Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an Assassin (2 page)

To one where Ixion might
have come from.

She looked at him again,
as furtively as possible so he didn’t realise that she couldn’t
keep her eyes off him. He was incredible. His straight nose, the
delicious curve of his dusky lips, and the strong square line of
his jaw made his profile so noble that she could imagine that he
was a prince from some distant planet. The light shone off his
purple eyes, making them bright. It wasn’t just his profile that
made him regal. It was the way that he held himself. He walked with
his shoulders back and chin tilted up, a confident stride that
spoke of assurance. No man was a threat to him. More than a prince.
He looked like a king.

Her gaze flickered to the
palace. He was certainly more of a prince than two of her older
brothers, Aiden and Ciel, and possibly more than her oldest brother
Rezic.

Natalia glanced at Ixion
again and then up at the crescent moon and the stars beyond. Where
did Ixion come from? How old had he been when he had joined the
royal assassins?

She had first heard his
name when she was five. That was twenty Lyran years ago now. Ixion
didn’t look beyond fifteen years older than her. She wanted to ask
him about his species but didn’t dare converse so freely with him.
A princess wasn’t supposed to talk to those outside her circle,
even if she wanted to know about them more than anything in the
world.

If she knew what species
he was, she could look it up on her computer pad at home and learn
more about him. She could find out whether his species aged
differently to Lyrans, like the Varkans and Vegans did. He was no
species that she recognised. She had never met another man like
him. Everyone seemed so ordinary in comparison.

He was quiet as he walked
beside her but she could sense that he wasn’t deep in thought. He
was aware of everything, his hands remaining constantly near the
two long daggers strapped to his thighs. Did he think that she was
in danger? The streets were empty. They hadn’t seen a soul since
leaving the entertainment quarter.

The light shone on him
again, making the delicate royal Lyran blue embroidery around the
cuffs of his black stand-up collared jacket glimmer.

Natalia realised that he
hadn’t been out tonight without reason. If he had been off duty, he
wouldn’t have worn his uniform. It was obvious to any who knew
about the Lyran royal family that he was an assassin. He had been
on a mission, or he had wanted to be seen.

That was a strange notion
for Natalia. Ixion was their best assassin. She had only seen him
once in her lifetime and they had been in the same palace since she
was a child. She had seen other assassins several times, which had
led her to believe that the one time she had seen Ixion, he had
wanted to be seen.

He had wanted her to see
him.

Just as he had wanted her
to tonight.

Her parents hadn’t sent
him. He wasn’t on a mission from the palace. He had sent himself. A
chill raced through her but she wasn’t frightened. In fact, she
felt strangely honoured that Ixion had chosen to retrieve her and
bring her home safely.

It wasn’t his duty to do
such things, but he had done it nonetheless.

Which meant he was telling
the truth when he said that no one at the palace knew.

“
What were you
doing in the city?” she said, hoping that he would just think that
she was making small talk and wasn’t probing for
answers.

“
Following
you.” His eyes remained forwards, his deep voice
emotionless.

Her heart thumped against
her chest. Following her? He must have seen her leave the palace
and wondered where she was going so late in the day. She always
left after dinner and it was getting dark then at this time of
year.

“
Why?” That
question came out blunter than she had wanted.

Ixion looked at her. He
blinked slowly but not a trace of emotion showed in his
eyes.

“
I have noticed
you leaving the palace at night for several months.” He faced
forwards again and a frown married his eyebrows. “It is dangerous
at night in the city right now.”

Was it? It didn’t seem any
different to usual but he would know better than her. The only city
matters that she was involved in were balls, openings and
festivals, and any other ceremonies. Her father kept her and her
siblings away from news that he thought might upset them. Was
something going to happen? If it did, the palace was well
protected. The bridges over the wide moat would rise and the shield
would activate to cover the entire area in a dome. If something
happened, she would be safe, but it still frightened her when she
thought about it.

Her city had always been
peaceful. The only violence she had ever witnessed was drunken
fights outside the club.

“
So you came
for me?” she said in a quiet voice, distracted by her thoughts and
the idea that Ixion had feared for her safety. He nodded. “Thank
you.”

His purple gaze slid to
her. “It is my duty to protect you and your family.”

She stopped and turned to
face him. “It is also your duty to tell my family what I have done,
is it not?”

Ixion came to a halt and
slowly moved to face her.

“
Are you going
to tell my father?” Natalia’s heart clenched at the thought. Her
father would be so angry with her for going out into the city after
dark and singing somewhere so public without any guards. She bit
her lip and stared into Ixion’s eyes, waiting to hear her
sentence.

She would do anything to
keep him silent.

A frown creased her brow
when a voice at the back of her mind asked exactly how far she
would go to silence Ixion.

The pale light of the
streetlamp shone down on his face. His gaze held hers, steady and
intent, his stunning purple irises stirring something deep inside
her. She pressed a hand to her stomach as it warmed. Her heart
fluttered against her ribs like a butterfly, trembling in its
attempt to break free and fly to him.

He was so mysterious and
handsome, and she had never experienced anything like the pull she
felt to him. It was deep, making her chest and stomach hot, and
tingles dance along her nerve endings whenever his eyes met
hers.

“
We must keep
moving,” he said at last.

Natalia shook her head.
“No. Not until you promise not to tell my parents.”

His eyes darkened as he
frowned. He looked as though he was going to refuse and then slowly
nodded.

“
But you must
promise me something in return.” Those words held a sense of
foreboding and she knew what he was going to say. She didn’t move,
didn’t want to agree to his terms, even though it would mean
trouble if she didn’t. “You must stop leaving the palace to
sing.”

It hurt to agree to that,
to sacrifice the one thing that made her truly happy and feel free,
but she nodded nonetheless. She had no other choice. She was asking
a lot of him by making him promise to keep her habit secret and go
against his duty to inform her parents of any danger to the family.
The least she could do was promise that she wouldn’t put herself at
risk anymore.

With a heavy heart,
Natalia followed him over the bridge that led to the palace grounds
and through a side gate. No one was on the other side and it wasn’t
a gate that she was familiar with. Was it one that the assassins
used? She hadn’t been paying attention to whether Ixion had a key
for it.

Looking up at the palace
towering above her, she tightened her grip on her sack of clothes
and sighed. So much for freedom. She was reduced to singing in her
room again and living the life of a princess.

They walked up through the
gardens and she followed Ixion when he branched away from her
normal path and took a barely visible one through the low flowering
shrubs. It twisted and snaked its way through the garden and she
was surprised when it came out right by the door to her
apartments.

She looked back, trying to
see the path, but the night stole her vision and made the path
invisible—just as it made Ixion invisible. She could barely see him
in the low light from her apartments. He lingered in the shadows
away from her door, on the main path that led to the back of the
palace.

Natalia looked into his
eyes, wondering if he would keep his promise and whether she would
ever see him again. Twice in her life, he had allowed her to see
him, and this time it had affected her deeply. She wanted to know
more about him and how he came to be at the palace. She wanted to
know why he had come to escort her back rather than sending a
guard, and why he would keep her secret when it went against his
duty to do so.

Most of all, she wanted to
know him.

He placed his right hand
against his chest and bowed. “Goodnight, my lady.”

With that he disappeared
into the night before she could even realise he was gone. She
blinked and stared at the spot where he had been.

She pressed her hand
against the panel beside her door. The light flashed blue and the
twin arched glass and white wood doors to her apartments opened.
She looked back into the garden, trying to catch a glimpse of
Ixion.

She knew that he was still
nearby. She could feel him watching her, just as she had felt his
eyes on her at the club.

“
Goodnight,”
she whispered and then walked into her apartments, knowing that she
wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.

Not when her heart and
mind were full of Ixion.

He made her feel things
that she had never experienced before.

For the first time in her
life, she wanted to know a male’s touch.

Ixion’s touch.

****

Chapter
2

Ixion tilted his head back
and looked up the impressive height of the central courtyard of the
palace to the blazing blue sky above. It was hard to tell what time
it was. It seemed to be moving slowly today, dragging its heels as
though the sun didn’t want to set. He wished it would. Today had
been nothing short of torture.

And he couldn’t keep his
mind off Natalia.

Every shy glance and smile
she had given him had been replayed in his mind at least a thousand
times since he had left her last night. His concentration was shot,
enough that he had agreed to something without thinking it through.
Something he was regretting.

Aiden collided with Ciel
and burst into a fit of laughter when his older brother fell, his
backside hitting the white flagstones of the courtyard
hard.

Ixion’s jaw
ticked.

How could the beautiful
and elegant Natalia be related to such buffoons?

Her older brothers were
both fools, good for nothings that didn’t know the meaning of work
or study.

Ixion pressed his fingers
to the bridge of his nose.

“
Again… without
the tomfoolery,” he ground the words out from between clenched
teeth.

A curse rolled off Ixion’s
tongue when the two men ignored what he had said and began to play
fight with the wooden swords that he had provided for use in their
lesson today. When their tutor returned from his urgent business,
Ixion was going to have words with him. Aiden and Ciel were
impossible. They lacked even basic manners and their fighting skill
was atrocious.

If they continued to vex
him much longer, he was going to have to intervene and show them
how quickly they would lose in a fight for their lives. He couldn’t
hurt them but he could bring them down several pegs. It would take
him no more than ten seconds to disarm and pretend to kill
them.

Ciel brushed his black
hair from his eyes, smoothing the strands back into his long
ponytail, and thrust the wooden sword at Aiden. Aiden was two years
younger than Ciel but they were both broad of build and tall, a
strange mixture of their mother and father, just like the family’s
firstborn, the twins Renie and Rezic.

Rezic showed as much
responsibility towards his species as the two younger brothers did.
Ixion didn’t think much of Renie’s exploits either. As the first
princess of the family, she should have remained on Lyra Five and
attended to her duties.

Being an elite member of
the royal guard gave him access privileges to the family’s
schedule.

All of the appointments
that were assigned to her brothers and sister, Natalia attended.
She went to all of the ceremonies and receptions, and read through
most of the invitations and letters that came to the
palace.

Her brothers and sister
could learn a lot from Natalia.

Her schedule was punishing
but she endured it because she felt a responsibility towards her
people. A true princess—kind, warm hearted, open and
beautiful.

Aiden bumped into him.
Ixion gritted his teeth and pushed him away, barely stopping
himself from hitting him as he desired to. He sighed and looked up
at the patch of sky again, willing the time to pass so he could
escape to somewhere quiet where he could be alone with his
thoughts.