Page 31 of Empire of Shadows

The snake hissed again, exposing pale, needle-like fangs that made Ellie’s stomach clench.

The man took a step closer and peered down. Ellie stared worryingly at his exposed toes. They seemed terribly vulnerable. Her breath stuck in her chest as she wondered what he could possibly do next. Would he try to crush the creature with the towel rack? Order her to run for help?

He did neither of those things. Instead, he smiled and dropped his voice to an indulgent coo.

“Well,yougave us quite the scare, didn’t you?” he said before tossing the towel rack aside and plucking the snake from the tiles with his bare hands.

He gently forced the reptile’s long, angrily whipping body straight and turned back to display it to Ellie.

“No yellow, see?” he said. “She’s a snail sucker, not a coral snake. Harmless—aren’t you, lil’ darling?” He turned the animal’s face toward his own and gave it an affectionate little wiggle.

The man wasentirelyinsane.

Ellie edged one step toward the door, then stumbled back as he turned in the same direction, carrying the snake out into the hall.

She was torn between the urge to slam the busted door shut behind him or to follow after him and make sure he didn’t pose a threat to any innocent passers-by.

Her horrified curiosity about what he intended to do with the snake tipped the scales.

Ellie made a quick adjustment to her dressing gown, which had become hopelessly soaked in the tidal wave from his plunge into her bath, and then hurried out.

The ground floor hallway was empty save for the boy from the lobby, Óscar. The teenager took one look at the snake-carrying lunatic and pivoted, hurrying in the opposite direction. Ellie could hear him call out as he went—something about atopógrafo locoandotra vez.

Ellie’s Spanish was admittedly rudimentary, but she was fairly certain that last part meantagain.

Her bath invader stopped where the wing ended and kicked neatly through another door. This one gave readily under his foot, opening onto the veranda that faced the extensive rear garden of the hotel—a shady paradise of sprawling calabash trees and flowering oleander.

The stranger strolled outside and extended his arm over the railing.

“Here you go, beautiful,” he said and released his grip on the snake.

It slithered free of his arm and dropped into a thick stand of hibiscus. An older couple who had been strolling on the adjacent path stopped and stared, the woman’s grip paling on her companion’s arm.

The madman wiped his hands on his trousers and came back inside.

“They like the heat,” he announced.

The better part of the filth covering him had washed away in the tub. He was soaking wet, his shirt and trousers plastered to his body. He had the sort of male form Ellie had only previously seen in statues at the British Museum. It was admittedly distracting.

“What?” she said numbly.

She was having a difficult time removing her eyes from his pectorals.

“Snail suckers,” he repeated, looking at her as though she were a bit thick. “They like the warm water. You should’ve checked around the tub before you filled it.”

“I didn’t fill it,” Ellie replied absently as she forced her eyes from his chest back to his face. “Óscar did.”

“And skip the bubbles,” he added pointedly.

Ellie narrowed her eyes. “Óscar added those as well.”

“It’s rare to find the dangerous ones here in the city,” he went on as though she hadn’t spoken. “But it isn’t unheard of, and you donotwant to cross paths with a coral snake. It’s lucky I was here.”

His words sparked her fury back to vivid, blazing life.

“Lucky?” Ellie echoed dangerously. “Exactly who the devil do you think you are?”

“IthinkI’m the guy who just saved you from a snakebite,” he replied, sounding a bit put off.

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