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lift the blind.
    Someone was on the runner outside the door.
He wore a familiar uniform.
    Thrilled by the idea Rocky had found her,
she unlocked the door and opened it.
    The assassin in all black leapt into the
carriage and closed the door. He sat down across from her and
peeled off the skintight mask.
    “Karl!” she exclaimed, startled to see her
father’s most trusted advisor.
    “Avi,” he replied curtly. With dark hair and
green eyes, the middle aged man was leaner and faster than most new
members to the Guild. His ruthlessness had earned him a position at
her father’s side and his trust as well. “The news of your father’s
death has left me speechless.” He bowed his head in honor of her
father.
    Aveline smiled, touched by the
thoughtfulness of the assassin she considered to be an uncle. He
had been around her entire life, faithful to her father until the
very end, and often took the time to train her.
    “Thank you, Karl,” she said. “You can’t know
how shocked I was.”
    “We recovered his body,” Karl told her. “We
will see it buried, outside the city, where no scavengers can find
it.”
    Her eyes misted over, and she ducked her
head to prevent him from witnessing her tears.
    “I came to discuss a different matter,” he
said.
    Aveline waited.
    “The man who hired you. What has he
revealed?”
    She looked up, surprised. “How do you know
about him?”
    “Before he came to you, he came to me. I was
suspicious, and for good reason. Soon after the man in black
approached me, a second man did, this one without a mask. He wanted
to sponsor a murder, to which I was more than willing. But he would
only deal with the blood of the devil.”
    Her face grew warm. Karl had known the
family secret longer than she had. However, the second mention of
her curse within a twelve hour period, when she had not spoken
about it in years, left her uncomfortable.
    “He wouldn’t say much at all,” she said,
perplexed. “I’m supposed to protect someone. That’s all he would
reveal.”
    Karl nodded. “You agreed?”
    “He saved me from the brothel,” she hemmed,
not wanting to upset someone she admired by admitting she had
accepted employment before she was a real assassin.
    “I understand, Aveline. I am not upset,”
Karl said.
    She released the breath she did not know she
was holding.
    “I am here to convey a message, from both
the Guild and the benefactor I spoke of earlier,” he continued.
“You have no sponsor for your final trial?”
    She shook her head.
    “I will sponsor you, if you kill the person
you were hired to protect.”
    Aveline blinked, her initial excitement
fading. “But I gave him my word. Wouldn’t I be breaking the Guild
laws?”
    “You aren’t a member of the Guild yet, Avi,”
he reminded her gently. “The oaths you take before you enter are of
no consequence, once you pledge your loyalty to the Guild.”
    It was not exactly what her father had told
her. He insisted all oaths had to be fulfilled, for integrity was a
key requirement of an assassin’s personality.
    When she hesitated, Karl spoke again.
    “I may be able to negotiate Rocky’s release
as well.”
    “Rocky?”
    “He was captured by the Shield last night
when they were trying to find you. He was very brave. He refused to
tell anyone where you were,” Karl explained. “My benefactor will
pay for his release, once the kill he commissioned has been
committed.”
    Not Rocky. Her heart began to pound hard in her chest. Her
closest friend did not deserve to be tortured because the men last
night found him instead of her. Guilt fluttered through her at the
thought of Rocky in pain. She had helped nurse him back to health
after his first encounter with the Shield that left him scarred.
She had already lost her father; she could not handle a second loss
so soon.
    “I don’t want to see Rocky hurt any more
than you do. He’s suffered enough, and it’s not fair to him that he
was captured because you chose to run