Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an Assassin Read Free Page A

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