Page 72 of Embrace the Serpent

The back of my neck prickled. I spun around.

The mist clung to her, as if she was an apparition. Mirandel, draped in white, strode to me. “Aria,” she said. “You’ve been hard to find.”

“Saphira,” I corrected her.

Her neck was oddly red. She drew her white silk shawl higher when she noticed the direction of my gaze.

“You’ve been making it harder to track you lately,” she said. “Though, if I must be honest, I’m a little disappointed it took you so long to figure it out.”

My mouth twisted into a scowl. “Why are you following me? I thought you were supposed to go get married to some noble.”

“Unfortunately, you stole the one I had my eye on.”

I bit my lip before I could say,Youcan have him.

Mirandel sighed and tossed her hair. It fell over her shoulder like a curtain of dark silk. “Come home.”

“Why would I do that?” I needed time. Rane wasn’t whistling. Was he watching? I scanned the trees, but there was no sign of him.

“You always had trouble understanding the way the world works,” she said pityingly. “You’re a jewelsmith. An extraordinary one. You should’ve told everyone. I can’t imagine why you didn’t.If you had, you would be sitting pretty, with all the luxuries of life at your fingertips. You’re cleverer than Galen—you could have had real power, not just a shabby little shop on Gem Lane. You could’ve had it all. You still can, if you come with me. I’ll help you.”

Her mention of Galen made me tense. Part of me wanted to know what had happened to him. I bit it back. “I don’t want that.”

“I know what you want,” Mirandel hissed. She drew so close I could see the violet shadows under her eyes. “You want what I want. You want to be safe.”

I reared back.

“Yes.” She smiled, but there was no mirth in it. “I told you; I know you. The difference between you and me is that I know how to get there. With enough power, you can be safe.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want that.”

“So you’ll keep running forever? You’re a coward, Saphira. You always have been. Hiding and sniveling. If you were just once brave enough to take what you wanted...”

I didn’t disagree. I wasn’t brave, I knew that well enough.

“Well?” Mirandel said. “Say something.”

“You’re talking enough for the both of us.”

“I’mtryingtohelpyou.”

“Why? You don’t even like me.”

“I do. I always have. I just—I don’t know how to—be nice.”

She set her mouth in that gargoyle-ish way I remembered from so long ago. It made my heart ache. Between us was something dark and unsaid. We had both survived our childhood, but neither of us had come out unchanged. A memory came to me, of her bringing mefood she’d filched from the kitchens, yelling at me to eat. I missed the friend she almost had been.

“I’m not coming with you,” I said. “I won’t be kept in a cage to make jewels for her.”

We both knew who I meant. She clicked her teeth. “Lady Incarnadine won’t hurt you. Not now that you’re useful to her.”

“I don’t want to be useful to her.”

“We all have to kneel, Saphira. All you get to do is choose to whom.”

I didn’t respond.

“Please. Come. My orders were to bring you alive, if possible. If impossible, I was told it’s better to have you dead than in the Serpent Kingdom.”

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