Aveline Read Online Free PDF

entertaining her strange new stalker was
not the worst idea she had ever had. “You put a lot of effort into
convincing me to work for you!” she snarled.
    “That should show you how important this is
to me, should it not?”
    The fixated man had to be insane. But she
was smart enough to understand his lesson and leery of what
happened if she turned him away again. “Who do you want me to
kill?” she asked reluctantly.
    “No one,” he answered.
    Her brow furrowed. “Then why do you need an
assassin?”
    “Let me clarify. I want you to protect
someone from anyone else who tries to kill her. In the potential
circumstance where someone tries, you can kill whoever it is.”
    “I’m not a guardian. I’m an assassin. Well,
almost. I’ll be an assassin soon,” she said.
    “You have something the other guardians and
assassins I spoke to do not: the blood of the devil in your
veins.”
    She crossed her arms, uncomfortable
discussing the curse no one else was supposed to know about. He was
not an assassin or from the inner city. Who had revealed the
closely held secret?
    “I believe this will make you more effective
in protecting your charge.”
    “I will never allow the Devil’s blood to
control me,” she said firmly.
    “I accept this condition.”
    Aveline’s mouth dropped open and then
closed. The man was not making sense.
    “All will be clear soon,” he promised,
reading her confusion. “You will be rewarded above and beyond what
you can imagine.”
    “I don’t care about money. I
care about becoming an assassin. Unless you can sponsor me, which
you can’t , because
you’re not one of us, there’s nothing you can do for
me.”
    “You seem to underestimate
the importance of money, assassin. I can buy you a sponsor. If you want the new
chief of the assassins as your sponsor, I will arrange
it.”
    Aveline laughed. “The Guild leader cannot be
bought! It’d take more money than half the inner city sees in a
year to tempt him!” she exclaimed.
    “I can pay it.”
    “Just for me to stand at
someone’s doorway and not unleash the one trait behind the reason you’re
hiring me?”
    “Yes.”
    It was the craziest proposition she had ever
heard. Whether he could pay that much money, or if he were
concealing an additional agenda, she did not care. At the moment,
she had one convincing reason to accept, no matter how bizarre the
proposed employment sounded.
    “You will get me out of here?” she asked
cautiously. Although willing, she had not felt ready to die, even
for the just cause of preventing anyone from dishonoring her
body.
    “Immediately. Give me your word you will do
as I’ve asked, without question, and I will see you free,” the
masked stranger vowed.
    Aveline said nothing, pensive. Her father
warned her against trusting someone who appeared to be offering her
exactly what she asked for.
    “As a sign of good faith.” The stranger
pulled something from his pocket and held it out to her.
    Aveline accepted it, and her breath caught.
The envelope containing her father’s treasure she had sworn to
protect. She had never seen its contents and fingered the lumpy
envelope, relieved to have it returned.
    The stranger was offering
her a form of freedom and help becoming a real assassin. In the
face of the alternative, no objection held merit. “Very well. I’ll
do it, whatever it is. If this is a trick, I will find you and burn you
alive.”
    “Excellent!” The man seemed far too excited.
“Remain here. I will send someone for you.” Without another word,
he opened the door and left.
    Aveline stared after him, unable to
understand what exactly her new employer wanted.
    If he were lying about being wealthy, she
would soon know. The expectation for a whore was to make money, and
no brothel owner would let her go cheap, especially when the money
she made was supposed to be split between the owner and debt
collectors. This madman would have to pay off two people in order
to free her.
    The longer