Fuck. I’m really doing this.
At the threshold, he let go of my hand. “I’ll see you later, Tora.”
“Okay, baby.”
He split off to the right with Reo and the Fangs. Their footsteps echoed down the marble hall.
Sighing, I turned left, finding Hiro and the twins waiting for me.
The rest of the Claws had already disappeared.
A shiver climbed my spine.
Alright. Time to go snooping.
Hiro watched me. “Are you ready?”
I looked down the dimly lit corridor ahead of us. “I’m ready. Let’s go hunt.”
The twins stepped beside us in perfect sync.
And together, we walked into the darkness.
Chapter thirty-one
Scooby-Doo Adventures
Nyomi
One of Kenji’s Personal Scales could be a spy—Hina, Mami, Yuki.
Maybe two.
Maybe all three.
And I was supposed to figure out which.
Tonight.
On top of that, there was a good chance that Kenji’s Personal Scales were working with others. Kenji described it as a snake’s nest.
A faint, wrong kind of chill rolled along the back of my neck—like something cold and slick had just traced my spine with the tip of a tongue. My body reacted before my logic could catch up.
Skin tightening.
Breath stuttering.
Palms going damp.
It felt like phantom scales brushed my ankles, curling lightly, testing the air around me.
None of it was real, but my nerves didn’t care.
My imagination had teeth tonight.
Then an image immediately hit my mind. It was a massive nest, pungent and musky, and full of a writhing mass of jumbled, coiled bodies, tangled together in a knot and covered in scales. The flicker of forked tongues could be seen as they slithered and hissed.
If Kenji was right about this being a nest of snakes, then this could end up being a puzzle of ever-shifting pieces. And somehow, I would have to assess and unravel their twisted intentions.
