Page 91 of Crowned In Venom

I must find what she is drinking.

I must cut off her supply.

Before she realizes she is no longer dying.

Before she turns on me first.

28

ANYA

Iscrub my hands raw.

The water in the basin is already stained pink, swirls of red spiraling against the porcelain like ghosts refusing to leave.

Mira’s blood.

I tell myself it will wash away. That it is only skin, only flesh, only remnants of someone I could not save.

But it will not leave me.

I feel it under my nails, soaked into my palms, threading through every breath I take.

Another life. Gone because of me.

I grip the edges of the basin, my breath sharp. The room tilts, swaying under the weight of everything I have been ignoring—the hunger for vengeance, the shame of my own weakness, the kiss that still lingers on my lips.

I should have known better.

I do know better.

But I still let myself fall into him.

I let him touch me.

I let myself want him.

And now Mira is dead.

Coincidence?

No.

No, I don’t believe in coincidences.

I swallow hard and straighten, meeting my own gaze in the mirror.

I look the same.

But I am not.

Something inside me has cracked.

Something old and ugly and waiting.

It wants.

Not just revenge.

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