”You have ten minutes. And it is Prince Azeel to you.” Azeel tried to catch my eye, but I just stared at the ground. When I felt Garret leading me to the far side of the room I quietly whispered, ”Thank you.”
When we got to a quiet corner he asks, ”What is your plan?” My fear of Azeel immediately vanished. All my concentration went into making this plan and making sure it would work. I was ready to kill Xalem and get rid of him. And if Azeel wasn't careful he would be next on the list.