Lady Mutiny

Fourteen

A rage unlike none other coursed through Lilia's blood as she stormed from the dining room.

"Lilia."

She would need something other than the training clothes she had been allowed. Riding leathers might make due... she was certain she'd be able to find a pair within the clothier's quarters.

"Lilia?"

The training dagger, however, would not do. She'd have to find something sturdier, sharper in the armory, but it was always locked and constantly guarded. Not that that mattered - she had infiltrated plenty of buildings in the past with far less security.

"Lilia!"

Lilia almost collided into Andro's chest by the force alone of him, pulling back on her arm to halt her from a furious trajectory.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked her, gripping her by both arms firmly as he made her meet his gaze.

Her dark eyes flickered with an inner fire that that only meant violence. "I'm going to kill him," she hissed through her teeth.

"And he's expecting that," he reminded her calmly, keeping his hold on her arms. "And if you run head-first into this, you're only going to get yourself killed."

"So long as I take Baz down with me, I don't give a damn," she snarled in the Lord's face.

"And how do you think Cassandra would feel about that? To find out her sister has been alive all this time, by way of her killing her fiancé?"

His words made Lilia hesitate, if only slightly.

"Cass has nothing to do with this," she countered tersely.

"No, she doesn't, and still Sebastian Gaylen is using her against you, albeit unknowingly."

She held his gaze as her jaw clenched. It was possible Cass was an innocent in all of this- still so blinded by love that she could not see her paramour for the devil he truly was...

Or, there was the off-chance that Cassandra knew exactly who Baz was, and continued to want to remain by his side even still.

Lilia didn't know which scenario disgusted her more.

"If you're going to ambush Lathos, you need to be prepared."

Andro's voice snapped her back to reality. "You're going to let me leave?"

"You are my assassin, after all."

She watched him, waiting for further explanation, but none came. It was then she remembered dinner, and the conversation they were having before the invitations interrupted.

"Why?" she finally breathed. And she didn't just mean his allowance of her departure. And Andro knew that as well.

With a glance down the hallway, Andro kept a hand on her arm as he led her further on. Not to her bedroom, but past it- well past it- to his own sleeping quarters.

"If there's ever a place to talk clandestinely and not be disturbed, this will be it," he explained as she gave him a quizzical look.

Indeed.

Though there were guards stationed outside of Andro's room, they were within the hallway as opposed to right outside his door- if anyone was to infiltrate the castle and attempt to take their Lord's life, they wouldn't allow them to get close enough to his bedroom door before ending his folly.

But, Lilia mused to herself as she stepped through the large wooden doors, if an assassin was any good he wouldn't be running through the halls to begin with. He would look to the windows, which was where her gaze drifted. Large glass doors covered with heavy curtains to keep out the morning sun. They were drawn and opened out to a balcony that, she then realized, looked right out to her own.