The Puppet Assassin [TTR sequel]

The Puppet Assassin - Ch 30 [death's harvester]

Suddenly, Larkin raised his hand. “I have a third option. Luke, Dizelde, there is the possibility that this man could help us. In return, of course, we’d ensure that whoever is threatening him will not be able to reach him.”

“How could he possibly help us?” Luke asked.

“He knows the person that wants Dizelde. We can use him to seek the man out which will give us one less thing to worry about.”

Garth growled lowly, a sound that made the hairs on the back of my neck and arms stand up. And I had to agree with him.

“I wouldn’t trust Scythe an inch,” I said coldly, trying to hide my nerves that appeared as I spoke up. Everyone was staring at me. “He – he isn’t going to help you anyway. It gives him no benefit. Because he can have other people protect him.”

All of a sudden, an idea popped up. An idea that formed a theory which made me feel ill.

“The man, whoever it is, either worked for my father or worshipped him. And Scythe, he probably was paid, given money to raise me into a killer. Someone wanted me developed into the person my father wanted me to be. And then, when he thought me ready to actually end someone’s life, he sent me out, sent me into the hands of the man who wants to use me as his killer.”

Except the trauma my father had dealt onto me as a child had meant that I couldn’t even consider ending a life without breaking down mentally, I added silently.

“You were worth enough to make my training compound what it is today,” Scythe said calmly, no longer looking so worried. “And I can’t hold back the final product from my client any longer.”

He stood, slowly and faced Luke. “I will give you one chance to relinquish her to me. All you have to do is nod your head and I will leave you with that head in place. Shake it, and I will make certain that it will be separated from your body in the slowest, most agonizing way possible.”

Luke stood still. Garth came flying past, leaping at Scythe. And it broke the stillness of the room. Larkin, without a word, straightened out of his seat and in one fluid movement, tucked me into a tight hold against his chest and practically flew from the room. My eyes could barely keep up with the colours and lights of my surroundings as he sped upstairs. We came to the end of a corridor and opened a wide wooden panel in the wall, revealing a small room that had a bed and a small screen attached to one of the walls.

“Dizelde.”

I looked up at him, he looked desperately back at me. “Stay here. I need you to stay put.” He shut his eyes for a moment and when he opened them, they were firm. “I know you want to help, I know you can help, but there’s always a chance that you could be harmed or even somehow taken away and I can’t let that happen. So stay here.”

He turned and sprinted away, back downstairs. I heard the crashing of glass and knew that the others were entering the house to back up Scythe. Scythe, who taught assassins, who fought like he could read minds, who could hurt my three friends who were out number nearly four to one. I bent down and took off my shoes, glancing to the room. I felt a smidgen of guilt, considering that Larkin had left before I’d even entered the room. He’d seriously expected me to walk in there and twiddle my thumbs in wait for one of them, or somebody else, to come and tell me it was time to come out. He’d trusted me to go inside.