Page 12 of The Serpent's Bride
The man grunted. Clearly, she wasn’t even worth a word. Or eye contact. He simply went toward the back of the house down a hallway and waved at her to follow.
Oh, she hatedall of them.
Hank would be fun to kill. Leave him strung up somewhere with his own tongue shoved up his nose. Or somewhere less polite. At least he was sparing her miserable and pointless small talk. He brought her up the back stairs—like a servant—and showed her to a room at the back end of the house.
Walking in, she pretended as though she was in awe of the place. It was clear this was a spare bedroom but to Monica, it would have all been astonishing. Turning to Hank, she smiled. “Thank?—”
Hank shut the door on her.
“—you.” Nadi counted backward from ten. Then did it a second time. Otherwise, she would’ve stormed down the hallway and killed the man right then and there. Too soon. She couldn’t start murdering people ten minutes after arriving. No, she’d have to take her time. Let everyone adjust to her presence.Likely, she should wait until after the wedding to start taking out his friends and employees.
Right.
The wedding.
There was no small part of her that wanted to avoid thinking about it. Not so much because she hated weddings—they were exciting, the few she had ever attended in her life—but because of what was going to followafterthe wedding.
If Raziel even waited that long before forcing her into his bed.
Putting down Monica’s luggage on a chair by the door—luggage that Hank hadn’t offered to carry—she unzipped it to see exactly what the young woman had brought with her.
Clothes. A few books. And a stuffed teddy bear. It looked fairly new, so at least she hadn’t accidentally stolen the real Monica’s favorite childhood toy.Poor girl. He would have chewed her up and spat her out. Sorry, Monica—you wouldn’t have lasted even a single week with him.
There was a modicum of honor in saving Monica from Raziel. Nadi hadn’t set out with that in mind, and it wasn’t like it was a big thing—but she supposed she could at least hold her head up high a tiny bit. Right? Some good was coming out of what she was doing in the short term. She wasn’t a good person. But what she was trying to dowasgood.
Flopping down onto the bed, she let out a breath. She was exhausted. She didn’t dare drop her glamor. Luckily, it stayed active in her sleep. She had to be pretty badly injured for her magic to falter. But falling asleep, unguarded, in an unfamiliar space was unwise. Even so, she was extremely tempted to say fuck all that and just take the opportunity to rest.
Getting back up off the bed with a grunt, she went to make sure the door was locked.Don’t be stupid, they have keys.At least her room came with a private bathroom. That was a plus.She explored the space, checking every drawer and under every piece of furniture, looking for spyholes, cameras, anything.
But it seemed clean.
You’re not important. They’ve made that very clear.
Not even important enough to spy on. Maybe shecouldtake a nap. That was certainly what Monica would do after a long day of travel. Letting down her guard felt…gross. It just felt wrong. But she had to play the part.
And she was exhausted, after all.
With a sigh, she picked up the little teddy bear—it still had a tag on the bottom of it. Maybe a going-away gift? Or something Monica had bought on the way? It didn’t matter. Pulling the tag off, she climbed under the top comforter of the bed.
Even the shittiest of the shitty guest rooms Raziel had was still miles more comfortable than anything Nadi had ever owned. Using the stuffed animal as a pillow to prop her arm up on, she shut her eyes and quickly nodded off.
At least she didn’t dream. That was all she’d need—his smug smile and velvety voice haunting her in her sleep.
Raziel flopped down on the sofa on the balcony of his suite, turning another one of his gold coins over on his fingers.There was no business to attend to.
But if there was one thing he’d learned to do with his toys, it was to make them wait. Make them yearn for his voice, his touch, his presence. His staff had been told to leave her alone unless otherwise directed to—she would be isolated, cut off from interaction with everyone except him.
Alone in the metropolis with no friends or family—with no one to rely on but him? He’d have her literally eating out of his hand in no time at all. An old game, but an easy one.
Ivan took his post by the door, his hands folded in front of him, as he stared ahead into the middle distance. Once, Raziel had asked his friend and guard what he thought about when he stared like that, and the man only shrugged and said he didn’t really know.
Good man.
Perhaps the joke was on Raziel, and Ivan was secretly penning entire novels in his head while he stood there and blankly watched time go by.
Around the coin went again.
He had a collection of antique currency to choose from, from before the modern age of Runne, before the humans built their cities with the aid of his kind. The coins were one of the few gifts people could give him that he actually enjoyed. One of the few things he actually cherished in his life.
