Page 99 of Crowned In Venom

Varkos is watching.

And worst of all—I am watching him too.

That is the real danger.

Not the Matriarch. Not the Ghost lurking in the palace corridors.

But the way I hesitated tonight when I learned what he has been doing.

The way I let myself think, for a fraction of a second—maybe I was wrong about him.

Maybe there is a part of him that is worth saving.

That thought is poison.

A different kind of poison than the one he’s been feeding his mother.

This one is mine.

And I cannot afford to drink it.

That is why I am here now, slipping through the dim corridors beneath the palace, past the points of entry that I have memorized, past the guards who do not see me.

If I wait any longer, I will hesitate again.

And hesitation means death.

The first blow must be struck.

Tonight.

Before I second-guess myself.

Before I let him get inside my head.

I weave through the tunnels that lead to the lower cells, the ones reserved for the worst of them.

The ones even Varkos doesn’t bother looking at anymore.

And that is why this will work.

Because he will not expect it.

Because I need to remind myself of what I came here to do.

I am not falling for him.

I am not slipping.

I am here to ruin him.

The air is different down here.

Colder. Stagnant. Rotten.

The stench of old blood and unwashed skin thickens the deeper I go.

My fingers brush along the keys at my waist, the ones I stole from a guard too distracted by a wine cup and a pair of soft lips.

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