Page 4 of The Serpent's Bride
Heading to the bathroom, she tossed the two bloody weapons into the sink and switched on the hot water. She’d have to boil them when she got home, but scrubbing them in soap and hot water would do for now.
Oh, shit. The bathroom wasnice.Mark hadn’t been cheap. The tub was enormous. Definitely meant for more than one—and very likely more than two.
Extremelydiscreet.
Shame to let such a wonderful tub go to waste. Sitting on the edge of the marble platform that surrounded the large ovalbasin, she reached over and flipped open the brass taps, letting the water rush out. Smiling, she decided there was only one thing that could make it better.
Booze.
Humming to herself, she headed back to the main room. There was a silver bucket by the wall filled with ice, and an uncorked bottle of white wine shoved into it.
First, she figured it didn’t hurt to go through his coat. She hadplentyof money. Being an assassin paid extremely well, and she really didn’t know what to do with what she had, so she didn’tneedto raid his wallet for cash. But after growing up fae in the darkest corners of the city, it was hard to turn down free money. And there might be something useful in his pockets.
His wallet had a few paper bills amounting to a not small but not incredible sum of money, a few business cards that seemed uninteresting but she’d keep just in case, and a paper ID card she’d leave with the corpse. She had no need for it. In fact, better if it weren’t on her person.
It was the other pocket that had something more interesting.
A crimson envelope with a broken black wax seal that had a stylized decorative N stamped into it. She knew that symbol. She knew that symbolverywell.
Flipping open the envelope, she pulled out the card and read the delicate crimson text scrawled across the expensive off-white linen card inside.
Of course it was blood red. Ofcourseit was. Egotistical shit.
You are hereby cordially invited to the wedding of Raziel Nostrom and Monica Valan on Everdeen the 4th, 3435, at the Wellingham Estate Courts.
It didn’t even include instructions on how to RSVP. He justassumedwhoever was invited was coming. Naturally.Egotistical shit.
Tossing the card onto the bed, she took the whole bottle and one of the delicate crystal glasses, then headed back to the bathroom. Flipping off the electric lights—they tended to hurt her eyes, though she preferred them to the smell of the oil lamps they were replacing—she let out a sigh as the darkness flooded the room.
She was used to the darkness. She had grown up in the Wild, after all. Placing the bottle and glass on the edge of the tub, she stripped out of her clothes and tossed them aside.
The Wild stretched for miles underneath the island of Runne, sprawling in endless caverns, rivers, oceans, lakes, and fields. Larger than the humans and the vampires who all lived topside could probably imagine.
Filled with creatures and wonders the likes of which they couldneverdream of.
And it was where most fae clans lived. Those that hadn’t overtaken the plains between the walled cities where the humans and vampires had driven them out, at any rate. It was dangerous in the plains, and while there was always a chance for war and raids anywhere in the Wild, the plains were notoriously worse.
But being underground, where it wassupposedto be safer, meant that most fae never saw the light of the sun. So they adapted to live without it.
It was another advantage she had over those that lived above. Even the vampires, who were also creatures of darkness, had poorer night vision than her kind.
Her clan had lived underground.
Hadbeing the operative word there.
Oh, by the two moons,this place had that soap that made the water all bubbly!
She’d been in this hotel before, but never inthisnice of a room. “Mark, you really know how to treat a lady you plannedon fucking once.” Laughing quietly to herself, she unscrewed the top of the glass bottle and poured the contents into the bath, loving the feeling of the steam rising off the surface of the water.
Slipping into the water, she let out a satisfied groan and sank into the liquid up to her neck. She could really stretch out in the enormous tub. Once it was full, she turned off the taps and poured herself a glass of wine.
She sipped it, leaning her head back against the lip where the porcelain met the marble and let out a sigh. Her good mood didn’t last long as a name came into her mind as it had so many times over the past eighty years of her life.
Eighty years that she had spent learning to kill. Learning to hunt. Learning to survive. Because ofthat name.Thatone name.And the face that went along with it. She had spent eighty years honing her skills. Knowing that someday she would have a chance to take her revenge. Onhim.
Raziel Nostrom.
Her stomach twisted in hatred at the thought of him. She had to bite back the memories. The night that ruined her life—that took everything she cared about.
