Page 14 of A Drop of Venom

I thought of her thinness and her threadbare clothes and the old bruises that hadn’t come from her confrontation in the forest. My fangs tingled, and I swallowed a hiss. “They mistreated you.”

“Yes, very much so.” Her fingers curled against my chest again. How I loved that she reached for me when she needed comfort. “I wanted to leave, but I had nowhere to go and no money. I had nothing I could sell to raise funds. Every bit of coin I earned from sewing, they took, until I found a way to keep a few coins here and there and hide them. It took me a year to finally save up enough to get to Coldspell and take a boat to a city and disappear.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “I didn’t make it, obviously.”

Given my joy at having her in my arms, I couldn’t regret that her plans had gone awry—only that she’d encountered this Lord Vedast and suffered such grievous injuries.

I had yet to hear the full story of what had befallen Hazel in the forest, though I’d surmised most of it. Likewise, she’d left out all but the most basic details of living with her cousins. I suspected the full truth would chill and enrage me. I wanted to know it all, but I was loath to push for more on either topic until she was ready to speak about such difficult matters.

For now, I would settle for helping her sleep tonight.

“And your dream?” I asked, my voice gentle.

“My cousins found me in the forest,” she said, again in that emotionless tone that hid the true depths of her pain. “They were taking me back to their house in chains, pulling me along behind them while they rode in an…in an apple cart.” She swallowed hard and rubbed her bare wrists. “I can still feel the iron on my arms,” she whispered.

I brought her hands to my mouth and kissed her wrists. “No irons, you see?” I said, rubbing my nose over her soft skin. “There are no manacles and no chains. You’re safe now, my shelshi. Your cousins won’t find you.” My voice hardened. “I’ll make sure of it.”

“How?” She pushed herself up and eyed me suspiciously. “What are you planning?”

Visions of her faceless cousins writhing in agony from my bites filled my head. My tail vibrated. “Nothing more than what they deserve,” I said. “I will take care of everything. You don’t need to be there.”

“Terolon.” She cupped my face. “I’m a witch with plant magic. I did all their cooking. Do you know how many times I thought about slipping something poisonous into their food?”

I studied her eyes and the darkness in those captivating blue depths. “Many times?”

“Many times,” she agreed. “But I felt the Goddess stay my hand every time until I got my reason back. If they’d died, the authorities would have suspected me immediately. Everyone in the village knew how my cousins treated me. They saw the bruises. They saw my clothes and how little I was allowed to eat. My motive would have been obvious. Even if I’d had money to get away to Switftreach or Crowford, I would have been hunted until I was found. No matter the circumstances, I doubt I would have been spared the noose.”

She rested her forehead on my sternum. “Even on the worst days, I knew I had to trust the Goddess,” she murmured into my scales. “If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here with you now.”

I caressed her back, feeling the bones of her spine and her ribs and remembering all the half-healed lash marks and even boot prints I’d seen while bathing and dressing her.

“Yes, but death by venomous bite could not be attributed to you,” I said hopefully.

“But it would be attributed to a serpentae, and then hunters would search the area looking for the culprit. Any of your kind might become their target.” She rubbed my arm, which was pleasantly distracting. “And if my cousins simply disappeared, I’d likely be blamed. Please, let them be.”

The thought of her name on a murder warrant or another of my kind becoming a scapegoat for my actions made me ill, but so did the prospect of doing nothing to avenge my mate’s suffering.

“These men shouldn’t go unpunished,” I said, my words edged with a hiss.

“They’re not going entirely unpunished,” she murmured.

“Oh?”

“Before I left, I cooked them one last supper and put it on the table. It’s possible I mistook one herb for another when gathering the ingredients and they may experience intense…distress for many days as a result.” I sensed rather than saw her smile. “I wanted to give myself extra time to get away, but also I felt I owed them some sort of torment for what they’d done to me. And of course now they have no one to cook or clean for them either, so that’s a punishment as well.”

I flexed my fingers, careful not to let my claws prick her delicate skin. “It’s not enough, my shelshi.”

“Maybe not,” she said softly. “Or maybe they are bitter, lonely men who are dying slowly from chasing wealth deep in a poisonous mine, and the Goddess will take them through the veil soon enough anyway. I’ll leave the matter to her.”

My fangs still ached with the need to envenomate these men. “As you wish. But if you should change your mind…”

She looked up at me, a faint smile on her lips. “Thank you for offering. No one has ever offered to help me before—not even people in the village who saw me twice a week at the market. I’m grateful.”

She reached for me, so I slid her up my chest so she could grace me with the gentlest and sweetest of kisses. “I think I’ll sleep better now,” she said.

“Good.” I rubbed her back. “Perhaps you’ll dream of beautiful gardens and autumn forests now.”

“That would be nice.” She yawned and snuggled against my chest. “Good night, Terolon.”

“Good night, my shelshi.”