Chasing His Assassin

7. Freya

The moment they lept out of the tree, Noah didn’t even bother glancing back to look at the mutts Vanna had sent today before she darted towards the entrance. Yesterday she’d made the unfortunate mistake of looking them over and had caught the eyes of someone she knew all too well in crowd.

It had cost her the mission because she’d been distracted from the moment she saw him.

Today she wasn’t taking any risks and she trusted that Leah would keep them off her tail. The leech was at least good for that.

Noah didn’t know what it was about Leah that made her dislike the girl so much. When she looked at the situation closely, Leah hadn’t exactly done anything. It wasn’t her fault that Caspian treated her the way he did. In fact Noah somewhat understood Caspian’s feelings towards the girl. Any fighter would treat their best weapon preciously.

In Caspian’s eyes the girl was probably no more than a possible weapon he could use against the Lycan queen. When Noah thought of it that way it was somewhat sad. At least Caspian saw her as a person unlike Leah. It just annoyed Noah at times that her mentor paid closer attention to Leah rather than her.

Caspian had taken Leah in when she was sixteen, shortly after the death of her twin sister. What Leah didn’t know was the part Caspian played in that attack. Leah saw the man as her saviour when he was in fact her enemy. A lot of folks within the castle knew what happened but no one dared speak of it around Leah for fear of what Caspian might do. Noah who hadn’t been around at the time, only found out when Loretta made a slip up.

Knowing how sad Leah’s life actually was was reason enough to treat her kindly but Noah was selfish. Leah’s whole life was based on being Caspian’s assassin, Noah at least had a social life on the outside.

Gosh she was a terrible person.

As Noah neared the room where the witch had turned up, she pushed her thoughts to the side and returned her focus to the task at hand. She readied herself for battle as she pushed open the door. The witch was scuttling about the room when she noticed Noah.

“Oh for f***s sake, when is he going to give up!” She yelled in frustration as she rose her palm to strike Noah, light pooling in it. She chanted the words of a spell that Noah wasn’t familiar with before the ball of light came flying in Noah’s direction.

Noah, distracted by the witch’s appearance only narrowly dodged her attack. She’d seen the witch once already but was still shocked her how similar she looked to Rhea. She glanced back at the area the witch hit and her eyes went wide at the damage. There was only ash left in that spot. Lets not get hit by that, she thought.

“I just want to talk.” Noah said in a calm voice, trying to ease the tense witch. She purposefully rose her hands in surrender to show she meant no harm.

“I’m not interested! I want nothing to do with this situation so just leave me alone!” Freya rose her palm and once again light pooled in it as she readied to send another strike in Noah’s direction.

“We don’t want trouble Freya, we just want to know where Alvin is.” She scoffed at Noah before tossing another ball of light in her direction. Once again she avoided it, somersaulting out of the way in a nick of time.

“Like I would tell you that. Giving you his location is the same as setting a death sentence for him and its not going to happen. We want nothing to do with him or that goddamn mutt queen. For god’s sake isn’t one person’s death enough, why are you trying to kill us all?”

Noah tried to understand what she meant but just couldn’t. She had little information on Freya and Alvin and their relationship with Caspian. But from the looks of it, they went way back. Noah had a strong feeling the dead person she was referring to was Rhea but what was their connection to her?

“You of all people know what it’s like to lose your family so why do you wish the same fate on me?” Noah was shocked to silence, her eyes growing wide as she stared at Freya. “I’d studied under your mother once, so I know more about you than you think.”

“If you know that, don’t you think its unfair that Vanna continues to live without consequences?” Noah yelled at her, getting agitated very quickly. Her family’s death was a touchy subject.

“They crossed her and paid the price, I prefer to keep my head instead of getting caught up in all this.”

“My parents did nothing wrong!” Noah screamed, eyes starting to water as brutal memories came rushing forward.

“And how do you know that?” Freya asked in the most flat deadpan tone that frustrated Noah.

“Because they were good people..” her voice cracked and then faded off at the end. Her parents were good people. They’d been loyal members of Lustrum, wiccae who only served the queen and king. But shortly after Caspian was banished, her family were accused of plotting against Vanna and were executed.

Noah who had been young at the time was exempt from the execution and instead cast out of Lustrum. As she’d never been out of Lustrum before, surviving on the outside had been difficult but eventually she got used to it. She lost her family and friends when it happened. She was alone is their cruel world.

Noah had nothing to prove her parents innocence but still refused to believe that they did anything wrong. In her eyes, Vanna would always and forever remain her parent’s murderer. It was why she joined Caspian in the first place.

They shared a goal and Caspian was more capable of executing it than she was. All she had to do was aid him.

“What a solid reason.” Freya replied with sarcasm lacing her tone. “Just go to sleep for a while.” As she said this, she launched another ball of light in Noah’s direction.

Peaceful conversation was clearly out of the question so violence was the only answer. If she couldn’t take Freya in peacefully then she would do it by force. They could easily question her if she was confined within the walls of the castle.

“No, you should go to sleep.” Noah let her own magic pool into her palm and chanted the words of her favorite flame spell. She launched it in her direction but she expertly evaded it.

Of course it wouldn’t be that easy to knock her out.

“I don’t have time for this.” Freya said before rushing in Noah’s direction. Noah’s brief moment of confusion allowed enough room for Freya to hit the pressure point at the back of her neck.

Against her will, darkness began to cloud her vision and she was out. The last thing she saw before she clocked out was Freya’s cold face staring down at her before she turned around and left.

***

The moment Leah had handled all the wolves, she went in after Noah to assist the witch if it was necessary. She traced her partner’s scent to an office like room that had been tirned upside down. Imagine her shock when she came across a very unconscious Noah laying on the ground.

The room Leah assumed was an office was a mess. Destroyed furniture, burnt papers, holes in the walls that looked like they’d been caused by fireballs. There was a lingering smell of smoke in the air. It was obvious a fight had broken out while Leah was dealing with the mutts and looking at Noah’s state, it was clear who won said fight.

The whole mission was a bust.

Leah sighed and crouched down to Noah’s height. She shook the girl a couple of times and she slowly stirred awake. She looked a bit confused when she saw Leah before her eyes went wide. She quickly jerked up and looked around the room, obviously searching for Freya.

“f**k!” She cursed loudly, slamming her fist on the wooden floor.

“Looks like she got away.” Leah said lowly as she glanced around the room one more time.

“I messed up” Noah said in a somber tone as she pressed her face to her palm. “I didn’t plan on her using anything but magic against me.”

Leah quickly figured out how the witch had gotten the better of Noah.

“There was nothing you could have done. Combat isn’t your specialty so there was no way you could have won.” It was weak but this was Leah’s way of trying to console her.

Consolation had never been her strong suit.

Noah looked at her weirdly for sometime but said nothing. She finally turned away and stared at the floor.

“I’ll try and find any clues on Alvin here before we head back.” Noah said meekly.

“Then I’ll wait.”

Half an hour later, they were on their way back to the castle. The entire time Noah raided Freya’s office, silence reigned between them. They were both going to be in trouble when they returned.

Caspian would absolutely not take their failure lightly. Leah feared for herself.