6 - CALLISTA'S POV

"Hey! Stop right there before I scream for the King!" I shouted from the bushes and grasped the broken iron trellis spike lying in the dirt next to me.

The assassin froze with his jagged blade suspended in the air above Conrad's chest.

He slowly turned his hooded head toward the dark bushes where I stood shivering in the rain.

I knew he expected to see a terrified little noblewoman crying for the palace guards to save her.

He let out a low and cruel chuckle that vibrated through the freezing night air.

"Run away back to the ballroom before I gut you too," the cultist warned me in a gravelly voice.

I did not turn around and run away because I refused to let Conrad die on this gravel path again.

I tightened my grip on the rusted iron spike until the rough metal bit into the soft skin of my palms.

I burst out of the dark hedges and charged straight at the cloaked assassin with a loud scream.

The cultist dropped his arm and stumbled backward in shock because he never expected a lady in a silk dress to attack him.

I swung the heavy iron spike wildly and aimed directly for the center of his hooded face.

He barely managed to raise his steel blade in time to block my clumsy strike.

"You stupid little bitch!" he shouted and shoved his sword forward to push me back.

The rusted iron clashed loudly against his sword and sent a painful shockwave down my injured arm.

My dislocated shoulder throbbed with white hot pain but the adrenaline pumping through my veins kept me moving.

"Leave him alone!" I screamed and swung the spike at his knees to knock him off balance.

He jumped over my swing and kicked me hard in the stomach with his heavy leather boot.

All the air left my lungs in a sudden rush and I gasped for breath.

I stumbled backward and slipped on the wet gravel beneath my satin shoes.

I crashed into the thick mud and landed hard on my injured shoulder.

A fresh wave of agony blinded me for a second while the rain poured into my open eyes.

The heavy red layers of my gown soaked up the dirty water and pinned my legs to the ground.

"You really should have kept running," the assassin laughed and stepped closer to my fallen body.

I gritted my teeth and kicked a handful of wet dirt directly into the dark opening of his hood.

He cursed loudly and wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve.

I used the brief distraction to push myself up and thrust the iron spike toward his stomach.

He twisted his torso and my makeshift weapon only grazed the thick fabric of his Crimson Eclipse cloak.

He let out a frustrated growl and swung his arm back to deliver a backhand slap across my face.

The heavy leather of his glove struck my cheekbone and sent my head snapping to the side.

I fell back into the mud and tasted warm copper blood pooling in my mouth.

"Fuck you," I spat the blood out onto the gravel and glared up at the hooded man.

"You have a very filthy mouth for a royal lady," the assassin mocked me while he stepped over my legs.

He kicked the iron spike out of my hand and sent it skidding a few feet away into the bushes.

"You should have stayed in the ballroom and enjoyed your final night alive," he taunted me and pressed the tip of his sword against my collarbone.

The cold metal sliced through the silk fabric of my dress and bit into my skin.

A sharp sting radiated across my chest while a thin line of warm blood trickled down my neck.

I reached my hand out into the mud and desperately searched for the heavy iron spike in the dark.

"Did Anselm send you to do his dirty work?" I asked him to keep his attention focused on my face.

The assassin paused for a fraction of a second when he heard the true name of the Crimson Eclipse mastermind.

"How do you know that name?" he demanded and leaned down closer to interrogate me.

My fingers finally brushed against the cold and rusted metal hidden in the wet grass.

"I know a lot of things," I rasped out and tightened my grip on the heavy iron bar.

I brought my arm up and swung the spike with every single ounce of strength left in my exhausted body.

The assassin realized his mistake and tried to pull his sword away to defend himself.

He was too slow and my weapon found its target before he could move out of the way.

I drove the jagged iron spike directly upward and buried it deep into the soft flesh of his exposed throat.

The cultist dropped his sword and let out a horrifying gurgling sound as his hands flew up to clutch his neck.

A sudden spray of hot blood erupted from the wound and splashed across my face.

The warm crimson liquid rained down on my beautiful red dress and turned the expensive fabric black in the dim moonlight.

The assassin stumbled backward and fell hard onto the wet gravel next to Conrad.

He twitched for a few seconds before his body finally went limp and still in the mud.

I laid on my back and stared up at the dark storm clouds while I gasped for oxygen.

The heavy rain washed some of the sticky blood off my cheeks but my hands remained stained with the dark gore.

I just took a human life with my own bare hands and a piece of broken metal.

My stomach churned with nausea but I pushed the sickness down because I needed to make sure the captain survived.

I rolled over onto my hands and knees and crawled through the mud toward the bleeding royal guard.

Conrad laid flat on his back and stared at me with wide and unblinking eyes.

He pressed his heavy armored hand over the deep gash in his side to slow the bleeding.

"Are you... what the hell just happened?" Conrad stammered and coughed up a splatter of blood.

"Stay still and do not try to talk," I ordered him and ripped the fabric of my dress.

I grabbed the hem of my ruined silk gown and used my teeth to tear a long strip of fabric away from the skirt.

"You are bleeding heavily and we need to stop it before you go into shock," I told him while my hands shook.

"I thought you were just a spoiled noble girl," Conrad wheezed out and let his head fall back against the gravel.

"People are rarely what they seem," I replied quietly and folded the torn silk into a thick pad.

I pressed the makeshift bandage hard against his side right below his ribcage.

Conrad hissed in pain and grabbed my wrist to try and pull my hand away.

"F-fuck, that hurts!" he cursed and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Do not move or you will make it worse," I scolded him and applied more pressure to the wound.