Inbetween

Chapter One

Even her footfalls on the marble floor did not make a sound. As long as she commanded it, no sound would come from her passage through these halls. Ciel's mission was halfway done. The old Duke had been easy enough to kill. A whisper in the old man's ear while he slept and it was all over. She had not even needed a whole song to do her deed.

Going after Duke Durya's heir might give her the challenge she felt she so sorely needed at the moment. Yuri was a mystery. No one understood entirely why the Duke had picked someone with no standing at all to be his heir, but it was widely acknowledged that he was a talented young man. She hoped for a bit of a fight for the sake of her sense of honor but knew the job would be more expeditious without one.

Ciel wanted to keep the element of surprise on her side. No one saw her come or go from the scene of the crime. She cloaked as much of the palace as she dared in silence. No one would hear anything to cause alarm until after she was long gone. All she could do was get to him before anyone realized the duke was dead.

She stuck to the shadows. Not even her clothing caused a whisper of sound. Invisible and inaudible, she moved with stealthy confidence because she knew she could kill with just a word.

The second job would be another death in bed at this hour. She rounded the corner and prepared to slip behind the bedchamber door when she felt a pair of eyes on her. She melted into the shadows and cloaked herself in the sounds of a peaceful night.

Watching, waiting, not even daring to blink she poised to begin her song. Her mark hesitated and for a split second so did she. That second was an amateur mistake. After all of the deaths dealt out by the sound of her voice, she should not be hesitating now. Alone and in a dark hallway, these were the sort of conditions people in her profession liked to see.

This particular target was a bit different. Her typical target was old, corrupt and of a class that usually had servants to perform even the simplest of tasks for them. The only resistance in those cases was provided by those that were paid to be guards. They might put up a fight, but in the end, they were only doing their job and backed down when their life was on the line. Yuri was not a long time member of the idle rich. He knew how to survive and how to fight back. It was not often that Ciel had this sort of challenge.

His instincts were not dulled by age or excess. Her instincts said he could not see or hear anything, which should have been enough to make anyone feel secure. Not him. Yuri turned and ran.

Ciel chased after him. She could kill without touching, but her target needed to be near enough to hear her call for his death.

He was fast, but with all sounds being dampened around them, no one would have any reason to take notice to his race through the hall. Eventually, he would make a mistake. All she had to do until then was keep close enough not to lose him entirely. Even though she prepared by memorizing the layout of the palace, he still had the advantage of familiarity. There were still some variables outside of her control, but now that he was on the run she could manipulate some of those variables in her favor.

The distance between them was still too great for her to kill, but she was still close enough to send out rippling waves of sound to make him panic and doubt himself. She considered her effort a success when she spotted a brief hesitation before he turned the corner and ran down another hall.

It was a small chink in his defense, but it was something that she could exploit further. Each hesitation on his part gave her time to close the distance between them. Soon she would be close enough to deal the killing blow.

She rounded the corner a second after him and he was gone. A wave of magical energy washed over her and disappeared without a trace. Yuri was not in front of her. Yuri was not hiding. He was gone.