A Masquerade of Shadows

Prologue

Analleia

Six Months Before the Paravellian Balls

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EVERY GREAT ASSASSINATION plot required three vital elements: a setting, a target, and a marksman.

The setting tonight featured the imposing castle of Ravenwood overshadowing the sleeping village, our target the vicious overlord guilty of depraved crimes ignored by the nobles.

The marksmen consisted of me and my two companions.

Only unlike them, I’ve never killed anyone.

My gloved fingertips dug into the grooves of the stone wall, my leather boots finding their footholds as I climbed up the side of the tower.

If I’d worn a cloak, it would have billowed behind me in the brisk wind, flapping like a dragon’s wings from this height, but the cloth I wore stretched across my skin as close and dark as the night around me.

No fear crippled my limbs as the ground fell farther away beneath me, as I reached the dizzying height, but they trembled from the strain.

The two dark shadows of my companions beneath me followed the path I traversed upward.

The ledge of the upper window grew closer, and I paused as I came up on the left side of it, peering into the room.

No candles illuminated the interior, but moonlight identified the large shapes of the furniture.

I listened. Nothing. Either it was vacant or the occupants were asleep—as we wanted them to be.

I stepped onto the ledge, easing through the window and onto the gray stone floor with utter silence.

I stilled.

Nothing.

One step.

Two steps.

My companions slipped into the room behind me as I scanned our surroundings.

Two forms lay in the bed beneath a mound of covers.

Asleep. I crossed the room to guard the chamber door, slipping my dagger from its leather sheath.

No noise from the outer hall drifted beneath the doorway, but we needed to be quick.

We were all too aware that the presence of a stranger in someone’s room had the uncanny ability to raise them from the deepest slumber.

Desmond waited by the window as Nadiyah stalked forward, gliding across the floor to the edge of the massive bed like a wraith.

The flip of a coin flashed in my memory, the determining factor over who would wield the lethal blade.

The art of assassination took its toll—and I was thankful for their willingness to spare me from committing the actual deed.

I measured my breathing, my fingers curling around the hilt of the dagger as I watched Nadiyah draw her own.

The slightest twinge of movement drew my gaze to the shadows of the right-hand corner, where my eyes locked on a piece of furniture I’d given no thought to.

I heard a faint intake of breath and watched a tiny foot rise above the walls of the bassinet.

I froze, the life of this nameless child we were about to orphan playing out before me, twisting through my own memories and carving out my heart.

No. We couldn’t do this. Years of training to feel nothing, to act without emotion, all faded at the thought of the child.

“Wait!”

The frantic whisper left my lips without thought, without consideration for the consequences.

Someone’s breath caught, out of rhythm, before—

The scream ripped through my ears like the wail of a banshee and echoed off the stone walls, magnifying it by a thousand.

A woman’s scream. Our target next to her startled awake, and Nadiyah swiped out with her blade.

He jerked back before it slit his throat.

The door burst open behind me, flooding the room with torchlight as heavy boots sounded on stone.

I spun, the woman continuing to scream as she leapt for the baby, but my gaze locked on the guard who had charged into the room. A wide scar traveled down the right side of his confused face, the remnants of a burn from long ago.

A burn I recognized.

Fear overwhelmed me, choking the air from my lungs as the sight of his scars took me to a different time.

To a different castle with different screams. But screams had the power to awaken dark memories—memories I had tried for so long to repress.

They clawed at me now. I could feel the maid’s hands on my arms as she pulled me from my bed, shoving me into a hidden stairwell.

Shouts echoed behind us, the cries of dying soldiers reverberating off the walls.

Someone grabbed my arm, yanking me back, and I threw my lamp at my attacker, a roar ripping from their throat as the hot oil burned through their flesh.

I fled down the stairs, tripping on my nightdress—

My eyes refocused, remembering the scene around me. The tower. The assassination. The baby.

My dagger was in my grasp, but I couldn’t raise it to the scarred guard. I couldn’t kill him. He stared, weapon raised, hesitating as he narrowed his eyes at me in the dim light. I saw the flicker of recognition in them a second before the words left his mouth.

“I know you.”

A knife sailed past my ear and sank into the man’s chest. I stared at it in shock, trying to reacquaint myself with reality.

Another guard lay dead on the floor as more in the hall rushed toward the room.

Our target held a knife, dodging darts from Nadiyah as his wife huddled in the corner with the crying baby.

Reason clawed its way out of my mind. I raced back to the window ledge as Desmond glared at me. He and Nadiyah slithered out and down the tower.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. In and out in less than a minute. Undetected. Undiscovered until morning. That was the job. And I’d ruined everything. Cost us everything.

Guards poured through the doorway as I swung over the ledge, but they had already spotted me. Light streamed out the window and set off a domino effect through the rest of the tower, shouts and raised voices echoing off the stone within.

No. No. No.

Getting out now would be near impossible.

Reaching the bottom of the tower took far too long, but trying to move any faster risked us plummeting to our deaths. My hands grew slick within my gloves, my body trembling as I focused on finding the next foot or handhold.

The watch dogs barked. The gatehouse sprang to life. Nadiyah gasped then let out a soft cry as she fell. I hit solid ground and watched her try to take a step. She stumbled.

“My ankle,” she whispered.

Desmond slipped an arm beneath her to help bear her weight and dragged her forward.

“Find us a way out of here,” he snarled at me through gritted teeth.

The dog’s barking drew closer as we tore through the grounds.

Panic lit within me. We had half a field to cross after this.

The outer wall of the tower loomed ahead as the shouts grew louder behind us.

I pivoted, helping Desmond push Nadiyah over the wall before shimmying up it behind her.

Snarling dogs rushed up behind us and snapped at my legs, their spittle spraying my ankles with a rush of wind from their jaws.

I rolled over the top of the fence and hit the ground running.

Desmond hiked Nadiyah onto his back before following after.

Ten minutes ago the houses had been dark, but the commotion from the tower had woken the village. All stealth was gone.

I darted down an alleyway, racing toward the edge of the village.

Guards trickled out into the street with torches, looking for the intruders.

The drain pipe caught my eye. I nearly vomited at the thought but ran toward it at full speed.

Desmond groaned behind me, but Nadiyah couldn’t scale the village wall with only one leg. It was too high.

I yanked at the grate with all my might, willing it to move.

It shifted, and I shoved it out of the way before pushing Desmond and Nadiyah in first to give them a head start.

I dropped in, shaking as refuse pooled around my legs.

I maneuvered the grate back over the opening before pressing forward through the sludge, sticking my face into the crook of my elbow in an attempt to minimize the smell.

We crawled underground for what seemed like miles even though I knew it could only have been a few hundred yards.

The rank smell nearly made me pass out, but I followed the slosh of the liquid ahead of me where Desmond and Nadiyah moved through the dark.

Light wavered at the end of the tunnel, growing brighter until we broke out where the sewage dumped into the river.

I waded into the clean flowing water, dunking my head despite its freezing temperature, and rubbing my legs together as I tried to get rid of the nasty junk clinging to them before popping above the surface and swimming for the bank.

Water dripped from our clothes as we staggered out of the river and ran across the field, Nadiyah piggybacking on Desmond once more.

No lights followed. The guards weren’t pursuing.

If they hadn’t seen us disappear into the sewage, we might have a chance.

We didn’t stop moving until we reached the other side of the open field and found shelter deep within the forest trees.

My lungs heaved for fresh air, the dampness of my clothes chilling me.

Nadiyah leaned back and let Desmond examine her foot.

Her ankle was swelling, light bruising already coloring the skin.

Desmond’s movements were stiff, his jaw clenched, and I knew the eruption of my brother’s anger lingered only moments away.

Nadiyah stayed quiet, seeming to sense the tension hovering in the air, which only made me feel worse.

She could’ve died because of me.

“What was that back there?” Desmond asked in a low voice.

My hands trembled, eyes focused on the shadows swaying in the trees. I didn’t answer him. I didn’t know how to.

“You can’t throw a mission when others are involved, Analleia. If we hadn’t gotten out—”

“I know that,” I snapped, then dropped my voice to a whisper. “But there was a child.”

“We are not hired to ask questions or consider morals. We’re hired to do an assignment.

In and out. No complications. You didn’t just botch and jeopardize this assassination, you put all of our livelihoods on the line.

You don’t want to kill anyone? Fine. But Nadiyah and I need to maintain our reputations if we’re going to make a living.

Finding someone willing to hire us after tonight will be difficult. ”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Sorry isn’t good enough when our lives are at risk.”

His harsh voice cut through the night around me, and I fought the urge to take a step back. He rarely showed anger like this. It always simmered in a quiet rage within him.

He raked a hand through his hair, turning his back. “I saw you freeze. It happened again, didn’t it?”

I hesitated, fists clenching at my sides. Nadiyah met my eyes, and I swallowed, trying to hold back the barrage of memories that assaulted me. I’d kept them at bay for so long, but it seemed once I’d reawakened them they could not be silenced.

“You weren’t in the castle the night they attacked,” I said. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Was it a flashback?”

I didn’t answer.

“What triggered it?” Nadiyah asked.

“He knew my face,” I whispered. “He was there the night of the attack.”

“How can you be sure?”

I closed my eyes, willing the images flashing in my mind to stop.

“Because I never forget a face. He was there that night in the stairwell. He tried to grab me, and I threw the oil lamp at his face. He bore the scars. He recognized me. After all this time, he knew who I was.” I met their eyes. “Someone else might too.”

None of us said anything, the implication weighing down the conversation.

“I can’t do it,” I said. “Not like this. It’s too risky if someone recognizes us while we’re there like this guard did.” I swallowed. “I have to go to her.”

A rare spark of fear lit my brother’s eyes. “Analleia, no.”

“I made a promise, and I swore an oath,” I stated. “If I want to keep it, and we want to pull off this assassination, then I have to go to her.” I unsheathed my dagger, staring down at the face reflecting back at me in the metal. “I have to change my face.”