Lovely Dark Things

THIRTY-FOUR (RUBY POV)

As much as I hate to admit it, it's true that I've grown fond of Iselen after many years, no one expected her to last for that long but this is an untenable situation. An epic war will break between my family and other important families unless I do something and blood will run down the streets of this city, this infighting weakens us and lot of good warriors will die... Iselen's hard work and all her inventions will be ruined. Fuck... I shake my head again picturing myself kissing her in our bed, her silky legs around my waist and her wet core grinding against my pubis, lost in her pleasure and never noticing that my hand has grabbed the knife hidden under the pillow. I can do it fast and painless, she won't feel anything and will die in the middle of an orgasm... I promised that.

"Damn it..." I growl getting up angrily, rubbing my forehead with my fingers before taking my jacket and knives. I can't make up my mind now... Maybe if I talk to the Queen we could find a solution together: I know she still trusts the human and would like to keep her alive to learn more from her. I've barely moved two steps when a noise coming from the room on the other side of the corridor startles me, Iselen decided some years ago that this was going to be her office since the living room wasn't big enough to store all her books, maps and tools, and it's been her sanctuary since that day. I've spent lot of quiet evenings polishing my knives here while she was working. "Babe, what are you doing?"

I blink surprised holding the open door and my brain needs a minute to process what I'm seeing. The scene in front of my eyes is quite weird... The advisor is kneeled down on the floor while she finishes tying up a ribbon of a shirt, my favourite shirt, in fact, that a corpse lying on the floor is wearing... There's another body next to this one wearing one of Iselen's tunics and her protection charms around the neck... Come to think of it... Both corpses are the same height and complexion than us, with the same hair colour too, they're wearing our clothes and some characteristic jewels we especially love. The human gets up and takes a bottle, pouring all the content on their faces and also on the papers stacked on the table and the curtains. I scrunch my nose when smelling the strong scent of alcohol and tar we use for the Greek fire. Iselen moves a step back to admire her work and nods before turning around.

"Move away, Ruby..."

"What are you doing? What's going on here? Are those my favourite knives?" I ask puzzled pointing at the hips of the corpse that looks like me but it's not possible, my knives are hanging from my belt right now.

"Of course no, I'd never touch your beloved knives... those are perfect copies. Come on, we need to go downstairs before it explodes..." Iselen pushes me and manages to drag me to the tower back door before I can react and come out of shock.

"Explode?" Suddenly, a very loud noise above my head startles me and I look up scared. The Captain's tower is on fire, flames and sparks reach the windows and they quickly spread to the roof, some tiles fall on the ground close to us and the advisor rushes down an alley that leads to the area of the port where the Black Guard's ships are usually docked. "Oh no, I need an explanation now..." I growl following her, catching her easily two streets away even if she fights to release herself. "What's going on?" I ask getting more furious while the tower that's now a massive torch lights up her pretty face. I can hear elves and humans screaming behind us, everybody is scared since buildings and towers are built up very close because of the lack of room inside the city walls and fire spreads easily.

"I'm leaving... Oh come on, don't look at me like that... I'm not crazy," she answers harshly, pushing me to shove me away from her. "Did you really believe that I was going to stay here waiting for Helien to stab my back, or worse, to drag me to the sacrificial altar? I thought you knew me better..."

"What are you talking about? You can't leave..."

"Of course I can and you should come with me. That's why I left two corpses in the tower, they'll believe one of my experiments with Greek fire went wrong and we've died in the blaze. I'm giving you a chance to survive..." My girl points at me raising an eyebrow.