Hey everyone, welcome to the new story! I hope you like the name. I'm so excited for this story, I literally haven't been able to stop thinking about writing it since the idea came to my mind, but I just want you to know I haven't given up on my other story, I just thought I should take some time off it until I can fully get myself back into it, because I didn't want to carry on writing if my mind was fully dedicated to it, you know? Anyway, thanks so much for reading and sticking with me, I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: The characters in this story belong wholly to Richelle Mead, and the inspiration from this story comes from the Throne of Glass books by Sarah J. Maas, though the changes to the story and the writing is completely my own. Enjoy!

Death is a strange thing, isn't it? How one moment, you can be breathing and living, your heart pumping blood around your body just as it should. And then the next minute, everything stops, and you're gone. Whether death comes from failure of the heart, or a slow and progressive disease that drags you kicking and screaming from the world of the living. It could be something as simple and deadly as a drop of poison in the glass of wine you drink from. It could be the cut of a knife along the soft flesh of your throat while you sleep. But all death is the same, one minute you are real, you have a family and achievements and goals, and then the next minute you are absolutely nothing.

Death had never been something that frightened me, I had seen too much of it to ever fear it. I had seen the life leave a person's eyes too many times to fear it.

Though I had been afraid the first time I took a life. I had spent my entire life scaling the rooftops of houses and ducking in and out of stalls filling my pockets with food in order to survive. I grew up almost entirely alone, I didn't have friends, and I didn't have family. There was once a woman, who would feed and shelter me for a while, but I soon became cold to the world and she would stop offering me her help. I had learnt from a very young age that I blended into a crowd, and I didn't draw attention to myself, no one ever looked twice at me.

That is until one day, someone did.

I was 13 years old when a man cornered me in one of the dark alleys that branch off the market square. I knew exactly what he wanted by the look in his eyes when he stumbled over to me. And when his clammy hand gripped the fabric of my ruined shirt my body moved of its own accord. I didn't know how my body knew how to move the way it did, I didn't even know my muscles had the strength to do what they did, but one second he was grabbing me and the next he was on the floor. There was blood leaking from a wound on his head, but his chest rose and fell with each ragged breath he took. He was still alive.

That wasn't the first time I killed a person, no. It was the day after that.

I was heading to the market, as I did every day to pickpocket coins or jewellery to sell for food, when a finely dressed woman approached me. The skirts of her dress rustled with every delicate step she took. She was middle aged but had eyes that had clearly seen too much of this world.

"I saw what you did to that man yesterday; I have also seen you stealing from the stalls here every day." She was well spoken; I could tell every word was well thought out.

Alarm bells rang in my mind, I was old enough to know when to get out of a bad situation, and this was one of those times.

"Before you run, I have something you need." She said as she held out a draw-string pouch in her spotless hand. I head the coins knocking against each other inside. There was probably more money in there than I had ever held in my life, and she carried it around as if it was nothing at all.

I looked her in the eye and cocked my head, a silent invitation for her to continue, she knew she held my interest. "There is a man I need you to kill for me, and the money will be yours." She went on to tell me where I would find the man, and handed me a kitchen knife to do the job with. She gave me a time and a place to meet her the following day where she would give me the money.

I might have been stupid to take her offer, but I had spent too many days not eating a single thing and too many nights sleeping in cold, dark alleys. I took the knife without a word and walked away. I probably should have mentioned to the woman that I hadn't killed the man in the alleyway, and that I had no idea how to actually kill a person. But then my empty stomach groaned and my instincts to survive took over. I needed to do this.

That night, I found the man exactly where the woman said he would be. He was intoxicated, as most men were at this time of night. He was stumbling out of a tavern, when I simply stepped in front of him. The top of my head didn't even reach the height of his shoulders. I was afraid. The streets of this city were not kind to a homeless 13 year old girl. I had seen some terrible sights, but I had never thought I would find myself killing people for money.

He didn't even bat an eyelid when he saw me step in his way, he just raised his right fist, he was simply going to knock me out of his way as if I were a leaf falling in front of his face.

He didn't even see the knife as I plunged it into his chest.

I tried not to think about how I could barely keep my grip on the knife due to the sweat that was collecting in my palms.

The knife didn't go all the way in the first time, and so I pulled it out and thrust it back in with both hands, that one hit the mark. I let his body slump to the ground with a thud. His last words were curse words; he spoke as if his tongue was too big for his mouth. I watched the stranger take his last breath, I watched the life leave his eyes, and it was like he was staring right through me. I didn't know what his name was and I had no idea why the woman with too-full pockets wanted him dead. I did not cry, once I realised what I had done. No, I didn't cry, I simply felt hollow.

I didn't sleep that night. I sat shivering, clutching the knife to my chest, watching the moon set and the sun replace it in the sky.

The next day I met the woman where she said she would be. She held out the pouch filled with coins as she saw me carefully approaching her.

"Thank you." She said quietly when I finally reached her. She didn't ask for proof, she didn't say anything else. Maybe they'd already found his body, maybe she'd already been told of his tragic murder. Was she expected to mourn the person she wanted dead?

The naive part of me wondered if I really should have taken the money, the remaining innocent part of me wondered if it was really the right thing to do. But then the fighter within me took over and I reminded myself that I hadn't eaten a hot meal in years, and that my shoes were most likely two sizes too small. I gave the woman a nod and took the money from her outstretched hand, and then I was gone and I never saw her again.

That was how it started, and now at the age of 19 years old I was known amongst the local criminals and thieves as the most dangerous and deadly assassin in the Kingdom. And now, Lords and Ladies with full pockets approached me from near and far with people they needed to get rid of.

As I grew from a scrawny child to a fully developed lady, my body changed in more than one way. Not only did my breasts become fuller and my hips wider, but my muscles grew stronger.

The killing got easier and easier as the years went on until I felt nothing at all, it was a job, a necessity in order to survive. And now I rented a room above the healers infirmary, I had a bed to sleep in and a full stomach, and I had done it all on my own.

I heard my name whispered in the streets, they called me the Unseen Assassin. Folk knew what I looked like from when they come to me and ask me to do their dirty work, but it seems that no one ever sees me get the job done. The people that can afford it simply ask for the person to be killed and then they turn up dead the next day, no one ever knows how or when it was done, but they all know it was me.

As more and more people came to me asking for me services, I had taken to wearing a black mask that covered my nose and mouth with a hood that covered my long dark hair, leaving only my brown eyes to be seen. This meant that I could walk around during the day and not have people running and screaming when they realised who I was. By day, I was a normal young woman going about her life, by night I was the deadliest person in the Kingdom.

I had learnt not to fear anything in this life, I had become stronger and faster than anyone around here, I knew what I was capable of. I had enough money now that I could afford to survive, I could eat out and buy food that had been cooked by someone else and I could buy drinks that were served in a glass rather than drinking the last of other peoples and begging for scraps of food like I had for the first 13 years of my life until I gained a skill I had never known I wanted.

But with my title and my skill came danger and people who feared me, people who wanted me gone, which is part of the reason I started to hide my identity.

Something had felt off for a few days now, like I was being watched, I felt as if there were eyes on me wherever I went. I had become a lot more aware of my surroundings as I grew up and became more aware of the dangers in this world. I made note of the exits whenever I entered a room and found myself mentally scanning every stranger I came across, checking for strengths and weaknesses.

I suppose I should have been ready when they came for me, but for the first time in my whole life, I had been caught off guard. Don't get me wrong, I put up a hell of a fight. One of my many knives was in my hand before the first guy even laid a hand on me. But there must have been at least 10 of them, and I could tell as soon as I saw them that they must have been training to fight before I could even walk. And I knew I wasn't going to walk away from this fight when I saw the white band on the upper arm of their uniforms, it had a crown embroidered onto it.

I didn't go down without a fight, I fought until I could barely breathe, but ultimately it wasn't enough. I saw the handle of a sword coming down onto the side of my head and I knew that I was done for.

My name is Rose Hathaway, I am the most deadly assassin in the Kingdom, and I have just been captured by the King's personal Guard.

There we have Chapter 1! I'm so excited for this story to go underway. This chapter was really just an introduction to Rose and giving a bit of background to her life, I've tried to make it clear but if you have any questions please feel free to message me or write them in your review and I'll be happy to reply! We'll be meeting Dimitri as well as some other vital characters next chapter, Adrian will play a big part in this story as will his Father, although it will be based primarily around Rose and Dimitri. I really hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and I would love to hear what you all think, because I'll be worrying away about whether people liked it or not! Also, I don't have a name for the Kingdom yet; the royal family are the Ivashkov's however Adrian isn't the King, so any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks again for reading, please let me know what you think and don't forget to follow and favourite as well as review because it will really encourage me to keep writing if I know you're enjoying it, thanks again!