Season of Sacrifice (Blood of Azure Book 1) Jonathan Michael (red novels .txt) 📖

your days end. Or maybe beyond, depending on your beliefs. Over time you will grow numb, but the first one is different. The first one will stick with you forever, so make it count.”

“I’m… I’m going to kill somebody tomorrow?” An unrecognizable high-pitched voice squeaks out of me.

“Better to start while you’re young. It’s much easier to build up the courage for the risks you’re going to encounter than when you’re older and have more to lose. You said you wanted to learn, did you not?”

“Yeah, but I thought learning would consist of training behind closed doors. A safe environment, you know? A place for me to make as many mistakes as I wanted. The typical kind of training. You’re putting me in a real situation and risking my life.” Susy’s shits! She’s going to have me kill someone? No way. No, she isn’t. That would be ludicrous.

“The greatest soldiers are produced from war. A master of weapons exists only with death. And a stealthy and vigilant assassin forms within the shadows. You are going to become all three. You cannot take this lightly. It’s the only way I will teach you. Think of it this way. If you die tomorrow, your pain and suffering will be short. Remember, there is a bright side to every dark shadow. Sometimes, you just have to view it from a different angle.”

Fuck! I’m going to kill someone tomorrow!

“You’re really doing this? I’m going to become an assassin tomorrow? Without any training? I don’t have the slightest clue how to kill someone. What if I freeze up? What if I can’t do it?”

“Then, you die. Would you rather me leave you with the Taoiseach?”

I shake my head. “I’d rather you leave me with Elder.”

Ellia glares at me but doesn’t say anything.

I press my hands against the heat of the fire as a chill creeps through me. They allowed Elder to live in the Martelli Manor all these seasons. And he isn’t forced to go on these excursions with an assassin. He isn’t forced to kill. Will it be a poison dart? Will it be a blade? I raise my hands to my face. Will it be done with these? Am I going to have to press my hands, flesh against flesh, and take this pour soul’s life? I’m not ready. If this is what it takes to claim my independence, I don’t know if I want it. A long silence takes us. My stomach curdles with unease. I need to lose these thoughts, but it’s too late. I spill into the underbrush and let out the contents of my stomach.

Ellia remains seated by the fire, unconcerned with my wellbeing. I lie in the bush for a moment before I return to the heat.

“I’m scared. I mean…”

“As you should be. Fear will spark your talents. Fear will trigger your instincts. Fear will keep you alive.”

“Are you afraid?”

“No.”

Of course she isn’t. I’ve watched her take several lives already, and I’ve known her maybe three months or so. “How many?”

Ellia’s brow lifts. “Lives?”

“Kills, yes. Or lives you’ve taken. Whatever.”

“Too many.” Her gaze shifts back to the flames. “Too many to count.”

“Do you remember your first?”

“Yes.”

“Do you—”

“What’s with all the questions?” Ellia rises to her feet. Clearly heated. And not from the flames on this warm summer night. “Enough!” She scoots out of the firelight and into the shadows. Somewhere near Persia.

“I—I’m sorry. It’s just that…I need to know what to feel right now. Or I need to know what it will be like tomorrow. Or I need… I don’t know what I need. I’m just afraid, okay?”

A quiet moment passes before I see her figure reappear in the firelight. She sits back down.

“When I was a child, several seasons after the Taoiseach took me under his wing, he began my training. I was thirteen. From the beginning, he taught me that men are weak. And I had an upper hand in this world with my sex alone. I’ve maintained that mentality since then and found it to be mostly true. My first kill was that same season. I was terrified. And it was certainly memorable but for different reasons.”

“For reasons other than taking someone’s life?”

“There were several of them. I don’t remember how many. Those details are irrelevant. The jarring effects of that night are the catalyst of my life. I was raped. I made certain that man lost his ability to do it again before I took his life. And I’ve made certain many others after that night have seen the same fate. But the part I regret is that I didn’t stick around to see if he actually died. Back then, I was certain. Knowing what I know today, he could still be walking the streets. It was Elder who whisked me away from the scene. That was the night I met him. That was the night I realized not all men are weak. Most of them, maybe. Like the lowlife that raped me. But not Elder. Like the Taoiseach, he is a man worth shadowing.”

“Elder? That’s why the Taoiseach didn’t execute him? Because of you?”

She gives a curt nod, barely visible in the firelight.

And Ellia is the reason I’m alive today. The Taoiseach would have executed me if not for her. But she lives a life in the shadows. Is that worth following? She’s a nobody.

“Does anyone even know you exist?” I ask.

“Only those that need to. Nobody…” Her glare stabs at me. “…is a good person to be. Nobody can get you into a tight place where you shouldn’t be. Nobody must answer to only one. Nobody has only one to fail. Nobody has control that nobody else could possibly understand.”

“But somebody has all that plus more. A life.”

“You’d rather be nobody than somebody. Trust me.”

“How would