Chapter 8: Ilya

Marcel is asking questions.

I can feel a sort of anger ripple through me at the fact that he suddenly wants to make all of this look like it is my fault. The carriage that carries Ivan is just behind ours and each and every mile that we travel in going closer to my parent's manor makes a sort of strange feeling wash through me.

It has been six and a half years, six and a half years since i have left here and gone to the castle. I left the moment i hit sixteen and now that i'm coming back, a feeling that i do not understand is lodged deep in my belly.

There is a part of me that tells me this is because of the fact that i might be taking someone to meet my sister so they can strike a marriage proposal, that makes a weird emotion pass through me, especially when that someone is someone to me but still, i have to remind myself that i am taking Marcel to go see Mother not because he wants to get married to my sister, but because he has been asked to, and notwithstanding the fact that he could have easily said no, i will take him all the same.

"Relationship problems?"

My ears perk up at the sound of another's voice intruding into my thoughts and i look through the bars of the carriage that i am resting on. He is smiling.

"I didn't quite get that"

He swallows at the edge of steel in my voice and it makes a ripple of satisfaction flow through me. The Assassins of the House Aro are famous for one thing and one thing only, they can kill. I had always thought the assassins were simply a rumor, i had even thought the house Aro was also a rumor but it seems a lot of things that i had thought had been wrong.

I was in the library when i received word that the queen was asking for me. Usually i would have simply penned down a sweet little letter telling her that she needn't worry about me, i am in the library and i am doing perfectly fine but this time it had been different. She was right behind the servant and she sent him away with a wave of the hand while she settled in to address me.

Queen Yolanda is one of the few people that i would like to say actually gets me. I don't know what relationship she bears to my father or my mother, well whichever one of them had been able to ensure that i was received at the castle warmly and so much so that the Queen herself had bypassed her family and come to see me first. She had told me a lot of things a few days ago in an effort to stall what i think she considered the huge and more painful news. She should have known better.

"Are you laughing?"

"Will you shut up?"

Ivan is wearing one of his signature smiles on his face and in the few short hours that we have spent together, i know what that smile means perfectly well. It isn't the smile he had worn when had first seen me, the lopsided and toothy sort that Marcel has been trying to perfect for a while now, probably so he can use it on Matilda or the next pretty face that tickles his fancy.

No. He shoved that toothy smile away the moment he had seen me heal his wounds.

The smile he wears now is one that is barred. One that is shuttered and wary of what and who i am. He smiles with feigned confidence like he is not worried at what i might do to him next but i can see it. I can see the fascination and fear in his eyes.

The Head Assassin of the House Aro....... he is my age and he wears a mask of sorts to prevent people from seeing his true face. He is also of a very confusing character because one minute he gives you the cool and calm big guy sort of feeling and the next he is talking about how the fool that had gotten him into this mess of carriages and chains had been foolish enough to think he would wear the same scent twice after he had expressly complained that it makes his skin itch.

He feels materialistic and base minded at first but as the day has progressed i have encountered the other layers of him. I have encountered the one who doesn't understand how all his wounds are gone and i have encountered the assassin who knows when to speak and what to say. I have also met the part of him that knows not to say some things and i am thankful for that part.

There is also the pesky part of him. The part that will not relent to ask me questions about anything and everything all because he can. There is also the part of him that wants to know which member of the house Bartell i am travelling with but i'm guessing with the way Marcel had been shouting while he was talking earlier he knows already.

There is also the matter of the confrontation attempt of last week.

My cheeks heat up at the image that pops up in my mind and i can hear Ivan gasp before he lets out a laugh that is surprisingly warm for an assassin. Laughter also escapes my mouth even though the memory that had popped into my head was one that left me shocked and angry, surprisingly so too.

"What was it?"

I look at Ivan and he smirks back at me while he wiggles his eyebrows.

"What was what?"

"That thing right now, the one that made you blush out of the blue, what was it?"

The image comes unbidden to my head again and instead of me to feel any sort of pain at the fact, i simply let myself chuckle and i shake my head.

"It was.... a scandalous situation"

He smiles even wider at that and i am sure that if not for the chains holding him back he would have scooched closer already with a question mark in his eyes.

He makes the eyebrow raise gesture Genya had been fond of doing whenever she wanted something from me, just that his is sort of playfully inquisitive and i have to wonder, is this really the guy who killed my uncle, killed the person who betrayed him, and also injured my father all in one night?.

He smiles almost like he knows what the assessing look i am giving him is for and then there's that toothy smile again.

"Impressed?"

A small laugh escapes me and i nod.

"Quite, tell me, is this how all the other Aroassins behave?"

He quirks an eyebrow up at me and i retrace my words.

"Aroassins?"

He beat me to finding my mistake.

"Sorry, that is a term i use for the assassins of the house Aro, but my question still stands though. You don't feel like the sort of person who would kill a fly".

He smirks.

"Feelings can be deceiving, i can say the same about you"

I smile at that but the smile fades away when i see the bruise that is spreading on his cheek. My boot had connected with the bone there shortly before he passed out but that just goes to back what he was saying earlier.

"Does it hurt?

He winces as he shifts his cheek and i roll my eyes at that because shouldn't an assassin be more indifferent to pain than this.

"It'll heal"

He looks hurt and i shake my head. Seems i have also been introduced to the babyish side of Ivan of House Aro.

"Can i know where we are headed to at least?"

His voice is deeply rare and it reminds me of Dorian's. Marcel's elder brother has the weird kink for mimicking other's voices and his brother's when he is around me. They have sisters but for some reason they are all still very young and they stay with their grandmother in a land far far away.

Sounds like a bedtime story but still.

"We are headed to the Manor of the Duke who you so heavily injured"

He pales but then he brightens the next moment.

"So we're headed to your place?"

I nod my head at this and i can see dark eyes glimmer with what i suppose is intelligence.

I sigh.

"Note of warning, if i were you i wouldn't want to make any moves to escape or take anyone captive for that matter, because you will fail and i will kill you if you so much as mistakenly lay a hand on my sister or mother"

He looks at me and i let him look into my eyes. He gulps and even though that could be acting, i'll take it he got the message.

"Who are we riding with?"

There is a smirk on his face and i read it for what it is. He already knows.

I turn back to see Marcel standing behind me and i shake my head.

Why can't he just stay away for once?.