Page 24 of Crowned In Venom

And yet, I still do not know the extent of what she is capable of.

I have heard rumors, whispered horrors about her experiments, the way she molds flesh and mind alike.

But rumors are not truth.

And if she has sent one of her creatures into my home, then she is not just watching.

She is waiting.

For me to fail.

For me to become hers.

I exhale slowly, my rage kept on a tight leash.

She will not have that satisfaction.

She will not have Anya.

I turn back toward my chamber, locking the door behind me.

If the Matriarch wants to play games, she has chosen the wrong opponent.

9

ANYA

Power is a strange thing.

It does not always belong to the strongest, nor the cruelest.

No, true power is something deeper, something unseen.

And I am beginning to suspect Varkos does not hold as much of it as he pretends to.

It happens by accident.

I am moving through the corridors, listening, observing—as I always do.

The servants speak in hushed tones when they think no one listens. The guards mutter to themselves, thinking I am just another body in silk, another prize to be ignored.

But I listen.

And tonight, I hear something I shouldn’t.

“…if she finds out, he will suffer for it.”

A sharp whisper—quick, urgent.

Two figures in the servant’s hall, their backs turned to me. Two women.

One grips the other’s arm, her knuckles white. “She already suspects. That’s why the ghost is here.”

The ghost.

My breath stills.

The second woman glances over her shoulder before hissing, “Then we say nothing. You know what happened to the last one who spoke her name.”

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