Rise by Danielle Racey Read Free Book Online Page B

history books, and the losers whine from their graves.
    Not today, however. Not today. She would not let Raela get the satisfaction. While death would be terrible enough, the idea that Raela would probably blacken her name after her death was motivation enough. The second option, then, was the only option. “I guess this is the end, then.” Roman’s voice shattered Victoria’s thoughts, and she realized with a start, the situation she was in. “I guess it is.” She added in a pout at the end. Victoria didn’t believe for even a second that Roman would buy it, but figured it was worth a try. There was silence, for a moment. If her intuition was correct, Roman was taking it all in. In a second, he would see the trap, and walk right around. Before that second occurred, she had to act.
    Victoria mustered all of her strength and thrust her elbow backwards. Her elbow connected with Roman’s abdomen, which Victoria noticed, absentmindedly, was rather toned. It likely didn’t do him any lasting damage, but the blow shifted the dagger away from Victoria’s throat long enough for her to duck down, and deliver another blow. She knew shin kicking was not what master assassins did, but she’d have to deal with her techniques later. As the heel of her foot connected with his shin, Victoria felt him squirm away. “Oh, no you don’t.” She kicked his feet out from under him, and smirked when she heard a satisfying thud just a moment later. Victoria quickly searched her mind for what she could do when her opponent was on the ground. She drew nothing but a blank. Victoria shrugged her shoulders, and threw herself down on top of Roman, who was struggling to right himself. Her elbow landed squarely on the back of his head, and he suddenly fell limp.
    “ Okay, Roman. Playing dead is for possums. Get up.” There was no movement. “Really. I’ve won now; we both knew it would happen, so just get up. We can call it a draw. Maybe.”
    He still didn’t budge. Victoria reached down and felt along his head. His hair is so thick, she found herself thinking, oddly, but she turned her thoughts back to the matter at hand. She moved her hand around the base of his skull, and her hand came upon a raised mound. She rubbed it a little, and her hand came away sticky. Panic set in, and she stumbled up. He looked even worse when she was standing.
    Roman looked as if he had been barreled over by gods know what, and he lay sprawled out over the uneven earth. Either this was a very good act, or he was knocked out, or worse…dead. Victoria gulped as she thought about the last possibility. She hadn’t wanted to kill him, necessarily. Perhaps just a part of her wanted to kill him, just a tiny percentage. The majority of her wanted to keep him alive, but the majority that did was split on the reasons. Sister Katherine had told her not kill anyone. She had meant on purpose, right? Victoria reasoned. She couldn’t very well be punished if she accidentally killed anyone. It was an accident, which meant it wasn’t her fault.
    Victoria sighed. There was no use trying to convince herself. No matter how much she reasoned, she wasn’t supposed to kill him.
    A tiny voice inside of her piped up. It was different from the angry little voice that accused her of liking to kill. This one was soothing. “Perhaps you didn’t want to kill him. Not because you’re a particularly good person, dear”, the voice said apologetically, “but because maybe, just maybe…you care.” Victoria’s gaze returned to Roman’s body as she cleared her head. Now was probably not the ideal time to be arguing with her selves, but, there really wasn’t ever a good time to go crazy.
    She stared at Roman’s body in silence, as she wondered how exactly she was going to get his body back to camp. If at all possible, she would want to avoid dragging him through the mud all the way there. She could at least give some respect to his body, even if Roman wasn’t technically inside it