Page 86 of The Serpent's Bride
And here’s to all who’ll follow in your wake.
TWENTY-FOUR
The next morning, Nadi walked downstairs for breakfast, minding her own business. Well.Pretendingto mind her own business. She was just Monica, after all, preparing to eat her last meal in her husband’s home before being shoved onto a boat and floated up to the ancestral home of the Nostroms to be murdered.
She was absolutely not, you know, a shapeshifting assassin listening to find out whether Hank’s disappearance had caused any kind of stir.
Sure enough, the guards weren’t in their usual positions. And the staff were going about their business a little more nervously than before.Good.They all knew Hank had gone missing. And they knew Raziel’s second-favorite guard hadn’t just walked off the job.
Walking up to Ivan, who was standing in the main hallway looking deeply concerned, she smiled. She was purposefully trying to be as obnoxiously cheerful as she could. “Hi, good morning! Have you seen Raziel?”
“Office. On the phone with his mother.” Ivan frowned down at her.
Interesting. Either a good sign or a bad one. “Thanks.” Putting her bag down by the door—keeping up the appearance that she wasfullyconvinced that she was leaving for a cruise to her death that day—she headed back up the stairs to the second floor where Raziel’s office was located.
Two guards stood by the closed door, flanking either side. That was unusual.Good.She smiled at them and gestured at the door. “I’d like to speak to my husband.”
When one of the guards opened the door to let her in, it was clear that they’d been instructed to do so. Also interesting. Raziel was expecting her to come find him, which meant he had been expecting to be on the phone for some time.
Heading in, the guard shut the door behind her. Raziel was sitting behind his large, expensive oak desk. A whiskey glass in front of him said he had been drinking for some time, despite it being first thing in the morning—something told her he hadn’t started early; he hadn’t stopped from the night before.
His fingers were steepled against his temple, and the expression on his face was one of pure unadulterated suffering. The look of a man who had been forced to listen to nonsense for a very long time and was about ready to snap. A cigarette was perched between his fingers, the smoke curling lazily from its tip into the air.
It took everything in Nadi not to grin like an idiot.
“I amaware.”Raziel sighed and took a drag from the cigarette, flicking the ashes into an angular gold tray in front of him. He gestured at a chair across from him.
Taking her cue, she sat down and waited like an obedient little human sacrifice.
She couldn’t hear what Volencia was saying on the other end of the line, but whatever it was, it was pissing Razieloff.
“All the more reason to leave, don’t you think? Mael needs my men. And if I have a traitor within my ranks, he’s bettersuited to ‘fumigate the house’ than I am.” He shut his eyes, looking exhausted over the whole thing. A pause. “Ivan is plenty.”
Wait, what?Now, suddenlyVolenciawanted to postpone the trip, butRazieldidn’t? That wasn’t how she wanted this to go. Frowning, she sank back into the leather of the chair. Luckily, her dismay worked for Monica as well—if for very different reasons. From Nadi’s point of view, it made no sense. It didn’t change her plan—kill Raziel, disappear into the Wild. But the fact that Raziel was now keen to keep it to “business as usual” and that Volencia was the one who wanted to delay…stung.
Another pause from Raziel while his mother spoke. “Believe me, I fully understand that. My point is simply this, then—it takes fewer people to secure a yacht than it does this house. And on the chance that the attacker snuck in and was not already masquerading as part of the staff, I will be on aboatsurrounded by theocean. There will be nowhere to escape should they fail. It would be too risky for them to attempt.”
Challenge accepted, asshole. I have a tail.Nadi kept herself from laughing at her poorly timed silent retort. Even if she really didn’t want to.
“Oh, yes, thank you for the reminder.” Raziel rolled his eyes.
She wondered what Volencia had said.
“The fact remains, however. We leave in an hour.” He hung up the black metal receiver on the cradle with aclick.His fangs were slightly extended in his anger. But, after a moment, he took a breath, held it, and let it out in a wavering sigh. Crimson eyes flicked to her. “Someone murdered Hank in the middle of the night.”
“O—oh. Oh, no.” Nadi blinked, feigning shock and dismay. “I—how?”
“Unsure. He went missing on shift. We haven’t found the body or any blood, but…my men donotsimply disappear. Andespecially not him. No one saw him leave. His things are still here.” He took a long pull from his cigarette, speaking through the exhale, the smell of woodsmoke and incense filling the air with it. “Some fae piece of garbage likely getting revenge.”
The fact that he was right—sans the piece of garbage bit, but she supposed that was a matter of opinion—was alsoincrediblyfunnyto her. “Do youreallythink the boat is safer than here?”
“Nowhere is safe, my little murderer.” He put out the cigarette, crushing it in the golden tray. “But on a boat, there is nowhere for them to hide frommeeither.”
Slumping her shoulders, she sighed. “I won’t lie, I’m not exactly excited to go off to my death. I wouldn’t mind staying here a few weeks.” Chuckling, she played the doe-eyed innocent card instead. Maybe that’d work. All she needed was a few weeks to murder his entire family, and?—
“And yet, here we are.” He stood from his desk, downed the rest of his whiskey, and placed the glass back onto the leather cover on the polished, lacquered surface. “The car is already waiting for us.”
Fine. Nodding glumly, she stood from her own chair and followed Raziel from the room.
