The bed was too soft; the lights were too bright, and the room was too big.

After months of cramped isolation, the tears that came to Lilia's eyes made her eyes sting, but whether they were tears of joy or panic, she had yet to decide.

What Lord Millian—Andro—had offered her was a double-edged blade, and one she willingly grabbed by the hilt.

Sitting on the edge of the lush mattress, covered in blankets and pillows, her new quarters were everything she could have wished for as a Lady of Lathos.

But she wasn't a Lady, she had to remind herself. Not any longer.

The conversation with Andro played through her mind as she stood from the bed, walking the perimeter of the room as she ran a hand along the walls, idly looking for traps or spyholes out of habit, but more so to convince herself that this turn of Fate was real.

Work for me, he had said.

Be my assassin.

Lilia made him think she had to consider it, and even though she didn't give him an answer until they had finished their meal, her decision was on the tip of her tongue the moment he made his offer.

A life of service under the Lord of Thuria while living in luxury, in exchange for more freedom than Lilia had known in the last six months. Maybe even beyond that.

No Guild. No dues.

No Baz.

She shook her head slightly, walking before an open window that looked out over the villa's gardens. The winter sun was setting behind the trimmed hedges, evergreen despite the cold surrounding them. Lilia sighed, almost dreamily, as she took in the sight.

She had seen the sun set plenty of times since she had been at Lord Andro's estate, but for the first time since she had been there, she could watch it rise as well.

A knock on the door behind her drew her thoughts away from the scene outside her window, and she spun around just in time to see Andro enter, kicking the door shut behind him. In his hands, he held a bottle of wine and two empty goblets.

Lilia angled her head. "What is this?" she asked, regarding both the wine and his intrusion.

"A toast," he announced as he walked towards her, putting the glasses and bottle upon a table at the end of her new bed. "To celebrate your new freedom, and my new employ."

Something sparkled in his storm gray eyes as he spoke, and it was enough for Lilia to notice to make her take a step forward. She continued to watch him, and all that she hadn't said during their initial meeting swelled inside of her.

"Why do you do that?" he asked as his attention focused on opening the bottle of wine.

"Do what?" she inquired, almost defensively.

"You bite the thumbnail on your right hand."

Lilia blinked and looked down - sure enough, her thumb was between her lips, and she quickly pulled it away before she made a greater fool of herself, even as he continued to chuckle while he popped the bottle's cork.

"I don't know what's so amusing," she growled, glaring.

"I don't know why you're taking offense," he countered. "There's nothing wrong with having an outlet for nerves."

"I am not nervous."

His only response was a glance up with a raised brow before his attention returned to glasses before him.

Her glare deepened.

Finally, "Why?" was all she would allow escaping her lips.

Andro finished pouring the glasses and handed one to her. "I already told you why."

"But why now?" she asked as she took the glass from his hand.

He looked her over, but not as the guards had earlier with their sneers- no, he really looked at her as if she wasn't just a prisoner within his dungeons. She held his gaze because she could, and she felt as if she was back at the solstice bonfire, seeing him for the first time and wanting to actually know him instead of killing him.

"Because now it is beneficial to both of us to be on the same side of this endeavor, rather than at odds with one another."

Lilia had never been at odds with him, she considered, never truly. Her attempt on his life was a mission- he was a Mark just like all the others, but Baz...

Baz knew.

And she hesitated, and she got caught.

Lilia hadn't taken a sip of her wine, and Andro looked between her and the glass. "You saw me open the bottle, Lilia - I wouldn't go through the trouble of poisoning you now."

As if he could pull her from her internal reverie, she let an unexpected chuckle slip through her lips, and even Andro perked a brow in surprise.

"You had me in your dungeons for the last four months," she reminded him. "If you wanted me to work for you, why did you wait?" If he knew how his guards looked at her, treated her in that time, or what Baz's men had done in the months before that... she wondered if Andro would have made his offer sooner.

As a merchant Lord, Andro rarely remained within his estate, and knowing Baz with his extensive web within the Underground, the chances of his men working under Andro were greater than ideal.

But Lilia would never allow it to become her weakness, whether or not Andro knew.

"There's a certain protocol," he began as he took a sip of his wine, his stormy eyes remaining on her. "It took two months to summon you to my jurisdiction for the attempted crime against me, and even then, the amount of gold I needed to barter was more than necessary."

"So, you bought me like a slave..."

"I paid for your sentence to keep you as far from Sebastian Gaylen as allowable."

She peered at him and finally took that sip of wine.

"Why?" she asked again.

Taking a step closer to her, Andro lowered his voice as he kept her gaze. "Because I know who he is - what he is - just as I know about you, and who you are."

"You don't know anything about me," Lilia whispered, but her heart pounded in her chest.

"I know you were the Lady Lilia Cortova, renowned silk merchant of Lathos, heir to her father's empire after his untimely demise at sea."

She smirked. "That's common knowledge, especially when you sent me the invitation to your own solstice celebration."

Nodding, Andro allowed himself a slight smile. "True - you were on the guest list, and at the time I knew you by name only, but the similarities in our trades made me wonder if there was more to you than just a woman who had inherited her father's line of work, especially in a world of men."

Lilia swallowed another sip of wine to keep herself from speaking or giving anything away he may not already know. He was not incorrect in his assumptions - a woman with her amount of power was rare not only in Lathos but in the surrounding kingdoms as well. She earned her father's title through her birthright, but fought every day to keep it.

"I also know that's why you began working with Sebastian Gaylen."

A cough wracked through Lilia's chest as she turned away from his gaze, not only to avoid spitting wine at him but also to compose herself.

Her reasons for joining the Guild, however, were not common knowledge.

"Within the first year of your inheritance, your ships were pirated, your storehouse ransacked, and your sister attacked. As a way to protect all that you loved and held dear, you began fighting Underground, as weapons training was a past-time you always seemed to enjoy, even after you became a Lady. Your success caught the attention of the Lord of the Assassins, and he offered you protection in return for service."

Lilia placed an arm against the nearby bedpost to support herself, her eyes wide as she kept her back to the Lord. Her breathing became ragged as her whole, sorted history rang through her ears, laid bare before her.

"What neither you nor the Lord expected was how good you'd be at it. How successful you'd become- how much you'd enjoy it. And before you both realized it, you were rising through the ranks, much to the dismay of the others around you. The hardest part, however, was keeping it a secret."

Lilia slowly turned to face him, her throat dry, words still escaping her. He leaned now against the opposite bedpost, his arms folded across his strong chest, with a knowing gleam in his eyes and a slight smirk on his lips.

"It all began to crumble, however, when you discovered your sister had fallen in love with another Lord within Lathos- one Sebastian Gaylen, successful diplomat and Emissary for the Crown. Who, like you, also led a double life kept secret. But if he had known she was your sister, or what she meant to you- I haven't figured that part out yet, and something tells me you still haven't either."

Gods, he was good...

It had been a major point of contention between Lilia and Baz since the day she learned who had stolen Cassandra's heart. He denied it every day since, but Lilia knew Baz did nothing that wasn't calculated.

"You tried your best to keep your worlds apart," Andro continued, "but every effort was thwarted, and soon your sister discovered your secrets, and rather than being disgusted by your actions, she decided she wanted to be a part of that Underworld- to join you with the Assassins."

"Enough," Lilia rasped, closing her eyes as she turned from him again, moving towards the large window. She found the winter twilight of the evening beyond much more enjoyable than the subject at hand.

"Is he using her against you?"

He had moved closer, Lilia could tell by the sound of his voice, the feeling of his warmth behind her, but she still couldn't bring herself from the window - not when she felt so damn vulnerable.

"Cassandra would never have allowed this - any of this - if she knew the truth," Lilia finally got out as she placed a hand on the window. The cool glass felt contrasting against the flush of her skin.

"So why don't you tell her the truth?"

"Because it would destroy her."

"Something tells me your sister is a stronger woman than you may believe."

Something within Lilia snapped at that- at this stranger who hardly knew her- who hardly knew anything- to dare speak of Cass as he was. She pushed off the window and hurtled herself towards him, storming with a finger pointed as if reprimanding a disobedient child. "Don't you for one moment think that you know anything about my sister!"

Andro stood straighter but held his ground as Lilia kept her finger aimed for his face.

"Cassandra is innocent in this - anything Baz has done, anything you have planned, you leave her alone. She has nothing to do with this!"

He held her stare and nodded as if he actually understood. "Fair enough."

It was that understanding that sent Lilia over the edge and looking at the finger she held so close to him, she clenched her fist tight and punched Andro in the face.

He stumbled, his eyes wide as they returned to her, a hand on his cheek upon the site of the impact, but he didn't react, and Lilia didn't move a step. Especially not after she realized what she had just done.

But she couldn't stop there.

"That," she said as she shook out her hand, her knuckles tingling from the impact. "That was for digging into my personal business."

She stared into his silver eyes as the embers in her own smoldered.

"As for leaving me in the dungeon for a long as you did," she added, taking a deep breath. "You best hope that I'm in a better mood by the time you return a knife to my hand."

And as he stood there, watching her work through her months' worth of wrath, Lord Andro Millian smiled at his new Assassin.