The lost shapeshifter

Chapter 2

Sam was there. Waiting for her.

"Are you sure you want me to do that?" Erica asked her aunt. After hours of crying in her aunt's arms, Aelin finally told Erica that Sam was actually in Rifthold and he wanted to see her. Apparently after 5 years Erica wanted to see her best friend too.

But seeing him, standing alone in the shadows of some building, looking everywhere but not at her. He was mad, he was disappointed and she knew that he wasn't going to scream, but...

She was scared and her aunt knew that very well.

"Just take a deep breath and talk to him," Aelin whispered in her ear. "You're an assassin after all."

Erica took a deep breath again. And again.

And she took a step forward. This was the longest and most painful path in her entire life. Even when she left Terrasen, even when she had her first period and then when she killed for the first time... It all couldn't compare to this.

Sam hated her. She knew that.

She ran away. She killed more people than her and his parents in the war. She worked for Tern. She left him. She left all of them. And now she was coming back.

What could he possibly think of her?

Sam lifted his head up, looking at his cousin. She wore her own face this time. Except for the eyes. She would never wear those eyes again.

"Hi," she said simply, praying that it was enough. 

Sam looked at her. Then smiled. "Hi, trouble. Missed me?"

Erica jumped in his opened arms as there was nothing. As the last five years mattered nothing. And Sam hugged her back. She was wearing her assassin face, the one she used more than any other, but Sammy could smell the Ashryver blood in her veins.

She couldn't help, but to cry in his arms as he whispered her nickname over and over again in her ear, while they were in the shadows of the busy street.

Erica knew that Aelin and Rowan were close to them, she could feel it as she was shaking in Sammy's arms.

When she finally pulled away she looked carefully at his face and his big smile and shining eyes.

"I heard you became an assassin," he said.

"I heard you were getting married. I hope that's not true."

Sam shook his head. "It isn't. But we need to... We need to talk."

Erica froze. If a word came out of his mouth about her escape, she would break. No matter how strong she was, no matter how many people she had killed, she remained the cowardly little Erika Ashryver, the daughter of Lady Lysandra and General Aedion. She was still the niece of the Queen of Terrasen. He was still more than just an assassin. "Of course," Erica whispered.

"Prince Sorin, the prince of the South Continent, will come on behalf of his father."

If there was anything worse than bringing her mother back from the dead and meeting her father again, this was it. Prince Sorin. Erica growled, wanting to turn into an animal and run away - this time no one would find her.

But she promised her uncle and aunt. And Sam had already sniffed her. He could smell her anywhere in the world now. 

"Does His Highness have any specific work?"

"Come on, Erica. He's actually very nice ... We're friends, you know?"

"I do not doubt."

For a moment, Sam just stared at her, at her blond hair, at Adedion's nose, at Lysandra's lips ... Then he just shook his head. "I know you hate him, but Sorin has heard that the East Queen is dead."