Ivy Touched and Bronze Blade (World of Honey and Ice Book 2) by Shannon Mayer & Kelly St Clare

Author:Shannon Mayer & Kelly St Clare [Mayer, Shannon & St Clare, Kelly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hijinks Ink Publishing
Published: 2023-04-26T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Flat on my stomach, I wiggled down into the naga’s den, dragging myself along. They’d already created a huge network.

I grunted, sliding forward into a larger cavern. One large enough for me to rise on my knees. Dead leaves were strewn around. The naga’s version of a cozy blanket?

The naga I’d followed down here hissed, and I stilled at the explosion of sound in the surrounding tunnels in response to his call. He must be the nest king and leader. While there were many naga queens in a nest, there was only ever one king. Naga poured into the cavern—and I allowed myself a moment to appreciate their appearance—top halves serpentine and decked out in belts of gold coins—particularly the females. The nest queens had circlets of gold coins around their heads. The naga’s treasure was infused with their magic, and even looking at the gold coins could put a person in a trance. Hard not to look at the gold when around thirty adult naga had crammed into the room along with at least ten young, but I was a dead woman anyway being in the midst of so many of them. I was at their utter mercy.

“I visited your nest in the shifting sands,” I told them. “I was set upon by gray-skinned creatures sent by the darkness. How long ago did they force you out?”

“Seven sunssss,” the male leader replied.

A week ago. How many earth days? I couldn’t say exactly, but my gut said one day. The henchman hadn’t wasted time contacting his minions and sending them here. Did he do it while I walked to the stables? Before I’d returned to collect him for the journey? “I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help you fight them. I killed many only hours ago.”

A queen moved forward. “Many?”

“Hard to count. One hundred attacked. I boiled the sand to glass and burned many alive. Others I killed with flame.”

Her slitted eyes glowed red. “Thiss good.”

I nodded. “I wish I’d gotten them all, but they threatened to kill my bat friend.”

“Friendsss ssssmall, friends large,” she noted, peering in the direction of where Peggy waited.

“All creatures equal,” I answered, smiling at a tiny naga princess dressed in the smallest gold coin belt I’d ever seen. Their hurt was palpable, and I felt savage about it. “I may have annoyed your nest over the past, but I hate that you were forced out of your home.”

The naga swayed together.

My heart swelled. “Home is where all of you are?”

The leader dipped his head. “Lives mourned.”

Not places. I understood that. Their gold was putting me into a stupor, and I swayed with them. I felt my eyes close, powerless to stop it. My magic whispered to the surface and flowed from my fingertips like the gentlest of waterfalls. Peace hummed in my heavy mind, and I had no urge to stop whatever my magic had decided to do.

Minutes may have passed. Hours. Days.

My magic curled back, and I opened my eyes, sighing at the sense of tranquil fulfillment in my mind.

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