Blood and Roses

Chapter 9

Tami

Lyra opened her eyes.

"Rosalia!"

"Relax, she's not here right now," I said, studying her. "You don't look much like an assassin. What kind of a name is Lyra?"

"It's a constellation," Kane said from behind me. His knuckles were slit.

"Some fight you had," I said. "I've never seen you this beat up. Not even when you and Rosalia were trying to kill each other."

"That was one little fight," Kane said, inspecting his wound with a clinical eye.

"You tore up the city streets for a month," I said. "People were under the impression that there were two new gangs in town trying to kill each other with arrows."

"Ah," Lyra winced. "That would have been my fault."

"Don't push yourself too hard," I said as she tried to sit up. "So what's the story?"

"The story behind what?" Lyra said, pulling up her curly blond hair with a wince. Her dark blue eyes seemed to mirror the night sky.

"The name, Lyra," I said. "If I was going to ask about your injuries, I already would have. But I get the feeling that you don't want to tell that story right now, so I'm not going to ask."

"It's fine," Lyra said. A harp tattoo gleamed on the side of her neck--a lyre. "Every assassin in the Alliance is given a second name. You look at Kane. He's known as the Panther."

"The Panther?" I said, turning to Kane. "It suits you."

Kane had always reminded me of a cat stretched out in the summer sun, lazy and relaxed, but whenever I saw him fight I got the distinct impression of a jungle cat inspecting his prey and waiting for the right moment to pounce.

"You're telling me," Kane said, avoiding my gaze. He started cleaning under his nails with a dagger.

"Well, anyway I was just a new assassin," Lyra said. "Nobody really knew what my talent was. Most people are named after their fighting style or talents they have. But I wasn't a very good fighter, and Andrew just didn't know what to do with me. One day, Rosalia heard me singing in the shower. She said I had a good voice."

I grinned, "High praise from Rosalia. We've heard a lot of bad singers in our time."

"Anyway, the name stuck," Lyra said. "Pretty soon, everyone in the Alliance knew me as Lyra."

With Lyra's beating came a whole host of bad luck. First, the city was in disarray because of the battle between the Reeds and the Warlands that had threatened to consume everything. Then, Rosalia kept on disappearing for long periods of time. When she came back, she wouldn't meet Wren's eyes.

"Hey, Wren, what the hell's going on between you and Rosalia?"

I'd just come back from a particularly irritating summit with the remnants of the Council where I was sure Venus was supposed to be a leader. But for some reason Rosalia didn't say anything.

"That obvious, isn't it?" Wren said, leaning back in his chair in his study. "I honestly don't know."

"Well, you need to fix it," I said. "Rosalia's happiest when she's around you. You two need each other at a time like this."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I've seen what you two can do when you work together."