Page 9 of Vengeance and Vipers

The Mountain materializes in front of me. Siggy’s lair.

I look around it and, even though I know that logically I’m not really here, the sights and smells and sounds …

I touch a piece of silk hanging down from next to me. I can feel it brush across my fingers. I’d assume I really was there right now if I didn’t know any better.

I start as I see the great arania above me, repairing a piece of her web. Unbidden tears come to my eyes as I watch Siggy, knowing that her web lies empty and her corpse has probably been stripped down to nothing along with the Demon King’s.

I wipe a tear away, but another joins it, and pretty soon, I can’t see through crying.

‘I’m so sorry,’ I say brokenly. ‘It was my fault. I should have never taken the venom. Then you wouldn’t have had to come down to the ground for me. He wouldn’t have had a chance to kill you.’

I wipe my tears off with my sleeve. ‘I’m so sorry,’ I whisper. ‘I’m so sorry, Siggy.’

I stand and watch my friend for a long time. She doesn’t come closer, and I wonder if it’s because this is an illusion. Maybe she can’t interact with me.

‘How do I get out?’ I ask Krase.

There’s a chuckle. ‘You saw what you most desired to see. Now, you see the memory you least desire. That’s how the fae work, silly girl.’

Siggy’s cavern disappears into the darkness, and a moment later, there’s a door in front of me.

‘What is this?’ I ask, my heart picking up because I know that door, and the last thing I want to do is go through it.

‘Balance,’ Krase answers readily.

‘How do I get out of here?’ I ask.

‘Go through the door,’ he answers impatiently.

I frown. ‘I thought you couldn’t see what I was seeing.’

His laugh echoes around me. ‘I lied.’

ChapterThree

KRASE

I’m right behind her even though she can’t see me, and I’m giddy with excitement. What horrors are through the door, I wonder. I mean, she’s just a human, so I doubt it’ll be all that bad, but watching her trepidation as she walks to her doom is the best entertainment I’ve had in weeks. It’s almost as good as watching her climb up that wall and trying to pretend I wasn’t watching her every movement and craning my neck to see beneath that long shirt. Almost as good as imagining how I’m going to kill her as soon as she stops amusing me.

The door opens with an ominous creak, and she walks inside. I follow and huff in disappointment as I find myself in an old-fashioned scullery.

A kitchen? This is her big, bad nightmare? Maybe the tacturn isn’t working correctly.

I look around. It’s large. Bigger than the one we have here. Humans are darting around. Servants.

My eyes narrow as I try to figure out where we are, the need for information making my brain feel normal for the first time in I don’t know how long. This is why I kept the tacturn when I locked myself down here. It beats back the madness for a little while.

I move around Victoria and take in her expression. Her eyes are wide and scared. What’s so terrifying about a kitchen?

‘You clumsy, dirty little—’

A slap and a cry reverberate through the room. A couple of the younger lads laugh, and Victoria cringes, putting her hands over her ears.

But she walks towards the sound, through another door, and into a washroom where a human child is clutching her cheek, tears in her eyes.

The girl is weeping quietly.

‘Keep making that noise, and you’ll get another one!’ an older human woman tells her, raising her hand to punctuate her point.