Trashes of the Counts' Families || Trash of the Count's Family || OC

55

As quickly as she could, she kicked the assassin's legs, took the dagger out of his hands and climbed on top of him to cut his cheek.

She raised the dagger as high as her sore arms could go and was about to impale him in the throat. But he was freaking out, muttering shit, breathing rapidly. And a few seconds later, he was lifeless under her.

She threw the dagger far away, reminded of a moment when she stabbed an assassin in the throat multiple times. She had cared that time that she couldn't feel anything. She didn't care anymore.

It was them or her.

And she would always choose her.

But her shoulder was still hurting. Fuck, she thought, putting her hand over the bleeding cut again. Why am I always getting hit in the shoulder?

Then she remembered how fast the assassin had died, and she froze. With how fast the poison worked, it could only be Prototype 71. He was an assassin, the only natural place for him to get a dose of poison was from the Underworld. The only question was, who released it?

They did not release the poison for sure, so it had to be someone else.

It could not be from one of their competitors. The Thornwin Family were a big dealer in poison in the Underworld, and all competitors that dared to compete with them had plenty of background checks done on them and were monitored extensively. She would have been alerted immediately if anybody released a poison like this.

She also knows that her Family did not release it, as her approval is needed before releasing a poison, and Sadie would never let her need to see Adara surprised interfere with the work. And even if another member of her Family authorised it, Sadie— according to policy— would have to ask her anyway.

And she knows that they would never release Prototype 71 onto the Underworld. It was too fast.

Usually, they only released a poison onto the Underworld when they had an antidote that worked 100% of the time. They did have an antidote for Prototype 71, but they haven't released it because it was too fast. You didn't have time to take the antidote before the poison reached your heart, and you died.

So they've been trying to dilute it, make it slower. It hasn't worked, and she's lost 5 people working in the Poison Department because of it.

That leaves only one possibility, she thought. Someone has leaked the poison to the Underworld. Someone with access to the poison. One of the people working on it.

But she paused. It was odd for one of the Poison Department to be the one responsible since the Thornwins pay exceptionally well, especially the Poison Department.

Especially the Poison Department, since Adara guessed that if they were given higher pay checks, they would be less willing to volunteer themselves to test the poison out and possibly die.

So it needed to be someone who wasn't in need of money but was greedy for more money. That could be any of the Poison Department. But not Sadie.

Sadie was content where she was, and Adara knew that. She was Head of the Poison Department, one of the highest-paying jobs in the Thornwin Territory. She had anything that she needed or wanted provided for her by Adara.

So it must be the others.

She looked down at the body still under her. She sighed, standing up though her legs protested even more to that. Her shoulder was tingling, and she felt dizzy. She needed to get to the Palace immediately.

So she put a quick invisibility spell over her and started running. She wouldn't be able to scale the wall and climb into her room; she would need to use the main entrance.