SEVEN

"Full house. I win."

My voice is stiff and cold as I place down my cards, hiding a grim smile behind my mask. Memory didn't go anywhere, and so did my skills.

Two years had just rusted them a bit.

"Damn." He whistles, and I smirk at him as he sighs. "A deal's a deal, I guess. How'd you play like that, hm? How about a meal in exchange for some of those tricks?"

I shake my head. "Sorry."

Who knew what he might put in those meals? Besides, I still had one sandwich and a bottle of water left in my pack for dinner.

After that, I'd have to go hungry.

But better than being possibly drugged.

"Aw." He says with a disappointed look, and I bite my lip as he tosses me a key. "Room key for you. Had a nice time playing though."

"Me, too." I lie, and leave him in the room first to go up to mine. When I step in the door, I'm pleased to find two things.

One, the room isn't half-bad. It has a comfortable-looking bed in the middle, and I needed something like that after all that sleeping outside. And it's also clean, no insects.

And the second reason makes me very happy.

"Roll over, Jimin." Taehyung growls, and I can hear him almost clearly through the thin walls. It's actually so thin it literally sounds like they're here.

It must be Tae and Jimin in the next room.

I'd have to be careful not to say anything.

"Idiot." Jimin grumbles, and I smile softly as I scramble to a sitting position on the bed and lean my back against the wall. I hadn't realized until now how much I'd missed them.

And it had not even been two days.

What's gone into you, Seven. I shake my head, still smiling like an idiot as I listen to Jimin and Taehyung bicker to each other. You've let this people come so close.

"Kim Taehyung!" Jimin hisses, and I hear Taehyung grunt. "If you don't stop being annoying right now, I'll chuck you out of the window. And then I'll throw this lamp down after you."

Taehyung laughs.

"Stop hugging me!"

Was Jimin just cold towards me? His voice now was kind of like a child now, and I push back a giggle. I didn't realize he could be someone like this.

I snap out of it.

These damn assassins— they were making me so soft in the inside. They were so much kinder than I'd thought, and nothing was true about them in the books I'd read.

But I have to know they're going to leave me whether I'd want them to stay or not.

It was impossible— impossible for me to stay with them. I knew all of this was temporary, and they were going back to the North sometime.

Letting that harden up my mind and heart, I slip under the blankets. But everything I'm wearing is scented with Jimin, and I sigh deeply.

Remember. You're always alone in the end.

_________________________

"Jimin. Taehyung. Get up."

That grabs my attention. The sleep that had been finally pulling down on my eyes dissipates like mist, and I press my ear against the wall.

"It's been only a few hours though!" Taehyung protests sleepily, but I hear a sharp retort and a groan as blankets shift. "Jimin, get up. We got to go."

Now I'm up on my feet, fingers instantly reaching for my mask and hat. I quickly cover my face with it, and continue listening intently.

"How does your arm feel, Chim?"

"Fine." A muffled reply comes, and I wince inwardly. From the wound I'd seen, I didn't think he should be climbing or doing anything like that. But he just keeps saying fine.

"Alright then. Everyone's already waiting outside."

With that, the sound of a door closing echoes, and everything's silent after that. Knowing I'd already locked my door earlier, I quickly rush towards the window and see their dark shadows.

The castle's not far from here.

I wait, watching until they leave. Only when they are safely out of my sight do I open the window and step out onto the shallow edge against the wall.

And then I carefully twist my body, dropping onto the roof of another building. Dusting my front, I quickly break into a run across the plane of the roof.

Excitement is coursing through my veins.

I hold my cap down with one hand as I jump, landing on the second and then skipping easily over to the third. I pull down my mask to my neck, breathing in the fresh night air.

Buildings practically surrounded the castle. So it's easy to keep low, running over the tightly-knitted roofs. A few times I slip, but I giggle as I quickly catch myself with the other foot, hand clasping over the shingles.

I missed this.

But soon I'm out of breath, and I curse my unfitness for the five hundredth time as I slow to a stop. I breathe roughly, but there's a wide smile on my face.

The shadow of the castle stands looming before me.

I catch the air in my chest, grinning as I lean back on one of the flatter spots on the roof. I've leaned back and waited about five minutes before my sharp eyes catch on a sleek figure.

The moonlight had slightly glanced off of his shadow, and the silhouette disappears back again into the darkness.

Wow, Jimin.

I'd barely noticed him, which was saying quite a lot. And he also had a healing wound. No wonder he was first rank back in the North.

And I soon notice another figure trailing after him up the walls of the castle— Yoongi, most likely. The two had the lightest figures in the group.

Soon, I notice something else going on the bottom while the two are making their way up to the top.

North assassins. I shake my head in amusement when I realize all the guards have been killed off. And so quickly— it was shocking, how fast they done it.

And they'd even gotten the guards on the far side, the watchers.

Amazing. If I hadn't taken Jimin by surprise the two times I'd overpowered him, I wouldn't have stood a single chance.

I continue to watch, hidden in the shadows of the roof. Jimin slides open the window once he climbs to the top—nearly four hundred feet in the air. Yoongi has stopped right below, and now I can confirm it's him with the moonlight shining on his pale features.

I'm mesmerized. Didn't they even get tired? And Jimin with his arm— I hadn't thought he could even climb twenty feet with that injury!

I blow out a breath when Jimin comes back out, swinging his legs over the sill.

The King was dead, probably with a knife right through his heart.

Just like that? How— they made it seem so easy, like child's play.

Flawless.

Yoongi and Jimin are almost down— just only fifty feet left or so— when I suddenly realize something seems different. Yoongi's the same, but Jimin...

I shift closer, out of the shadows.

Jimin.

There's something off. I can feel it. But I just can't tell what it is, and it's driving me absolutely crazy not knowing.

Then I understand.

And that's when everything goes wrong.

Jimin's hand reaches for a stone that's clearly loose, and I swallow back a scream as he puts his weight on it.

The stone slips.

And Jimin falls.