Page 24 of Dancing with Vipers and Shadows

My eyes finally meet her blue ones.

“Because if I were in your shoes, my anger would most certainly override all levels of logic,” she admits.

“If you had the chance, would you kill your brother with that uncontrollable rage?” I whisper the sensitive question.

“No,” she admits. “But who said I wanted him to die?” There’s a flicker of danger in her words, and I can see but a glimmer of the burning rage she hides so flawlessly beneath her innocent appearance. “If I suffered for years in silence, he’d have to endure the same if not worse.”

She slowly looks away, her eyes now taking in the golden metal gates before us.

“If the tables were turned, he’d never give me an ounce of sympathy. Instead, he’d slit my throat and cry to the heavens that someone else stole my light.” She bites her bottom lip for a moment, and her expression is hard to read. “And the sad part of it all, everyone would believe him, even if his very hands were cloaked with my blood.”

“But they would have never believed you if the evidence was right in their faces,” I grumble and follow her gaze.

“That’s why I now stand here with you,” she announces, as if this is an accomplishment she didn’t think she could achieve. “And now I know why I want to graduate from here. Not in hopes of finding a knight in shining armor who will save me from my enemies. I’m here to become the very source of power everyone’s frightened of. To become a Viper who is respected and treated like royalty in a world that only bows to power.”

“With power, you can get anything you desire,” I comment, agreeing with everything she just stated.

“And once you’ve forced others to acknowledge that power, no one will dare steal it away from you,” she concludes. “Unless they wish to perish by your hands.”

We let go of each other’s hands, standing taller as we acknowledge how radiant the gates look from this distance.

Roses decorate the stone walls of the gates, and the ivory shade of greenery from the vines and leaves proves that from that gate onward, there is the flow of life.

“I feel like there should be one more test,” Blair confesses.

“Wouldn’t put it past them,” I reply with a taunting smirk. “Are your instincts tingling like mine?”

“They are,” she confesses. “And I don’t like feeling as if I’m about to di—”

Fear paralyzes me, but that’s not until I’m not only in front of Blair protectively but inches from the biggest cobra I’ve ever witnessed.

Not only is this massive creature towering over us, but its giant head is inches from my face. Its venomous eyes bore into mine, the menacing slits in its neon green eyes emphasizing how impatient this creature is to feast on its next meal that’s before its hissing mouth.

The sound makes my ears want to bleed, the agonizing sound making me grit my teeth.

Or else I’d be hissing right back at it like I did to Professor D’Angelo.

It opens its mouth, revealing the full set of top and bottom teeth and those specifically poisoned fangs that are ready to pulverize us in a single move.

Tilting my head farther up, I narrow my eyes, which begin to sting while the dark essence in the depth of my core is seething to combat this visible enemy. Having a stare-off with a creature that could inject poison out of the back of its throat and leave you melting in seconds is a lethal gamble to play, but after everything we’ve been through, we have no choice but to take our chances.

If we’re destined to reach the real gates of N.M.U., then we’ll survive this final endeavor.

If not… we did the best we could.

Holding my breath at the approaching movement of the snake, I stand completely still, awaiting our end.

Poke.

I blink my eyes, feeling the spike of combative energy burning inside me suddenly deflate like a balloon. The way my shoulders drop and my lips pout makes the snake move its head from side to side hypnotically.

“Um…” Blair’s calm voice proves she saw exactly what I did. “Did the snake just bump your nose?”

“Uh… yes?” It most certainly wasn’t an illusion. “What does that mean?”

“It means she likes you.”

We look to our left from where the voice comes from. A tall man with pure white hair heads toward us. He has to be 6’5” in height, his body slender yet showing visible lines of muscle thanks to the fitted white dress shirt that’s tucked into his black dress pants. The black tie around his collar is loose, and the black spectacles sitting on his nose dip down his nose the moment he comes to a stop. Fixing his glasses becomes a priority as he uses his two fingers to slide them back properly on his face.

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