The Assassin and the Pirate Lord by Sarah J. Maas Page A

she’d been trained to keep until her last breath. But even if she told anyone, they were unlikely to believe that an elegantmanor house on a very respectable street in Rifthold was home to some of the greatest assassins in the world. What better place to hide than in the middle of the capital city?
    â€œAnd if he’s already talked?” challenged Sam.
    â€œAnd if Gregori’s already talked,” she said, “then kill everyone who heard.” Sam’s brown eyes flashed as she gave him a little smile that she knew made him irate. Celaena turned to Arobynn. “But you didn’t need to drag us here to decide this. You already gave the order, didn’t you?”
    Arobynn nodded, his mouth a thin line. Sam choked back his objection and looked toward the crackling hearth beside the table. The firelight cast the smooth, elegant panes of Sam’s face into light and shadow—a face, she’d been told, that could have earned him a fortune if he’d followed in his mother’s footsteps. But Sam’s mother had opted instead to leave him with assassins, not courtesans, before she died.
    Silence fell, and a roaring noise filled her ears as Arobynn took a breath. Something was wrong.
    â€œWhat else?” she asked, leaning forward. The other assassins focused on the table. Whatever had happened, they knew. Why hadn’t Arobynn told her first?
    Arobynn’s silver eyes became steel. “Ben was killed.”
    Celaena gripped the arms of her chair. “What?” she demanded.
Ben
—Ben, the ever-smiling assassin who had trained her as often as Arobynn. Ben, who had once mended her shattered right hand. Ben, the seventh and final member of Arobynn’s inner circle. He was barely thirty years old. Celaena’s lips pulled back from her teeth. “What do you mean, ‘killed’?”
    Arobynn eyed her, and a glimmer of grief flashed across his face. Five years Ben’s senior, Arobynn had grown up with Ben. They’d been trained together; Ben had seen to it that his friend became the unrivaled King of the Assassins, and never questioned his place as Arobynn’s Second. Her throat closed up.
    â€œIt was supposed to be Gregori’s mission,” Arobynn said quietly. “I don’t know why Ben was involved. Or who betrayed them. They found his body near the castle gates.”
    â€œDo you have his body?” she demanded. She had to see it—had to see him one last time, see how he’d died, how many wounds it had taken to kill him.
    â€œNo,” Arobynn said.
    â€œWhy the hell not?” Her fists clenched and unclenched.
    â€œBecause the place was swarming with guards and soldiers!” Sam burst out, and she whipped her head to him. “How do you think we learned about this in the first place?”
    Arobynn had sent
Sam
to see why Ben and Gregori were missing?
    â€œIf we’d grabbed his body,” Sam said, refusing to back down from her glare, “it would have led them right to the Keep.”
    â€œYou’re assassins,” she growled at him. “You’re
supposed
to be able to retrieve a body without being seen.”
    â€œIf you’d been there, you would have done the same.”
    Celaena pushed her chair back so hard it flipped over. “If I’d been there, I would have killed
all of them
to get Ben’s body back!” She slammed her hands on the table, rattling the glasses.
    Sam shot to his feet, his hand on the hilt of his sword. “Oh, listen to you. Ordering us about like
you
run the Guild. But not yet, Celaena.” He shook his head. “Not yet.”
    â€œ
Enough
,” Arobynn snapped, rising from his chair.
    Celaena and Sam didn’t move. None of the other assassins spoke, though they gripped their various weapons. She’d seen firsthand what fights at the Keep were like; the weapons were as much for the bearers’ own safety as they were to keep her and