The Crimson Assassin

Chapter 9

Elentiya woke up under warm covers and heard the crackle of a warm fire beside her. Flickers of light danced over her eyelids and a trail of smoke moved towards the window, which hadn't been open before.

She forced herself out of the bed and was abruptly hit by the cold floor, which quickly subsided as she slipped her feet into her new fuzzy, fluffy pink slippers. Then she realised that she was still wearing Castol's oversized jacket. It made sense when he was over 6 ft and she was only 5 ft 7.

Her sleepy mind was brought to a half awake state as her stomach growled. The sound and distinctive smell of bacon sizzling in the pan was heavenly. Her feet moved to the kitchen almost like they had a mind of their own.

"Mmm..." she growled without thinking. The kitchen was filled with a lovely breakfast aroma and the table was cleaned and set, obviously by the mind of someone with excellent table etiquette.

Elentiya could only think of breakfast and there weren't many times in her life when she could eat to her heart's content.

It smells amazing! Elentiya thought.

"Thank you." The chef said in front of her. His sleeves were rolled, his shirt wasn't fully tucked in and his hair...

... The only thing she could think of was bed hair. She smirked at the sight of the immaculate Royal Guard, looking like any other guy.

"I wouldn't say immaculate." Castol smiled as he handed her a plate of bacon, sausages and eggs, "Here, eat up."

Elentiya took the plate graciously and they both went to sit down on the table. Elentiya dug into her breakfast, looking up to see Castol staring at her, with heavy eyes.

"You look tired." She said.

"Yeah, well you would be too if you were woken up every time when thunder or lightning woke up a certain person." He replied, choosing his words carefully. "You really need to learn to think quieter." He said as he massaged his temples.

"Sorry," she said with obvious sarcasm. "I didn't force you to stay... Aren't you going to eat?"

"No, I don't like fried foods so much."

"Then why do it? You're lying that plate over there definitely had food on it."

"No, he's not and to answer your question, because I asked for it." The voice came from behind her, "I've already told you twice to eat properly."

She sighed, as she knew who was talking. It was Hollin.

"Well that isn't the welcoming I'm used to." He smirked.

"Who said it was a welcoming." Elentiya replied.

"Considering that I'm the reason you're still alive, I'm surprised you're not worshipping the ground I walk on." He said with that devilish innocence of his, as he took a seat beside her.

There was little protest from Castol, but if he weren't so tired it would've been a whole different story. Hollin was surprised he didn't get any lip from him about her being an assassin who was able to kill him whenever she got the chance.

"So what are you doing here?" she asked.

"Well, I came here to talk to you and found Castol asleep on the sofa... Lover's quarrel?" Hollin laughed.

Both Elentiya and Castol snarled at the prince who was obviously enjoying himself a bit too much.

"Really, has something happened, you guys are almost acting like friends?" He mocked.

The comment, although meant jokingly, sent a chill down Elentiya's spine. What was she doing acting all chummy with a Royal Guard? Right now they should've been fighting. Well not fighting she didn't want to go through that experience again. They at least, shouldn't be getting along, and that's the way it needed to be. The length of her ban would be over soon enough and she needed to be ready to escape for when that happened.

"Well if you call almost getting killed nothing, then yeah nothing happened." Elentiya whispered to herself.

Castol glared at her. "Don't tell him anything." He thought-spoke to her.

She stood up immediately about to protest. "Please." Castol begged, as Hollin asked, "What?"

"Nothing," she blushed, which left Hollin captured by the image in front of him. It had been a few days since he had seen Elentiya and she seemed a lot less angry. Everything about her seemed to have changed.

He knew something had happened, but decided not to push it. Trying to force her to do anything wouldn't have ended well. Even if she didn't kill him, she could've still seriously harmed him.

Hollin tried to think of her as a dangerous assassin, but he just couldn't. Before him, was just a blushing girl in a jacket too big for her, with pink, fluffy slippers. She's kind of cute, he thought, which caught the attention of his mind-reading best friend.

"I think you'd better get dressed." Castol uttered, "We have training."

Elentiya just nodded and left to her room.