5 — THE ULTIMATUM

VANESSA

Patting the small dagger still pressed into the nook of my inner thighs, I watched him dash out the door. There was nothing more frustrating than watching an unfinished business still breathe.

“Wait for me,” I mimicked Leonidas, scoffing. “In your dreams.”

What if the fire alarm was a ruse to capture me? What if he had indeed learned of my true identity?

That meant my position was already compromised and waiting meant brutal death.

I stole a shirt and tossed my ruined dress aside. Pulling it over my head, my gaze drifted to the window. The drop wasn’t so bad, especially as it was the only exit available.

One minute, I was still in the King’s bedroom. The next, I swung both legs over the ledge and let go of the window sill.

The ground rushed to meet me and I folded my body the moment I landed, rolling over as pain flashed through my legs. Thankfully, nothing gave.

Before the shock could settle in my bones, I pushed on my feet and fled into the night, expertly managing to avoid running into any of the guards.

Stepping out onto the asphalt road, I found my getaway driver waiting for me just as they promised he would.

“You took an extra minute and yet you failed. I saw your target zooming off,” said the bald man at the steering wheel. He looked at me. “You do know what that means, don’t you?”

“Just drive.” I gritted my teeth against the pain now shooting bullets within my legs.

Nearly an hour later, he rolled the car into the entrance of what was an abandoned site. I’d memorized this place like the palm of my hands since the first day my stepmother brought me here as a girl.

There were various insignias of snakes that blended in the rough background and if you didn’t know where to look, you’d never notice. Right above were shadows shifting on the wall.

No, not shadows. People. The other members of the Serpent Sisters.

I drew in a deep breath to collect myself and flexed my calves, then slid out of the vehicle when it rolled to a stop.

A calm voice resounded somewhere in the darkness in front of me. “The one and only, the deadly Nyx. How was playtime today?”

“She failed,” came the flat response of Cipher, the man who came to pick me up from the palace grounds.

He was lucky he was a lapdog and Virelle’s sex toy, else he’d have been disposed of, courtesy of me.

Silence descended on us a moment before Nyra’s elegant form slithered out of the dark where she concealed herself.

She beckoned with her fingers, “Step forward, Nyx.”

I did. “He’s not lying about it. I only got a few minutes with the King before we were disrupted by some fire accident. And unlike Cipher said, it was out of my control despite trying to take things into my hands.”

“She gets her punishment for failing her most important task,” Cipher piped up again, stepping forward so he was standing right beside me.

“From this vantage point where the ticking vein in your neck is prominent, what stops me from wasting your life right this very moment?” I waved the dagger he hadn’t seen me pull out.

Unblinking, he stared at me trying to be cold. But I could see the faint flush of his cheeks as he stared at the pointy end of my weapon.

“That’s enough, sissy.” Nyra intervened coolly. “No one shall waste blood here, and Cipher, you’re going to need to learn how to respect your superior. Warming Virelle’s bed every now and again, does not give you an edge.”

Maybe it was sheer favoritism, or the fact that I was the Serpent Sisters’ most valuable weapon, second to them, but Nyra held me in most regard.

An honor I didn’t want to let down.

Looking away from me, Cipher struck a folded fist over his heart, lowering his gaze. “Forgive me, First Fang.”

“This is no ordinary man we’re dealing with and so she has to take her time to study every weakness before striking him down. Did you learn nothing about patience in delicate cases?”

He repeated the same action, bowing even deeper. “Accept my apologies for my hasty conclusion, First Fang…Nyx.”

I cocked an eyebrow, regarding his meagre apology as high as I do fools. I knew he’d rather eat cow dung than sincerely apologize to me, having belonged to the miserable school of thought that women couldn’t be his superiors.

Which was only ironic, because he was the only man in a syndicate led by women, most of whom had better stats than he did.

Strip Virelle’s claim off him and he was nothing but a regular fucker who deserved to eat dust.

“Come,” Nyra said to me, slithering back into the darkness the same way she had come. “Walk with me.”

With one final glance at his hardened expression, I followed after Nyra.

We ended up in her private quarters, far away from the hearing of others.

“When do you intend to deal with him?’

I already knew the subject she referred to. “The man is extremely intuitive. If we act too rashly, it could lead to bigger complications. I barely even managed to keep his attention.”

Nyra did not answer right away. Instead she walked past me to the king sized bed and lowered herself on it.

“Pour me a glass, would you?” she said finally, motioning to the jug sitting on the center table. Only after the first sip did she speak again. “Let’s say you’re right about the King being intuitive. Are you trying to call yourself incompetent?”

I didn’t like the way she said it. “I’m not, but there is no excuse for my failure tonight.”

A corner of her lip tipped up. “Good. Which is why you won’t get a second chance.”

My spine stiffened as I held my breath in expectation for her verdict. “What is it going to be?”

Rising from her bed, she padded across the room without a single shuffle, light on her feet, and stopped in front of me. The dim lighting revealed the calm on her face.

“You will go again and handle it cleanly without a spectacle. I’d hate to dispose of my most valuable weapon on the grounds of incompetence.” She took one long sip of her drink. “How shameful would that be?”

I nodded, expelling a shaky breath of relief. “How soon?”

She turned away from me to pour herself another glass. For a second, it was only the sound of liquid pouring that filled the space between us.

Nyra was known to never hurry, taking great care to make deliberate decisions. That was why she was the First Fang and leader of the syndicate.

“Seven nights.”

“What?”

“I knew he would be quite difficult to deal with and that’s why I handed the assignment to you. Or perhaps you have lost the precision I once praised you for.”

She tilted her head slightly as if measuring my failure, but I squared my shoulders and stood straighter.

“I won’t let you down.”

She continued, “You have seven nights to bring King Leonidas to his knees. If he still breathes after that, I will assume you’ve chosen not to.” Then her voice softened, “And you know I don’t keep liabilities.”