Sister Assassin (20 page)

“Had to jump out a window to get here. See?” I hold up my arms with their small cuts.

And then he smiles, and I know he knows what I did, and I know the secret will forever be safe with him because we will do this together. We will be inside Keane, farther inside than anyone else could ever get. And we will destroy his father and his webs of power and we will end this completely. I am giving up a life of freedom, I am giving up my sister, I am giving up who I could have been. But it's the right choice, because together James and I will do what no one else can. We will do what is right, however long and however much wrong it takes us to get there.

“I see.” James laughs. “My clever girl.”

Next to a van two men are holding Eden's arms, restraining her.

She shakes her head, tears spilling out of her eyes. “You're a monster. Annie never did anything to you, she loved you, and you . . . and you're happy and hopeful. James, you can't be okay with this.” She looks at him for support, but he shrugs. She's shaking now, whether with tears or rage I couldn't say. “I can't—I'll be in the other car.” She jerks her arms away from the men and walks quickly to the black sedan a few parking spots over, her gait stiff and unnatural.

I smile and James takes my hand that isn't covered in blood in his own. “Thank you,” he whispers.

“It was the only way.” I don't look back. I can't and I won't. I hope hope hope Annie and Adam will take care of each other. She'll figure out a way for all those women to be safe without Adam dying. I think that's what she was supposed to do all along.

And I think that this, here, with James, will always be wrong but it will always be the right sort of wrong, because if we don't do this, no one will. We are a matched set of perfect liars, perfectly destroyed people, perfect for destruction. James rubs his thumb down my own and my hand doesn't seem like it belongs on someone else anymore.

Annie is safe. And because
she
is, no one who hurt us will ever be safe again. I smile, and it is not a lie. It is a promise. I am ready.

I'M NEARLY ASLEEP WHEN I FEEL THE BOTTOM OF MY
bed move.

“Fia?”

I can hear her breathing; it's fast and ragged and peppered with sniffles. “Please?”

I sigh and scoot over to the wall, holding the covers open. Her little body snuggles in next to me. “Ouch!” I hiss as she knees me in the stomach.

“Sorry.”

“You know you aren't allowed to do this.”

“Please don't tell.”

I smile. I won't. Because she'll get in trouble, but also because even though I pretend like I don't, I love it when Fia has nightmares and comes into my room. It makes me proud that she chooses me over our parents. “Okay,” I say, patting her head and stroking her hair like Mom does to make me feel better.

“I wish night wasn't so long.”

“Why?”

“It's scary. I can't see anything. What if there's something hiding in the dark in my room?”

“Silly. Dark isn't scary. Dark is safe.”

“Why?”

“I live in the dark all the time. But when it's dark outside everyone has to be there, too. And if you can't see someone, they can't see you, either.”

She sniffles a few times. “So, it's like
I'm
hiding in the dark?”

“Yes. You're the secret when it's dark. Dark is safe.”

“Dark is safe,” she whispers, snuggling into me and throwing one of her bony arms over my stomach. “But only with you here, too.”

“Safe together.” I smile and brush her hair away from where it's tickling my nose. Sometimes
I
am the one who takes care of Fia. It makes me happy. “I'll take care of you,” I say, but she is already asleep. I breathe in the sweet shampoo scent of her and fall asleep, too.

FIRST THANKS, AS ALWAYS, TO MY NOAH, FOR HELPING
me calm and organize the chaos that is my brain. You are everything good in my life. Thank you as well to my darling Elena and Jonah, for your patience when Mommy went crazy with a story. Again. You are absolutely delightful little people.

Thank you to my mom, Cindy, and my sister Lauren, for babysitting that one night so Noah and I could go on a date and see a movie that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with this but somehow sparked the idea that I needed. Please feel free to take credit for this book. Unless people hate it, in which case I guess you've just lost plausible deniability. Sorry.

Special thanks to my siblings, Erin, Lindsey, Lauren, and Matt. I am so glad to have grown up with you. All the memories and stolen clothes (Matt, you are exempted . . . I think) and shared history make me who I am, and I'm glad that you are all part of it. Again, feel free to take credit for me, unless people hate me; in which case, beat them up.

Biggest familial thanks go to my dad, for making me his Kick Butt Action Movie Buddy all growing up. KBP forever.

Thank you to Natalie Whipple, for always spurring me on and for saying, “I thought the sister would be the other POV?” I owe Annie to you. Among many other things (that are not imaginary people). Thank you to Shannon Messenger for doing a lightning-fast crit that I believe included threatening to throw olives (or was it carrots? I'd be much more frightened of carrots) at me. Thank you to Stephanie Perkins for always helping me find my way and for showing me where to deepen my stories and strengthen my writing. You're like my personal trainer, only instead of getting slender and toned I get better at writing. Maybe we should also try the slender and toned thing next time. Just a thought.

Thank you to Michelle Wolfson, Agent Extraordinaire, for letting me write a book I wasn't supposed to and for sending it out in spite of its being “crazy.” You keep taking chances on me, and then you keep making those chances pay off. I am so glad you are in my life.

Thank you to Erica Sussman. I can't imagine making a book without you. I would make some funny threat about what I'd do if you ever quit being an editor, but after reading this book, you'd probably believe I was serious and get scared. I promise my love of working with and adoration of you is all things good and nonviolent. Thank you also to Berkeley, the cutest Harvardbound dog in existence.

Thank you to the team at HarperTeen, including but not limited to Editorial Assistant of Awesome Tyler Infinger; Marketing Wonders Christina Colangelo and Stephanie Stein; Publicity Guru Casey McIntyre; Foreign Sales Phenoms Jean McGinley and Alpha Wong; Copyediting Ninja Jessica Berg; and Cover Design Demigods Alison Donalty and Michelle Taormina. I feel ridiculously fortunate that my professional life includes all of you.

Thank you to A. S. King, Nova Ren Suma, Marie Lu, and Franny Billingsley, who wrote books that made me think and in small ways informed this novel. Thank you to Snow Patrol, Muse, and the Civil Wars for writing songs that capture in a few minutes emotions I try to capture in a few (hundred) pages. Thank you to all the femmes fatales of literature, television, and film for being strong—and for the rare occasions those femmes fatales were also allowed to be human and deal with the consequences of impossible decisions.

Finally, thank you again, always, to my readers. You are all ridiculously good-looking and have impeccable taste in literature. Thanks for continuing to trust me by lending me your brains and imaginations for a few hours. You make my life awesome.

Copyright

First published in the USA by HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. in 2013
First published in paperback in Great Britain by HarperCollins
Children's Books
in 2013
HarperCollins
Children's Books
is a division of HarperCollins
Publishers
Ltd, 77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 8JB.

www.harpercollins.co.uk

1

Sister Assassin
Copyright © 2013 by Kiersten Brazier
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.
ISBN: 9780007491643
Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780007492855
Version 1

Kiersten Brazier asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.