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Then he’s gone.

And I already wish he’d come back.

In my palm, the new medallion is identical to the old one.

So why does it feel like everything has changed?

CHAPTER 9

EDWIN

Dried blood is caught in the grooves of the skull carved into Asher Zapera’s medallion. Some of it flakes away under my thumb. What remains is evidence.

A Serpent is dead.

Asher was a new member, but a valuable one. An up-and-coming lawyer who played by the book and knew how to win. Exactly the kind of man we want on our side.

The elevator grinds upwards, taking me to my suite, while I turn the coin over in my hand. Someone killed one of ours. That alone deserves death. But that same someone took my angel from her bed. Touched her. Frightened her.

For that, a simple death is too merciful.

I want his last breath stretched thin while I watch the life retreat from his eyes. I want his skull to give beneath the pressure of my hands.

My grip tightens until the metal bites into my palm.

This is what we do. We protect our own. We bury anyone who harms us.

Zaiya should have asked for protection. A guard outside her window. A lock on her door. A wall between her and the filth hunting her.

Instead, my girl asked for revenge.

There’s still so much youth in her face, despite everything trying to carve it away. And yet those innocent eyes hide a lust for venom. The thought pleases me in a way that goes right to my cock.

What will I ask of her when the time comes?

Most Serpents are embarrassingly predictable. A month of a woman’s body. Blood from a man’s hands. Some brutal little task designed to leave a scar long after it’s done.

For me, it must be different.

I’ve never given my medallion away before. I won’t waste that on something crude. Whatever I ask of Zaiya must bind her to me. Something intimate that she can’t walk away from without feeling my hands still shaping her young life.

Until I choose, I need to watch her. Guard her. Haunt the edges of her world even when she doesn’t know I’m near.

The elevator doors part.

Reese is standing there.

My mood darkens further at the sight of him. I exhale hard through my nose to show my exasperation.

“I’ll go home when I’m ready.”

He shakes his head. “Liam needs to see us. All of us.”

“It can wait.”

Zaiya’s face cuts through everything else. Her fear. Her softness. The obscene thought of another man’s hands on her. Order politics shrivel into dust next to that.

Reese plants a hand on my chest and stops me from stepping out.