Page 1 of Crown of Serpents

CHAPTER ONE

The mist parted, unveiling a sight that stole the sailor’s breath — a stunning yet terrifying vision. The creature perched atop the cliff with unnatural stillness. Her emerald scales shimmered under the pale morning light, casting fleeting rainbows that flickered out as quickly as they appeared. The surf crashed against her humanoid form as she surveyed the ship, the one bold enough to traverse the Aegean Sea in pursuit of her. Each snake crowning her head was frozen, their cold and reptilian gazes fixed on the bustling crew — like predators sizing up their prey.

Agapetos flinched as the captain bellowed, “Don’t aim for her heart! If that bitch even has one, it will be made of stone. Cleave her head off instead and end her wretched existence!”

His stomach turned as the other men yelled their agreement. They weren’t regular sailors, but mercenaries and brutes armed to their teeth. He hated their guts. Hardly an evening had gone by without someone spitting blood or getting a blue eye. At first,the captain had half-heartedly attempted to intervene, but after a few days, he had given up and let the crew punch each other’s teeth out.So, Agapetos had kept to himself and often helped prepare their meals to sneak out his share and hide in a corner rather than eat with the crew. It was not much different from home, where his shyness and mild temper made him unpopular among the men.

Under regular circumstances, Agapetos would have never ventured on a dangerous journey like this. He was neither a skilled warrior nor a sailor, but he was desperate. He needed the money to pay for his sister’s dowry. Only for Chrysanthe would he endure a week of confinement with these swines and the terror that was about to ensue.

Unlike in previous days, the crew worked in unison now to bring down the sails so the galley would halt in front of the female figure merely fifty meters away. Their eyes glinted with bloodlust as they surveyed her curves.

One sneered and grunted, “We only need her head for the reward, right? King Polydectes didn’t say anything about the witch’s body.”

“I’m sure he won’t mind if you take some liberties with her corpse.” Another laughed while clasping his shoulder. “Just make sure that she is still warm when you do.”

The anchor dropped, and the ship came to an abrupt halt.

The rock-bound creature held her pose, a statue carved from defiance. No flicker of fear marred her sharp features, only a chilling focus on the forty men below. Each, a stranger to these shores, had come to claim her head, a grisly trophy for King Polydectes.

One of the sailors threw out a corded ladder, and the captain yelled, “Wretched creature. Have at us if you dare!”

There was a moment of silence, and Agapetos held his breath. Then, a wicked smile curved the monster’s blood-red lips. Her grin exposed her elongated canines, promising a painful death. “With pleasure.”

The creature’s purr, blending with the wind, sent shivers down Agapetos’s spine.

One moment, Agapetos inhaled deeply, attempting tosuppress his panic. The next moment, his heart plunged like a stone as the female rushed for the ladder with swift movements, faster than any mortal. The monster gripped the first rung, swiftly ascending the ship’s flank.

Broad-shouldered Damon, who had broken at least three noses on their journey, rushed for the ladder’s top, swinging his hatchet. He raised his arm, aiming to sever her head, but froze mid-swing. Paralysed, his gaze locked on the creature, scaling the final steps.

From the lookout, Agapetos noticed Damon’s broad hands turn grey. The creature reached him, lifting his chin with a nail as sharp as a claw. Damon’s hatchet was still above her head while she held his stare. The greyness was spreading up his arms, muscular shoulders, chest, neck, and finally, solidifying his eyes into stone. A gleeful, wicked smirk unfurled across her delicate face as she perched on the ship’s rail. She wrapped her slender arms around Damon’s neck and snapped it — stone cracking between her fingers.

Agapetos gasped. They were doomed.

He couldn’t move or breathe as he watched the horror unfolding below. The creature hopped down from the rail as three men loosened a battle cry and charged for her with raised swords. The first made it two steps before he, too, turned to solid marble, the terror of his last moments forever etched onto his face. The second averted his gaze and swung for her head. She dodged the attack with near-divine grace. Her movements were a blur of controlled power as she grabbed the man by the collar of his shabby fighting leathers and spun him into the sword of the third. Before the third sailor could pull his blade free from his comrade’s torso, she ripped his chest open with her bare hands. Her claws cut out the sailor’s heart, and the man crumpled to the floor with a thud.

Finally, the monster gestured to the remaining soldiers to come for her, blood dripping from her hands and snakes hissing around her head. Men gaped at the murderous creature, petrified the instant their eyes met her lethal gaze.

She launched herself into battle. The deck became a whirlwind of spraying blood and cracking stone. The femalesliced through the soldiers with her bare hands, gutting the men who had come to hunt her and dodging their blades with ease.

Agapetos’s eyes hung on her every movement. He could not help but admire the lethal grace with which she tore through her opponents, transforming his crewmates either into rubble or limp bodies. Her movements were fluid, like the dancers performing on the market square, as she wove between the sailors’ futile attacks, spinning and leaping over the corpses scattered on the deck. It would have been beautiful — her brow furrowed in concentration, the crimson speckles of blood against her marble skin, the precise movements of her slender arms — if only he could drown out the haunting voice that reminded him that soon it would be his turn. Agapetos wrapped his trembling arms around him, folding in on himself. He knew that there was no way he could escape the monster’s wrath. It was only a matter of time until she spotted him in his hideout.

When the last sailor had dropped dead, she and the quivering captain were the only two left on deck. He had crept back to the galley’s far end, avoiding her lethal gaze. His hands gripped the rail behind him, knuckles white. She prowled toward him, savouring the panic in his wide eyes, his ragged breath. Desperate to escape, the captain attempted to fling himself overboard, but she was faster. Before he could jump, she sliced the tendon in the hollow of his knee with a razor-sharp nail. He crashed to the ground, blood gushing from his knee and nose as he careened into the well-crafted deck. She lifted him by the neck with strength that did not suit her petite frame, crimson trickling from where her claws pierced his skin.

“Got you,” the creature whispered before she bared her fangs and ripped out the captain’s throat with her fangs.

With a satisfied sigh, she lifted her bloody hand to where her hair should have been. Instead, tiny snakes were eagerly licking the dripping blood off her fingertips. The monster faced the rising sun, basking in the morning light and inhaling deeply. Agapetos’s stomach dropped when she turned.

“Your thundering heart gives away your fear, coward,” she said coolly, looking toward the lookout.

He squeezed his eyes shut. There was no escaping thismonster. Moreover, he knew she was right. He was a coward. That’s why he had stolen scraps from the kitchen rather than eat dinner with the crew. That’s why he had volunteered to be on the lookout today so he would not have to face her. That’s why he was still paralysed with fear even as he heard her scale the mast toward him.He knew she had reached him — even with his eyes shut. The coppery scent of gore and poppies — her scent — told him as much. Warm urine leaked down his legs as the creature crouched next to him.

A soft laugh, “Now I can smell your fear, too.”

She lifted his chin as she had done with Damon, a sharp talon piercing his skin. He trembled as a split tongue caressed his cheek, licking at a lonely tear.

He took a shuddering breath. Agapetos knew that he had failed. He would break his promise to Chrysanthe to return within a week. How long would her eyes seek the horizon before she gave up hope that he would return?

“Open your eyes.”

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