Page 44 of Crowned In Venom

Pain pulses where the dagger grazed me, but it is nothing. A whisper of an inconvenience.

I cross the room, stepping over the bloodied dagger.

It gleams in the dim light, a reminder that tonight, I was vulnerable.

And that?

That is unacceptable.

Someone has grown bold.

Someone thinks I am slipping.

Anya.

The thought coils through me, slow and insidious.

She has been watching me differently. Not with fear, not with obedience.

With calculation.

With intention.

Did she orchestrate this?

I picture her—her steady gaze, her careful words.

No.

Not yet.

This was not her.

She plays the long game.

But someone else—someone else is growing impatient.

And I will burn them from my city before they dare try again.

15

ANYA

The palace is awake.

Even before I hear the distant crash of doors thrown open, the hurried whispers in the halls, I feel it.

Tension. Sharp, electric.

Something has happened.

Something that has the guards on edge, that has the servants stepping carefully, keeping their heads low.

Something that has Varkos’s power bleeding through the walls like a wound torn open.

I do not yet know what it is.

But I will.

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