The Assassin Princess (The Legacy Novels Book 1) by Blake Rivers Read Free Book Online Page A

within, a raging sea that climbed a mountainside, a dark castle within a rock face. So dark and unlike her, the strokes so perfectly her.
    She turned into a dark room where a fire burned in the hearth, the flames throwing shadow and light across the red and gold rug, the pattern a fiery maze of lines. A bookcase leant against the wall, a window beside it, and standing before her, two solitary chairs. The nearest was unoccupied, but from the other she sensed a whispered beckoning, a pulling of power.
    Ami was drawn toward it, and to the white hand that rested upon the arm.

Part Two
Adam & Hero
    “how many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares, were there a danger of their coming true!”
    — logan pearsall smith
     
    “the tyrant is nothing but a slave turned inside out.”
    — herbert spencer

Chapter Five
     
     
    “You found your way. This pleases me.”
    Ami drew close to the chairs, the room feeling all too elemental, as if it were only a stage set, soon to be shifted. She couldn’t define a sense of space or time, and apart from the rug, the floor was as black and empty as the walls. Her feet moved on their own accord as she took the empty chair, her eyes closing in on the white figure in shadow, two eyes glinting green. The fire warmed her, and Ami felt comforted, swaddled in the orange heat.
    “I know who you are,” she said, not meaning to speak at all. There was no fear in her voice as she thought there should be. “You’re the man who is trying to kill me.”
    A dry chuckle came from the shadow. “No, I’m not trying to kill you.” His long thin fingers flexed on the arms of the chair. “I want only to tell you a tale.” He leaned forward and leered at her, his gaunt face a contortion, his lips stretched in a grimace, torn by sharp, uneven teeth. “I am Adam, and you and I share the same father. A father who has failed us both.”
    “ My father hasn’t failed me,” Ami said, but Adam only smiled, his face a grotesque in the dark.
    “I’ll admit, I was rash to start with. Hunting you at home, I should’ve known the Guard would bring you back here anyway. The heir . I tried again, but the unicorns kept you from me. When my flying thieves tried to steal you away, you displayed such power that I knew I had to change tact—so I used your greatest gift, your artistic temperament, the reason you’ve become known to us all.” His grin widened and Ami shuddered. “I slipped into your mind, your memories, where we can be alone.”
    “Why are you hunting me? Where am I?” Her thoughts were panicked, but her words were calm as if spoken by another. She felt the plucked rose still in her palm and she gripped it, the soft petals smooth in her fist.
    “All in good time,” he said, and leant back into shadow. “But first, sister, you’ll listen to the tale I have to tell. A tale that starts with imagination, creativity and dreams; these are such things that created the city of my birth, the city of Legacy, by the power of a unicorn horn and the vision of men. Men like our father.”
    The firelight passed over his dark form, his green eyes focussed on Ami’s. She was drawn into them, emerald flames that showed her a mountain city, a populous walking slanted roads, white stone houses and a castle upon a lonely peak.
    “When I was younger, I played with the other children, adventuring through the woods and fields, across the climbs of our mountain home—but I always knew I was better than them, that one day I would rule over everything I saw. I was my father’s son, after all, and therefore the heir of Legacy…so I believed. I’d walk the city streets alone, my head held high as I inspected the magic my father had bestowed upon the ordinary people: fields of flowers flowing down the mountainside, wondrous colours to inspire; waterfalls that sprung from the rocks, liquid crystal that sparkled like stars and tasted divine.
    “It was my city, and I was its prince—but that was when I was