When two dark hearts connect

The wedding trap

Chapter two

Azriel Dusk’s pov

My little darkling’s master is here.

He stepped from the shadows near the lake,draped in heavy black garment that covered his entire frame from his neck to heel.

A sweeping cloak dragged over the damp earth,its deep hood pulled low to shroud his head,while a cold,expressionless mask concealed whatever face lay beneath.

Even his hands were hidden away inside thick gloves,as though he refused to let his own skin brush against the wretched air of the world he half ruled.

Then, a second figure stepped out of the mist,

parting the shadows with a quite, lethal grace that made my blood run cold

My master,the leader of domus Doloris

If the two of them were standing here together, then it is terrifying omen.for hundreds of years,our two assassin groups had been at each other’s throat

He wore the exact same chilling uniform:

The long black shroud,heavy cloak,the mask and the gloves in his hands,mirroring the enemy lord down to every ominous thread.

The only difference was the brand woven into the dark fabric.

On her master’s cloak gleamed the silver symbol of ictus volex,a small circle pierced by two crossed swords.

On mine,embroidered in the thread the colour of fresh gore,

Was the crest of Domus Doloris,a single unyielding sword with droplets of blood dripping from its tip.

Instinct honed by years of brutal conditioning overrode my raising panic.

Without a word passing between us.Seraphine and I moved as one.

We dropped to the cold earth on one knee,bowing our heads low toward the ground.

Clenching our right fists,we pressed them hard against our hearts,the universal salute of obedience.

“Master”,we spoke in unison,the title tasting like ash on my tongue as it echoed across the dark water.

To kneel side by side with the enemy sharing the exact same posture of submission beneath gaze of our rival lords sent a fresh wave of ice straight through my veins .

————————————

The damp night air of the lake was replaced by the suffocating,heavy heat of my master’s private solar.

The chamber was carved deep into the stone foundations of the stronghold,smelling permanently of old parchment.

Heavy tapestries depicting ancient slaughters muffled the sound of the outside world,while towering shells groaned under the weight of leather bound grimoires,and rows of meticulously polished blades.

At the centre of the room sat a massive desk hewn from black oak,cluttered with parchment maps marked in red ink and ledgers of upcoming contracts

I was standing in the centre of the room,waiting for the axe to fall.

When he spoke,his voice reached me through the layers of his mask

distorted,hollow and muffled, like a voice echoing from the bottom of a sealed tomb

“Care to explain”, the muffled voice rasped,the tone dangerously flat, “what that little display by the lake was about”?

I kept my posture rigid,my eyes fixed on the floorboards

“It was about the overlapping contracts,”I answered,my voice steady despite the tension clawing at my chest.

“A domestic dispute that somehow managed to tangle both of our guild.”

“A young woman,desperate to escape her abusive husband,fled to Ictus volex to buy his death.At the exact same time,entirely unaware of what her daughter is doing,her mother came to us seeking an assassin to kill that very same abusive husband”

“When seraphine and I crossed paths by the lake,we realised we were both tracking the same target for clients.And neither of our guilds was willing to back down”

My master let out a low,cold sound from behind his mask something halfway between a dry chuckle and a scoff.

“A mother and daughter spinning two separate webs of vengeance under our very noses.”

He murmured leaning forward so that the flickering torch light caught the cruel curve of his hidden mouth.

“And you two bloody fools nearly ruined centuries of careful gridlock over a domestic dispute.”

“For too long, Ictus volex and domus Doloris have bled each other dry,competing for scrap in the dark while our assassins have slaughtered one another in this endless war.”

“A war of attrition serves neither of us anymore.”

He continued, his tone dropping into a lethal,unyielding decree. “which is why the leaders of both guilds have decided it is time for a permanent binding.A merger written in iron and blood.”

He stopped pacing,turning his masked gaze directly onto me.

“Consider yourself the stone bridge.you will marry Seraphine Nox,the best assassin in the Ictus volex.”