Yet if someone stood in her way, it was her job to take care of them, and she would.
They soon reached the gate and waited for a carriage to arrive. If they could have sneaked onto the cleaning company’s carriage, they wouldn’t have had to risk being seen climbing over the gate. But they’d had to come up with a plan fast, and they would be more easily caught as frauds if they entered the company or boarded the carriage with other employees. Besides, they didn’t know when the carriages were set to leave each day, and there hadn’t been enough time to figure it out.
As they waited, Aina touched the hilts of her knives. Even if she lost all her knives or couldn’t reach one, she had poison darts in a pouch at her waist that would paralyze a target within a minute. Kohl’s lessons rang in her head: A good assassin always has a backup plan.
“Remember, we only kill if someone gets a good look at us. We incapacitate otherwise, unless they’re trying to kill us. Try to only attack guards, not servants. Do you remember the backup plan?”
Teo nodded. “If we get caught and all goes to hell, try to get to Kouta anyway—we can’t risk security tightening if we end up having to wait for another day.”
“Yes. But if we can’t even get into the mansion, or if something else ruins our plan, then we’ll wait for the weekend and sneak in with their food supplies.” She hadn’t believed it when Mirran had told her that all the inhabitants of Amethyst Hill had their food delivered to them every weekend, but now that she’d seen the mansions up close, she wasn’t surprised. Still, waiting for the weekend would be pushing too close to her deadline, so that would remain a backup plan.
When the carriage rolled through and blocked the guard’s line of sight, they ran to the line of trees near the wall, and Aina hauled herself up. Kneeling, she bent to help Teo carry himself over. It was then, as she was about to jump down, that she felt a sharp tug on her foot.
She dropped down the wall, twisting out of the grip. Whoever had grabbed her blew sharply on a whistle a couple of times, then reached down to grab her again, but she twisted his arm behind his back, withdrew one of her diamond-edged daggers, and stabbed him through the back of his neck. She pulled out the dagger and he collapsed to the ground where he bled out on the grass.
His whistle had drawn over the other guard from the gate, who ran toward them now. He saw Aina first, but failed to glimpse Teo passing through the shadows along the wall.
“Oh, good sir, this guard attacked me on my nightly walk!” she gushed, making her voice as high-pitched as possible. “I slapped him in the face before he could do anything dreadful, but I surely hope he’s all right!”
The guard slowed, his eyes flicking to the guard on the ground, whose blood he probably couldn’t see because of the dark grass.
That second cost him. Teo lunged toward him from the shadows. Aina glanced across the fields that separated them and the houses ahead, her nerves rising that someone might have seen them and their plan would be ruined before it even really started. But no one was in sight. A sharp crack and an exhalation of air told her Teo had effectively broken the guard’s neck.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” she said, shaking her head as they hid the bodies behind a tree trunk.
“Do you think we should wait?”
What would Kohl do? she wondered.
Yes, there’d been an obstacle, but these guards were dead. They’d been too close, gotten too good of a look at her face—they couldn’t be left alive. Now, they wouldn’t be able to report descriptions of her or Teo to anyone.
By the time anyone even found the guards’ bodies, Kouta would be dead.
“Let’s keep going,” she said.
They soon reached a long sidewalk that led to the mansions. Aina wiped a bit of the guard’s blood on her scarf and swept her hair from her face. They needed to blend in for a while.
Teo tapped her shoulder twenty minutes into their walk and nodded at a groove in the wooden fence that surrounded the mansion. He slid into the groove and withdrew a set of clothes from the bag he carried. The clothes were cheap imitations of the actual company’s uniforms, the label stitched onto clothes taken from the Dom by a seamstress who lived in Teo’s apartment and had done the job for ten kors. They could only hope the uniforms would be convincing enough to fool Kouta’s servants, hence why nighttime was better for the kill.
While he changed, Aina kept watch. A rustle of clothes, a grunt as he tried to fit into trousers that were too small, and he was done.
“Here,” she said, passing him the fake cleaning company identification card.
Cold air brushed her shoulders as she changed next, taking off her gray jacket, bloodstained scarf, and slim-fitted shirt, stuffing them into Teo’s bag and throwing on the blouse and apron he’d brought. They rearranged their weapons, stuffed the bag in the groove, and set off.
After slipping past the fence, they hid behind the copse of trees where the carriage usually parked, then stepped into view.
Lights from countless windows shone down on them as they marched up the front steps like they owned the place. They lazily flashed their fake badges to the servants, who gestured for them to enter through the tall oak doors. As they stepped into the entrance hall, Aina raised an eyebrow at Teo. Even the janitors here had doors opened for them. Then her eyes moved to the interior of the house for the first time, and her composure shriveled in awe.
It looked as if the Hirai family had robbed a museum. A glistening marble floor spread away in circular fashion with amber clusters embedded in patches. Between shimmering gold panels ahead, vases decorated with herons, cranes, and chrysanthemums stood atop marble plinths.
They had no idea where the doors led, but they had to start somewhere. As they slid one door open and entered a wide hallway, with royal-blue paint and gold leaves decorating the walls and interspersed by light bulbs in cages of silver vines, Aina pressed close to Teo. Being near this much wealth made her uneasy. She was suffocated by marble, drowned by gold, until they entered another hallway with two people walking toward them and chatting amicably.
It was a man and a woman, the latter of whom wore a maid’s uniform similar to Aina’s. The man’s breath caught for a moment as he examined the newcomers. Aina and Teo waited for them to make the first move.
“Excuse me, who are you?” asked the man in a voice that failed to be polite. “Did Spennard send new people again without telling me? I’m sorry, but you’ll have to go home.” He shrugged in a way that told Aina he was very much not sorry. “Can’t afford to be paying every sad-looking girl who walks up with a dustbin and a pretty face. Go on, go home, I’ll have Spennard place you somewhere else tomorrow.”
Silence fell as he finished speaking. Based on Teo’s shifting stance, Aina could tell they were thinking the same thing.
“Excuse me,” she simpered, walking toward the bossy man. The maid beside him bristled at how forward Aina was acting. To piss her off a bit more, Aina raised a hand and placed it on the man’s forearm. “Do you have to be anywhere urgently? No meetings to run off to? I’d like to chat about my schedule here, if you don’t mind. I’m sure the boss wouldn’t have placed me here without a good reason. You’re not busy, right?”
“Sorry, miss, my wife and I are going home for the night.” His words tripped over themselves, and a red flush slid up his neck. He gave a consolation nod to the maid, who glared back, unaware that Teo was sliding along the wall behind him.