The group stood in front of the dark Buckingham Palace, only illuminated by the few torches that surrounded it. Admittedly, Adelaide was a little nervous about what she was going to do. But she knew that she had to do it and it was far too late to back out now.

Pushing aside her anxiety, she turned towards her group. "Edison, I need you to focus. Eyes and ears need to be kept in front of you in case someone tries to kill us. You'll be my ears, if you hear something, you need to tell me."

Edison nodded. "Understood, Commander."

"Harper, I need you to be my eyes. As soon as you see things going south, give me the signal to abort."

Harper nodded.

"Shadow, I need you to be my guide and first line of defence."

Shadowman frowned, his eyebrows creasing together in confusion as he looked at Adelaide. "Why would I need to do that?"

Adelaide sighed, her eyes narrowing a little. "It's common curtesy, Dylan. You want Jester? You'll have to protect me, that's just how this whole game works. You don't have to be the ride or die type like everyone else, but you do have to protect me no matter what."

"Alright, princess, I'll protect you."

"Do not call me that," Adelaide hissed, pushing past Shadowman and walked towards the back door, leaning against the wall beside the door before she began fiddling with the handle quietly to distract herself as she gave out the remainder of her orders to the other group members.

Shadowman looked around the group in confusion, his hands raising in defence. "What did I do?"

Harper bit her bottom lip as she looked at Adelaide for a moment before turning to Shadowman. "DogNut used to call her princess – he died saving her life three months ago; his death was the reason why she left North London and returned to the south. It's a sensitive subject for everyone, we don't tend to talk about it."

"We've all lost someone, why would she get special treatment?"

Harper sighed. "I'm going to be beheaded for this," she muttered quietly to herself before she placed a hand by the side of her mouth and whispered something into Shadowman's ear.

Shadowman's face dropped as soon as he heard what Harper told him, all the colour drained from his face. He knew Adelaide's big secret and now he had to take it to the grave or god forbid Adelaide would have his head.

Rather literally in her case.

Before Shadowman could say anything, the back door was opened and Adelaide moved in silently, her sword drawn. Shadowman walked swiftly to catch up to Adelaide and direct her around the dark room. Thankfully for the group, Shadowman knew the palace like the back of his hand; even in the dark, he knew exactly where he was going.

Directing the group through the dark and silent rooms, they ended up in one of the many corridors. Adelaide and Shadowman were at the front, while Harper and Edison were slightly further back.

"I know your secret," Shadowman half-whispered, breaking the silence between him and Adelaide.

"Huh?" Adelaide frowned, twirling the handle of her sword in her hand as she looked at Shadowman for a moment before turning back to the corridor in front of them.

"The real reason you have so many guards around you at all times… it's not just because you're the commander."

"I have no idea what you're talking about; it's their job to protect me, I just choose to have more than two guards sometimes."

"I think you do. Harper told me everything."

Adelaide froze, her grip on her sword tightening before she held her sword against Shadowman's throat and pushed him against the wall, the fear evident in her eyes. "Now that you know the truth; you cannot tell anyone. Please. I'll be taken out of the fight and I can't let that happen."

Shadowman shook his head, his hands raising in surrender. "I won't tell anyone, I swear."

Adelaide looked at him for a moment before lowering her sword and disappearing down the corridor, turning a corner and she was completely out of sight. Although, it wasn't hard to lose sight of her; she was wearing all black in an almost pitch-black corridor with very little light.

The group raced after Adelaide, not having too much trouble finding her as she hadn't gone that far away from them. The group moved through the palace in silence, nobody daring to speak and the only sounds between them were Shadowman's mutters of directions and their heavy boots on the carpeted floor.

"How much further?" Adelaide asked, breaking the silence.

"Not much, we keep going down here then turn left and we're basically at the prick's bedroom." Shadowman answered, pointing down the hall.

Adelaide nodded, halting the group by raising her fist. "Wait here, all of you. Give me ten minutes; if I'm not back in ten minutes, I want you all to abort the mission and leave. Do not wait for me, do you understand?"

The group nodded in unison and watched as Adelaide disappeared down the hallway and turned the corner, completely out of sight of the rest of the group.

Walking down the dark hallway, Adelaide's eyes fixed on the door at the end of it; David's room. But she came to a stop once one of the doors opened to reveal the one person she was supposed to save during this entire operation; Jester. Her eyes widened as she gripped her sword and froze, unsure of what she was supposed to do.

Please don't notice me, please don't notice me, please don't-

Jester's almost girl-like scream proved that she has been seen and the game was up. Well, until Jester fell to his knees, shaking and crying as he backed away from Adelaide and sat against the wall.

Walking slowly towards him; Adelaide crouched down in front of Jester's shaking and blubbering form, her head cocking to one side as she studied him. She was tempted to kill him but she had a deal with Shadow and she wasn't going to break it, that wasn't who she was. Plus, Shadow would've probably killed her for killing Jester – kind of using her own motto against her.

"Please… please don't kill me..." Jester sobbed, his eyes closing as he waited for death to come. Only it never came. Once the death blow never came, he slowly opened his eyes to see Adelaide right in front of him.

Adelaide almost laughed as she shook her head, placing her sword back into its holder before she moved her mask away from her face. "Calm down, sweetheart. I'm not here to kill you, you're the lucky one here; Shadow and I made a deal to spare your life."

Jester looked at her confused, tears still in his eyes as he did. "Then why are you here?"

Adelaide shrugged, standing up again. "I'm here to kill your king and take his crown, and there's nothing you or anyone can do to stop me."

Jester slowly nodded, sniffing and wiping away his tears, not saying anything.

Adelaide licked her lips, adjusting the strap on her sword. "Lover boy's here, by the way."

Jester's head jerked upwards towards Adelaide, slowly standing up. "Shadow's here?" he whispered, almost in shock.

Adelaide nodded, turning around to go back down the hallway towards the group, Jester following close behind her. She stopped at the turning, nodding towards Shadowman and took a step back.

She watched as Jester sprinted down the hallway towards Shadowman, who in turn ran towards Jester. They collided, enfolded, lost their balance, and slammed against a wall, where they stayed. Clinging to each other as if their lives depended upon it.

Watching them, she felt her heart sink a little inside her chest, remembering how she was with DogNut before he died. She liked to think that it was something like that but they didn't have enough time together to truly figure out what kind of couple they were.

Adelaide turned back towards the door, trying to force all thoughts of DogNut out of her mind. Now was not the time to be thinking about lost loves; she had a job to do and she was going to complete it.

Time to kill the king.

Note

Sorry this took me so long to put up and the fact that most of it is a mess, I tried. And I know the assassination isn't in this chapter; but it will be in the next one – I promise. It's coming, I swear.

I added in some Shagic because I fucking love them and I have no regrets to say that I ship it like FedEx.

Until next time;

Lorna.