Page 35 of The Serpent's Bride
Volencia also never went far without all her bodyguards. She was always flanked by atleasttwo big, burly, vampiric men the size of Ivan who were likely loyal to the death.
But where there waspride,there was a way. Pride was one of the easiest emotions to use against a person, second only to greed. Nadi just had to wait for her opportunity and be clever about it, that was all.
The vampiric woman’s unnatural amber eyes watched her with a mix of disgust and haughty disdain. Like Monica was a cow patty in the fields of her father’s ranch. But Nadi held her head up high and kept her gaze fixed firmly on the three mirrors in front of her, ignoring the red, iron glare of the older woman.
Nor did she argue with any of the vampire matriarch’s orders.
The dress was a beautiful champagne color. She was very glad it wasn’t stark white. That would be as comedic as it would be hideous, in her opinion. It was a lacy, off-the-shoulder number that could be easily edited to cover herhideousbirthmark.
It took everything in her power not to roll her eyes or pick up the shoes on display and dig the pointed heel directly into Volencia’s eye socket. No. Now wasn’t the time. Once the wedding was done and Raziel’s guard was just a little lower, she could begin dismantling the family.
“Give her—something for that thing. We can’t have our guests losing their appetite. A shawl.” Volencia gestured, her long nails painted pitch-black and sharpened to points.
Volencia had just bumped everyone else off the top of her main family to-do list, however. The woman wasdefinitelygoing to die painfully.
The attendants around her muttered apologies and affirmations as they bustled around Nadi, pinning things orrushing off to find various shawls that would work with the lace dress.
“Does shespeak?”Volencia finally addressed her.
“I wasn’t aware I was welcome to.” Nadi shrugged idly. “You’ve been treating me like a prop this whole time, I figured that was what you wanted.”
The vampire huffed, a faint twinge of a smile to her darkly painted lips. The dark crimson velvet suit dress that the woman was wearing was expensive, custom-made, and was clearly advertising that fact. “So you aren’t an idiot. How charming.”
“Everyone keeps acting surprised that I’m not.”
“You don’t come from the brightest stock in the world.”
Nadi let out a hum. “That’s fair.”
Volencia laughed dryly. “I cannot imagine how it must feel to be sold to us by your father without even any consultation.”
“I’m used to being treated like a possession by him. He’s never much thought about what I’ve wanted.” Nadi didn’t know if that was true. But she figured it fit the narrative well enough.
“At least you seem to have some fight in you.” Volencia moved to sit down on the edge of a round velvet ottoman. A few of them were scattered about, clearly meant for giggling bridesmaids. “And you wear it well enough.”
Nadi wasn’t sure if Volencia meant she wore the dress well, or acting the part of a prop well—or both. She settled on both. Staring at a stranger’s reflection in the mirror, she couldn’t help but feel just the slightest bit of pang in her heart.
She would never get to stand in the mirror as herself. Never wearing her own face, let alone her own shape. She would never have her mother beside her, smiling as she tried on a dress.
Her mother was dead.
That woman in the mirror wasn’t real.
It was a lie. A ghost of a future that she would never, ever have.
Because Raziel, Volencia, and all the rest of their miserable family had taken it from her.
It wasn’t new information. It was what she had carried for over eighty years since that fateful night. But it was rare that she saw such a perfect example in front of her of…exactly what her future could have been.
She could have danced around a fire with a boy from another fae clan. She could have been wed under the glow of theyubibugs.
“Raziel told me you have become…acquainted with our business practices.”
Nadi watched the older woman in the mirror for a moment before turning her gaze away. “I have.”
“And what is your opinion of the family venture?”
“I wasn’t aware I was expected to have an opinion. Same as the dress. Same as everything else.”
