Chapter 4

Sky POV

I wasn’t an early fairy. Never. My time was midnight, not evening nor dusk.

Nonetheless, I was awakened by a loud banging at my door, while it was still light outside.

Gods, just let me sleep!

“I hate you whoever you are!!” I yelled covering my ears with pillows. 

“L-Lord Langbroek requested your p-presence in the training room.” a nervous voice broke through the barrier over my ears.

*Growl*

Can’t he let me rest one night?

Quickly taking on a set formed of a pair of tight black shorts, a similar top, and soft black boots I hurried to the training room in the basement. A refusal or delay brought a punishment along, and it’s better not to see Tamor mad.

The training room was a huge circular space, around 300 meters in diameter. It was actually naturally formed by the roots of the tree on which our house was. Great, right?

Torches on its perimeter and a few candelabras were illuminating the space. Walls covered in weapons and targets. A bit sinister if you ask me, but sets the mood.

Some creatures were practicing on swords, others hand to hand, some exercising on their own. 

Tamor stopped his masterclass with some daggers and casually approached me, inspecting my body.

“Well, not bad.” his smirk grew as he threw a sword in my direction. I caught it with a hand. “Let’s see how is your technique.”

“Yes, daddy.” I grinned back.

We started circling each other, searching for a weak spot. Tamor’s cherry eyes glimmered in the torches light. He won't go easy on me, he never did. 

Flashback-

I trembled in anger and despair as I looked at the blood dripping from fresh cuts. My nose and mouth already filled with it. I couldn’t stand up. I’ll get hit again.

“What is it Sky? Already giving up?” I heard Tamor’s grave voice, mocking me.

“It’s not fair! You’re stronger!” I yelled at him my own voice shaking.

“Oh, are you going to cry now?” 

“No! I-I won’t.”

“Hm-” Tamor grabbed my chin and gazed straight into my soul. “Too bad, I may consider going easier on you if only you cry now,” he smirked. When he saw I won’t burst into tears: “Good. None of your enemies will ever be stopped by tears or weakness. None of them will ever go easy on you. So, stand up and use your brain as well.”

“Yes, daddy,” I said, spiting the blood from my mouth.

End of flashback

The next thing I remember was waking up in the infirmary with Ro at my side. I was around ten then. From then I was his favorite training toy. What lovely times.

I found it.

Not losing any time I launched at his right side. He blocked my sword with his but lost a few steps back. It was obvious that his right hip was hurt. 

I continued with small attacks mostly to his right. His balance crumbled when I did, giving me some advantage.

“Ha-ha, my girl.” his loud laugh filled the room. We already gathered an auditory. “Trying your best huh?”

“Not yet,” I replied, aiming at him.

Our swords were clashing again and again. Up and down, left and right. Both of us spinning and moving around.  

I tried again for his right side but he expected it, and with a rounding maneuver he swung the sword from my hand.

“Well-well, what now?” he smirked pointing his sword at my throat.

Hating to admit it, but I raised my hands in defeat. 

“Good. Next time, don’t lose your focus searching for loopholes, it won’t work every time.”

“I’m smaller, it’s only natural to aim like that, I can’t face you otherwise. And you know I’m not a fighter to win on swords. I’m just not strong enough to hold the line for long.” I scoffed approaching the weapon wall. “Let’s play on my ground.” I smiled taking four daggers. A couple for both.

He grinned back, taking them.

And this was my part. I won rather fast. My movements swifter. My dagger soon positioned at his throat.

“Someone made her homework after all.” Tamor laughed.

“Almost always.”

With a few fresh cuts, covered in sweat and ready to cough our lungs out; we prepared for a hand to hand but the door swung open, interrupting us.

The small silhouette caught the attention of all the males in the room. With thorn clothes, long rose-gold hair all tangled, covered in gray blood from head to toe she still was beautiful. But a furious look in her grass-green eyes was searching the room.

When she stomped in my direction, I quickly hid behind Tamor’s back. He has all tensed himself.

“Sky Langbroek! How could you hide that from me?” she hissed smacking the back of my head when Tamor betrayed me and pushed me in her direction.

“Ouch! What are you even talking about? And what was that for?” 

“What for?! Sky I saw Colm at the hospital, he was more dead than alive, and you just left him and went to humans?”

“So, I got smacked because of that idiot? We broke up before that.”

“What? I thought there was something serious between you.”

“No, I never considered him. He wanted to fuck for a while and that’s all. I got mad cause he was speaking of a future and so on, basically lying, and-”

“So, it was you who beaten him?”

“Hey, he lied and insulted me. And it was a bad day. It was his fault anyway.” I growled in indignation.

That received me a few more hits.

“You can’t beat people like that for such reasons. You didn’t even want him- couldn't you just walk away?”

“No!”

“Sky Langbroek! Go to your room and think about your behavior.”

“Gladly” I mumbled and went upstairs. 

Just when the noise restarted that I noticed the silence. 

*

Taking a shower, I changed into a soft, short dress and laid on the bed to maybe take a nap. I was still exhausted after the trip.

Just then Ro came in. Sadly, she never knocks.

“Here, it’s a tonic.”

“Thanks.”

“Sky, don’t be mad. It’s just that your personality is too fiery. And with your skills it gets dangerous. You have to be more responsible.”

“Yeah, mommy I heard it already.”

“I know that you heard, but I want you to listen.”

Ahh- I hate when she is in advice mood, moreover when she is right.

“Tsk. I missed you.” I mumbled hugging her tight. She was my sister, my mom, my best friend. Always there for me, no matter what.

“I missed you more.” she sighed hugging me back. “I’m glad you’re okay. I was worried.” 

I opened my mouth to assure her but just then a maid came telling me that Tamor asks for me in his office.

Most likely it’s about a new mission. 

Usually, I’ll be glad to go, but now-

All I wanted now was to get closer to Dumarque. 

Knocking first, I waited for his permission. Coming in I sat in a large chair, across from him, waiting whilst he finished his read.

“I received a few invitations to a dinner held by a close friend of Lord Allaway, our minister of war.” 

I was surprised, he reluctantly sent us that high in the society to work.

“Okay, so where I am in this?”

“I want you to approach his right hand, Basil Vadas. He appeared a few weeks ago out of nowhere, we don’t know anything about him, and that is curious. He pushes Allaway and everyone else into this war. Vadas likely has some influence on the minister. Also, I think Vadas may be aiming for his position.”

“Why don’t get rid of him?”

“No, he may know something vital for us.”

“You have something specific in mind?”

“Seduce him, it’ll be faster. Don’t get involved too much, and if things get too far, drop it. Gather as much information as you can.”

“When is the big event? I want to sniff around Vadas before that.”

“In three nights.”

“What identity I’ll take?”

“I intercepted an invitation on Lylia Jordin’s name,” he said, handing me an envelope.

“So, I’m back to Lilium Street,” I mumbled more to myself.

“I gave the order for the house to be ready by tomorrow. Pack your things. Also, Jade will go with you as your butler and support. The girl is coming as well.”

“Wow, that’s some improvement from the shaking girl. But it isn’t a good idea. What if things get ugly?”

“They’re pretty close now. And both insisted.”

“This son of a bitch and his puppy eyes.” I chuckled.

“Yes.” he sighed, rubbing his face.

“Did he say, she may be his mate?”

“Yes.”

“I think she may be a werewolf. I caught a slight scent but because of her fear and weakness I'm not sure.”

Tamor thought about it for a while.

“She may not know herself. But it also explains why she still wasn’t sold nor used for breeding.”

“Expensive blood, huh?”

“Yes. It's almost as hard to find as witches' blood. Just imagine how much some creatures are willing to pay to have an heir, moreover, one as powerful as Jade or Rosalind.”

“Yeah. Makes sense. I'll ask if she wants to learn how to fight. At least she’ll be able to defend herself.”

“Rosalind gave her a few amulets to minimize the risk of magic influence on her.”

“But if Jo is a wolf, she’ll need more.”

He only nodded at that.

When I was about to close the door:

“Sky?! Be careful.”

“Always” I gave him a reassuring smile.

Letting out a sigh, I thought about my mission. It wasn’t that hard, but it was so boring to gather information. I shall be patient and blend in the crowd instead of letting off some steam for example: while playing the cat and mouse game with the target; or planning its death.

I was more of an assassin than a spy after all.

Almost reaching my room I heard a boom in there.

I run in there and what I saw made me laugh so hard that tears formed in my eyes.

The mighty wolf hybrid was resembling a pixie on steroids. Covered in glitter, flowers, and a pink dress that was about to rip. Gods he also had makeup and- stockings-

Our hysterical laughs couldn’t cover Jade’s high-pitched voice.

“Jade please, shut up. Our ears are almost bleeding.” I screamed in between laughs. “Ro, please.”

Finally, she had mercy on us, changing him back to normal. The touchy puppet stormed out all fuming to change his clothes. Cursing something towards disrespectful females.

“What it was about?” I asked still laughing. She waved her hand as it wasn’t that important.

This half-witch bitch loved to punish us in humiliating ways. Ro’s magic was stronger than of the most pureblood fae. Still, she relied more on potions. As her magic drained easily.

“I see you already fixed our girl,” I said, taking a closer look. Although she still reminded a skeleton; her bruises and scars all disappeared. “You’re so cute. Now we need to put some meat on those bones and it’ll be perfect. Good job, Ro.”

“Ah, it’s the least I could do for Jade’s mate.” 

“What? S-so, you’re sure? That she’s his mate I mean?” I asked surprised.

“Of course. I feel their bond, especially when they’re close. You don’t?”

“I’m powerless, forgot?”

“Duh, girl-”

She didn’t finish as we saw a nervous movement.

“What is a mate? You keep calling me that.” Jo’s voice was still a little above a whisper.

“How don’t you know? All wolves learn about mates.”

“So she is one?” I asked.

“Of course she is, at least you should be able to smell it.”

“It’s so slight, I wasn’t sure, okay?!”

“Well, she’s still weak and-”

We dropped the talk to catch a badly shaking, panicking Jocelyn before she fell on her knees. Ro whispered something and caressed her cheek. Jocelyn’s breath slowly came back to normal and the treble was calming.

At that exact moment, Jade came in and rushed to the girl’s side growling at us.

“Shut up pup!” I snarled back. “This overprotective shit is annoying already!”

“She’s just shocked Jade, we talked about how she’s a werewolf, I didn’t know she was oblivious about it. She should’ve shifted already-”

“She is?” he whispered, not believing his fluffy ears.

“Yes, but I guess she doesn’t feel it, as well as the mating bond because she is weak, but I thought she at least knew.”, “I’m sorry Jocelyn, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Her eyes were closing, but we could see her brains fuming. The spell was working and she was falling asleep.

“I don’t understand anything” she laughed, “Everything seems like a dream of a crazy mind”, “Am I dead? Did my father killed me this time?”

We looked at each over. Seems she had a shitty life.

“Well, with her past she’ll fit in our family” I commented sarcastically which gained me two annoyed looks. Jade took her bridal style and left the room.

We sat on my bed thinking about today, a full day indeed.

“What were you all doing in my room?” 

“Oh, I heard you are going to Lilium St. for a while”, “I wanted a girls’ night before that,” she sighed resting her head against mine.

“Don’t tell Jade about ‘girls’ night’, he’ll freak out that was invited.” We giggled at that.

“At least let me help you pack.” She proposed.

“Thanks. But just the usual ones, I don’t think I have anything proper for this mission. I’ll observe the target first to know what he likes. But I need you to make me that potion to change my hair color.”

“Pink for Lylia?” she grinned at me from my dresser and I nodded. “I know you hate this part of work.”

“Well, I won’t have the fun part without it.”

“Killing someone is fun?”

“Killing bad guys is fun.

The light in her eyes changed to sadness.

Ro was against this ‘work’; however, she understood our reasons. She took the big sister role for us. The pacifist of the family. The first to whom we all run when our asses get burnt. 

She was the first adopted. When she was about to be sold, Tamor interfered. He killed the seller; her husband. 

A witch and fae hybrid. A powerful gem. So many were after her butt. Although Ro was 20, the best decision was to make her a part of the family. You see no one was stupid enough to mess with Tamor to put their hands on her.

Turned out, her husband killed her parents and tricked her into believing he was the good guy who tried his best to save them, and now that she was all alone, he dragged her into a stupid marriage with a stupid contract. It resulted in her completely obeying a sadistic asshole.

Now Ro was around 89, but no thought of leaving occurred her. Guess I knew the reason.

Then it was Jade. Tamor accidentally saw and bought him at an auction. Jade was 3 back then and was about to be sold as a slave to a brothel. Tamor burned it to the ground.

Frightened, hungry, and more wild than civilized, it took Jade some hard time to adapt.

Tamor couldn’t find anything about his past. It was decided that he’ll train the boy into one of the best cadres. He was 16 when both I and Carmila appeared.

We were 8, and with instant hate for each other. Tamor tried his best to raise us as ladies but I constantly begged to let me train with Jade. My main reason was to get revenge for my parent’s deaths, but also, I wanted to not feel weak anymore. It turned that I didn’t have any magic abilities, so I was all about training my physical ones. It took me three years to convince him but eventually, he gave up. 

Meanwhile, Carmila hated the fact that I was somehow over her with my training so she started as well, but never reached my level.

When I was fourteen, Tamor explained to me that he wasn’t just owning almost a third of this city, he was involved in much more. 

He held a web of spies and assassins for the crown but was also working behind their back. A risky game, but easy to maintain for someone who was constantly lying. I was fascinated and begged him to train me into an assassin, he accepted rather quickly this time, as expecting me to ask for that.

Although in time I became one of his best cadres Tamor hid my existence. Not just mine but Jade’s also, he said it was a precautionary measure. Thus, our training expanded, both of us became his shadows. 

I loved working for him. It gave me a purpose and a way to release my energy and anger.

Carmila was presented as his daughter at the court when she was 18. She was just living her life but at least could sniff here and there for us. Being aware of the latest gossips was a huge help. Nonetheless, she never learned how far our father’s web went. For her, he was the king’s personal gossip keeper. 

Eventually, Tamor bought her a house under the sea for her comfort. Her mermaid genes pushing her to water. She joined the high society there too, got married, and now was rarely visiting us. Our war finished when I saved her ass from a group of males after a ball.

Now and then she helped to get in touch with some sea creatures. 

Tamor can seem an altruist after all this.

But he’s a ruthless male. Known and feared all around the kingdom. He gained such power, not just through hard work.

Tamor killed. 

Tamor lied.

Tamor created schemes and a shadow world of his own, known by a few.

The king, Elowen Goldstein (for short), often required his help if there was information needed or someone must 'disappear'. 

No one knew his past. And when he picked us up that was because of his reasons. Not a sign of goodwill. Nonetheless, he took care of us. There’s a lot that he didn't tell us. Although, we didn't ask either. 

We became a family and that was enough. What more could we wish for?

*

After finishing all preparations our things were moved to Lilium St., and we arrived at house nr.13 at noon. Some creatures still roamed the streets. It was rare to see somebody still awake at this hour, but I guess we should get used to it with the approaching coronation.

The house was the same. Tall and elegant, with four floors. It wore the same gothic style, that dominated the entire Celirium. Adorned with a soft pink color, climbing ivy, flowers at the large circular windows it was quite a sight.

I used it multiple times, and at some point, Tamor gave me the rights to it. Still, I chose to live at home. However, this gained us the possibility to justify Lylia Jordin’s absence for when I don’t use this fake identity. That helped us to avoid questions and constantly creating a new character in our charade.

We arrived already in our disguise. Jade as my butler opened the door of the carriage, helping me out. Wearing a formal dark green suit and glasses, his now brown hair neatly combed back. Jocelyn as my maid was wearing a light-green flowing dress, a bit too open for her like but it was Lylia’s style and in fashion nowadays so-.

My appearance changed some more. Ro’s potion turned my hair from black to pale pink. Fairies can’t fool fairies with glamour so it was the only way, but it wore off at some point. My eyes were also pink because of that.

A diaphanous blue dress complimented my porcelain skin. And a sexy, glittering makeup exposed my beautiful features.

I smirked entering the house, now let the game begin.