Impractical (Complete)

Chapter 18: Aiyana's Friend

With every scroll they handed out, Aiyana felt sure she was assigning these men their prescripted doom. Some reacted better than others, taking the parchment without a word. Some argued. Some broke down into tears. Every single family had one thing in common: they despised the King and his armies.

Once they finished the street, Fox and Aiyana turned down a darkened alleyway, long and winding, where stray cats roamed and rubbish had been tipped. There were steps at the turn of the alley where the passageway narrowed. Though Fox knew he could have squeezed down it next to Aiyana, it would have meant that he would have been close enough to touch every part of a body and right now, he just needed to distance himself. Therefore, he hung back, letting her go in front of him.

She wasn't paying him much attention, engrossed in one of the opened scrolls. The words were written in glossy black ink that still shone even though it had dried long ago. The bottom was hardened with a blue wax seal of the King. It had a snowflake engraved into it, looking more like a weapon than an icy beauty.

The sun had set and though the day had been clear, gloomy grey clouds had taken over the sky so the stars were concealed. It was dark, with the streetlights fading as the continued further down the alley. Their only light was from the full moon. The craters upon its face looked like grey blemishes, downhearted from the terror on Xera.

Fox found himself watching it, how the clouds glided so smoothly over it and shrouded them in darkness. Yet, unlike Aiyana, he didn't love the sky as much and he found himself scanning the flat roofs overlooking them.

That's when he saw it.

A flash of silver.

Later on, Fox would reflect about how he was so lucky to have seen the pearl handle of the gun. So many possibilities could have led him to looking at something else and then he and Aiyana wouldn't be alive.

He jumped on Aiyana. She fell forward with a thud, hissing at him as he rolled over, dragging her with him. Just where her head had been seconds ago, the cobbles crumbled, creating a noise like an avalanche due to his heightened senses. The person with the gun had a silencer.

Aiyana fought from Fox's grasp across her chest and leapt to her feet, already aware of the location of the enemy. She watched as the person dressed in the same black, form fitting overalls as Aiyana had previously, slunk from the roof to the floor. She pulled her hood back as the moon suddenly illuminated the whole area.

A gun was pointed right at Aiyana's chest but she didn't seem to notice. Her mouth dropped open at the sight of the other assassin.

"Carlyn?"

The other woman had strawberry blonde hair, pulled into an unrelenting bun. Her blue eyes were wide, bigger than Aiyana's but she had none of the same beauty. Her chin was weak, her stance shaky. Her arm wasn't even still as she held the gun, her fingers over the trigger.

"Don't you dare talk to me, Aiyana!" she said, trying to sound commanding but failing miserably.

Aiyana remained calm outwardly and her face was obscured so Fox had no way of knowing what she was thinking.

Shit.

"Carlyn," Aiyana whispered, though her voice carried authority. "What are you doing? Why are you trying to kill me?"

"King Logan told me to. You know how he is Aiyana. He'll hurt me if I don't do this."

Wait. What?!

Fox waited for a reaction from Aiyana. Why would the King of Nasta want to kill some lowly maid in the House of Avgusta? The only change he detected in Aiyana was her change in posture. Her shoulders stiffened visibly, every muscle seeming to tense in her entire body.

She said, in the same voice, "You don't want to kill me."

"Yes I do! I do! I do!" Carlyn moaned but she sounded like she was convincing herself more than she was convincing Aiyana. "He'll do the same to me like he did to you." She was crying, her arm shaking so violently that Fox was terrified that she might accidentally pull the trigger. He focused on her, this new assassin. Aiyana seemed to draw them in like she was meat and they were flies.

He had to do something. But what?

Carlyn hadn't noticed him and it hit him. Aiyana was playing for time. She was relying on him. Fox remained in the shadows, cautiously getting to his feet, not making a sound. He imagined Carlyn being a startled deer that he was trying to hunt. Any distraction and she would shoot.

"So don't go back."

"He'll find me, Aiyana. He has spies everywhere."

"Carlyn..."

But to Carlyn, the conversation was over. She braced the gun with her second hand, her face turning to stone. "I have to do this."

She kept her eyes open as she pulled the trigger.

Yet, her aim was not true because Fox attacked her with all his body weight. The bullet hit the wall, somewhere to Aiyana's right. She gasped as the gun scattered away, the pearl handle that had saved them still glinting in the moonlight. Carlyn struggled against Fox, twisting her body to escape in a way only an assassin would know. She was freeing her legs only, aiming kicks for his gut or his groin.

Aiyana was suddenly beside them, her eyes cold as she pulled Carlyn away from Fox's grasp so that her back was pressing against Aiyana's chest in a standing position. "I guess we aren't friends if you're going to drag my past behind me," she hissed.

"You can't love, Aiyana. He cursed you," Carlyn spat.

Curling one leg around Carlyn, she made the other girl drop to her knees. Aiyana flattened her palm, her heart beating rapidly with adrenaline instead of anxiety. This was what she lived for. She knew her enemy and how to take them out without killing them. This was why she loved being an assassin. It silenced all the anxiety in her mind.

She hit the pressure point on Carlyn's shoulder with accuracy so that she toppled like a rag doll. Aiyana lowered her gently to the ground before turning to face Fox. There was fury burning in his eyes and she knew she finally owed him an explanation.

Not knowing how long Carlyn would be unconscious, Fox grabbed Aiyana by the upper arm and dragged her away, finding another abandoned alleyway. With an anger Aiyana had never seen before, he pushed her against a wall, her shoulders banging painfully against the mossy stone. She wasn't afraid though. She had knives by her hips but that was not what calmed her.

This is Fox. He'll never hurt me.