Metal trembled, then surged and all at once, they flew, screaming through the night straight for my heart—
Right as I became unchained.
The serpent twisted through the air, scales shimmering like oil on water as it circled the impending weapons, leaving nothing but glistening black dust in its wake.
It fell upon us like rain as moss melted where he faltered, falling backwards to the ground.
Gods, such a waste of weapons. Still, I did love that trick.
“I told you not to do that.” My fangs slid long, brushing my lip, and I caught one with my tongue.
A promise. Athreat.
Recognition flared in his eyes, disbelief rising into terror. “It… it’s you.”
I smiled, blood glinting against my teeth.
Everyone knew the stories, the curse’s reputation had been carved and whispered across kingdoms. Fear was always the first reaction, then the realization came too late.
My fingers curled, aching to ravage. “Run,” I ordered.
And so, he did.
Life and death stomped across the ground. Fleeing and hunting.
The man, if he could still be called one, was on his knees now, dragging himself through the muck.
His little trick, stripping the air of steel, had rattled me for a heartbeat, a single instant when I thought he might turn the tide.
Once, that trace of doubt would have undone me. But not anymore.
Instead, the Viper, for all its charmless, venomous glory, lent me its conviction.
My snake attacked again as I circled him, letting him feel every second of it as he writhed on the forest floor. Black liquid streamed from his mouth, spilling down his chin in rancid rivulets.
He spat some at me, just as it slithered higher, coiling around his chest, bringing his arms in close as it went.
Tighter. Restricting and suffocating.
Bones cracked like twigs underfoot, and his groans turned to ragged howls as I crouched, retrieving an ivory arrowhead from my pocket before rolling it between my fingers.
Its jagged edges bit familiar into my skin.
A relic I’d stolen from this very forest, once buried on my favorite resting rock, used to take down a direwolf just as it had nearly outwitted me.
I’d told myself I would fashion it into a deadlier weapon, but it had become something else instead.
A charm. A reminder. Proof that luck, however cruel, still chose me.
I angled the stone toward his chest, just enough to make him flinch. Then dragged it to his sweat-slick temple.
“Who are you?”
His teeth gnashed, fists clenching uselessly against the serpent’s hold. “Rot, you bitch.”
My grin spread as the arrowhead stayed just above his racing pulse. “So rude.”
The strike was too quick for him to see.
