Page 97 of Embrace the Serpent

My mother’s face lit up as she saw me. I moved to sit beside her, drinking in the lines of her face, the scar, the way her smile came slow, as if it needed time to blossom.

The conversation picked up, and I answered where I needed to. Rane’s grandmother gave us the details for the wedding—for flowers, she’d chosen osmanthus and marigold for the aroma, and for the menu, every cuisine had to be represented to suit every sort of divine person, and she’d heard that I enjoyed eel, and if there was any other addition to the menu, she would prefer to be told sooner rather than later, and because of my complexion, she had decided on red silk for my dress, and if I had opinions, I had better voice them—I nodded along. My mother made tiny little suggestions of customs that were apparently our family’s, and Rane’s grandmother seemed surprisingly enthused to have input.

They slowly cut me out of the conversation, and I relaxed.

I reached for a pistachio cake and met Rane’s eye. There was a glint of mischief there, a nameless humor. He raised a brow.Should we run away and let them get married?

Sure.I smiled back at him. Grimney sat at his elbow, eating from a delicate bowl filled with stones.

As the sky darkened, I found my muscles loosening, the tension seeping out of me. I leaned back, tilting my head and letting the colors and sounds of the garden wash over me. All of this was mine to protect.

Grimney was juggling, amusing our mothers. He caught a stone in his mouth and chomped down.

Rane had come to sit by me, and I rested my head on his shoulder, paying little attention to anything except for the deep vibrations in his chest when he spoke. My belly was full, and I was content to daydream.

Until a scream tore through the air. My calm shattered, and I jumped to my feet.

Rane had also risen, his arm splayed as if he would put me behind him.

“Stay here,” he said, and his stance changed. The sound had come from across the bridge, from the courtyard, and Rane moved like a warrior toward it.

He took two steps and stopped.

A woman in white armor came over the bridge.

My mother’s hand gripped mine, and for a moment I was once again a child about to lose everything to Incarnadine.

But it wasn’t Incarnadine. Her hair was dark silk, and there was a glint of yellow at her throat. At her side was a bronze-haired man, clad in the scale-like armor of the Serpent King’s huntsmen, though his was splattered with what looked like dried blood.

The courtyard behind them was full of huntsmen splayed on the ground. They had gone through them to get to us.Please let them not be dead.

She showed no shame, no remorse. Who else but Mirandel had the kind of pride that made her assume that she was welcome at every party?

My mouth was dry, my hands were sweating, and I wished it were the other way around.

“Vanon?” Rane said. His gaze was on the huntsman at Mirandel’s side. Vanon, the missing huntsman, the one who played the SerpentKing. His gaze was blank, unseeing.

Vanon blinked, brows knitting, and he seemed to surface from some sunken space within him. “My lord? My lord—you mustn’t listen to h—”

“Heel, Vanon,” Mirandel said.

At her command, the cloudiness returned to Vanon’s gaze.

She tossed her hair back, drawing attention to the yellow tourmaline choker on her neck.

I had done this. I’d made the collar without thinking about what it would mean, what it would lead to. The divine peoples were right to fear jewelsmithing.

“Release him,” Rane said.

“Why would I do that? He has been quite useful. It’s quite astonishing how deeply your people trust your huntsmen. They were all soaccommodating. Vanon, pull out my seat.”

He pulled out one of the low chairs at the head of the table, and Mirandel sat, crossing her legs.

She murmured something I didn’t catch, and Vanon knelt at her side, directly on the rug.

She filled her plate and ate slowly. “Come, Aria, sit with me.”

My body moved, and I was suddenly sitting beside her, on a plump cushion that put me lower than her. I still had freedom to move my hands and wipe my palms on my dress. But she could take away that freedom any moment.