Chapter 30: Things that Bloom and Bite - 5
A ripple passed through the vines behind Sylvara as something long and pale slid through them like a ghost in a nightgown.
Another hiss followed, then a third, the sound slithering like mist over water.
"...Oh no," Nyxsha muttered, her ears flattening, her tail stiffening.
From the mist emerged Virelya, her glowing serpent coils slipping lazily across the moss, her veil-draped form half-hidden behind her cracked porcelain mask. She slithered until her body coiled around one of Sylvara’s taller trees like a sash of silk, her golden eyes, slit-pupiled and glinting, peering out with smug satisfaction.
"Well well well, what do we have here?" Virelya said in her low, breathy hum, her voice fogging the air like breath on glass. "A love triangle blossoming under my nose?"
Sylvara looked over calmly, her amber eyes unperturbed. "You’re early."
"I followed the purring," Virelya said sweetly, her mask tilting. "You always purr louder when you’re emotionally compromised."
Nyxsha growled, her massive form tensing. "Get lost, snake-butt."
"Oh please," Virelya replied, placing a hand to her chest in mock offense. "I came to see my prey."
Her coils slithered toward Azareel, who smiled awkwardly as she loomed over him like a cathedral chandelier made of silk and warning signs.