The Fall of Jericho (The Deragon Duology Book 1) by Sydney Applegate

Author:Sydney Applegate [Applegate, Sydney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

37 - Jericho

Nearly fumbling the small creature in the process of taking it from the jester, Venus’s gracelessness makes the rest of the gathered group laugh with the sort of adoration that usually is only reserved for children. But even Victor looks to Venus’s joy with a touched expression. Slater likely hasn’t seen Venus this happy, especially because this sort of happiness isn’t fabricated.

Venus looks like she may burst into tears as its soft fur caresses the skin along her arms.

The tiny cub makes an almost chirping sound as it recognizes her nurturing embrace, and in delight, Venus mimics the noise before saying something mushy like, “Oh, you’re just a sweetie, aren’t you? You’re just a little guy. An itty-bitty little guy! Yes, you are!” It’s almost too much to bear.

Then Harriet kindly corrects her, saying, “It’s actually a female.”

Just then, Venus spins herself around, the young tiger nuzzled against her chest, to show me how comfortable the tiny thing feels within her hold. She flashes me a smile so unrestrained and heartfelt that it hits me like a gut-punch.

I’ve never seen Venus like this, so uninhibited by the fact that people are watching her and formulating their own opinions on something she’s so thrilled about—and she doesn’t give a damn. In fact, just to rub it in, she takes the creature’s tiny paw between two fingers and raises it towards me, bobbing it up and down to mimic a wave. “Look!” Venus says sweetly, her voice like candies. “She’s saying hello.”

Venus, to my unending horror, is most beautiful when she is truly happy.

I reach my wit’s end. Not because I loathe the animal, but because the cub makes me realize that I’ve never seen her smile towards me in such a nonthreatening or defensive light.

And then, she shows Slater the little cub, as if wanting his approval, too.

Fuck that.

I know Venus still has her reasons for baiting Slater, but fuck them. Because even after implying that I want to be with her, sexually or otherwise, she still feels the need to throw it in my face. It’s one thing to know that she’s been with Slater behind closed doors, but it’s another to see it smack in front of you—and somehow, this exchange stings more than watching Venus with him in the water lily lounge. This moment mixed with the sudden need to make him hurt, not to mention the recollection of his apology for attempting to mutilate her, and I’m fighting the urge to sock him in the mouth for just looking at her.

Suddenly, a quiet hissing noise triggers my attention downward, where a lime spotted creature slithers through the grass near my feet, its body curving around the edge of the stony pathway. And before I can contemplate reasoning or any consequences for doing so, I grab hold of the snake by its body and fling it outward, right in line with Slater’s feet.

I must have aggravated the creature, startling it in my tough grip, because the

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