Page 54 of The Naga Lord's Pretty Little Mouse

His lips part, a spell, a curse, something desperate.

My tail snaps forward, slamming him against a tree with a sickening crunch.

His body slides to the ground, movement stuttering, eyes vacant.

The leader remains standing, blood splattered across his armor, hands lifted, magic flickering between his fingertips.

Amusement lingers in his expression, but it is forced. Thin.

"You’re quicker than I thought,” he muses, voice lilting between curiosity and calculation. “She must mean something, for you to come this far.”

My blade angles lower, but the promise of violence thrums beneath my skin.

He steps closer, cautiously. “A human,” he continues, head tilting. “Is she worth the war you’re about to start?”

The muscles in my jaw tighten. It was never about worth.

She is mine.

The dark elf sees the answer before I speak it.

His magic surges, a last, desperate attempt.

The blade in my hand finds his throat before the spell leaves his lips.

A single stroke silences him.

His body slumps forward, head lolling at an unnatural angle, red soaking the ground beneath him.

Silence reigns once more.

The bodies around me remain motionless, limbs twisted, expressions frozen in disbelief. None of them had truly thought this would happen.

They had stolen what was mine.

I had come for them.

Blood drips from my fingers, slow, warm. The jungle swallows the sound, as if satisfied by the offering.

A sharp gust of wind shifts the leaves overhead, stirring the unnatural quiet.

She is near.

The smell of her struggle lingers. The chase had ended somewhere ahead.

The hunt is not over.

Not until she is back where she belongs.

24

SEREN

The ground is slick beneath me, damp with blood, some of it mine, some of it theirs.

My body shudders against the effort to stay upright, knees trembling, ribs aching from the last blow. Laughter drips from the lips of the dark elves, circling like jackals, their eyes gleaming with cruel amusement.

They have been toying with me for what felt like hours. They captured me earlier from my first escape, bringing me to another camp.

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