Page 87 of Crowned In Venom

I do not have the luxury of grief.

Mira is dead.

Because of me.

Because I was careless.

Because I let myself become distracted.

Because I let myself forget.

I will not forget again.

The fire inside me—the one I thought had died with my family—flares back to life.

A hunger.

A purpose.

A promise.

Varkos is not mine to want.

I must destroy the Matriarch. Nip the bud.

This place is mine to destroy.

I rise slowly, Mira’s blood staining my knees.

I glance down at her one last time, and I swear it.

For her.

For my village.

For every life stolen, for every chain fastened around a human throat.

I will burn his world to the ground.

And this time?—

I will not hesitate.

27

VARKOS

The night air is thick with the scent of damp stone and burning torches as I make my way through the underground halls.

The revelry of the city hums beyond the palace walls, but here, beneath the floors of my own empire, the air is still, waiting.

Waiting for the poison to finish its work.

For years, I have fed it to her.

A slow death.

Drop by drop.

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