The Fake Bride Offered to the Snake God - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I carried Norn on my back and fled through the rear window.

The little snake coiled around my wrist, as cold as a silver bracelet.

Norn was delirious with fever, his forehead pressed against the back of my neck.

“Sis, where are we going?”

“The Serpent Lair.”

He said, “Didn’t you say the Snake God has a terrible temper?”

“Terrible is still better than the people out there.”

There were no lamps along the village road.

We had just reached the locust grove when Malo’s voice rang out behind us.

“Ailia.”

My steps faltered.

He stood beneath the trees, several knights following behind him.

Moonlight fell across his face, so gentle it made me sick.

“You’re going to give your brother to a monster?”

I hitched Norn higher on my back.

“Better than giving him to you.”

Malo sighed.

“You don’t understand. Norn isn’t an ordinary child.”

“I know,” I said. “You all say he’s carrying the Snake God’s Venomous Curse.”

“Wrong.” Malo smiled. “He has the Snake God’s Divine Bone inside him.”

For a moment, my mind went blank.

The little snake tightened sharply around my wrist.

Malo saw it, and his smile deepened.

“So Semyre really did leave a trace of his divine consciousness outside.”

“We failed to burn it clean three hundred years ago. How troublesome.”

The knights drew their swords.

I turned and ran.

A silver arrow grazed past my ear and buried itself in the tree trunk ahead.

Norn gave a muffled groan on my back.

My heart sank.

“Norn?”

He did not answer.

Blood ran down his arm and dripped onto my cuff.

I nearly lost my footing.

The little snake suddenly sprang from my wrist, turning into a silver-white phantom in midair.

Semyre stood in front of me.

Not as a complete person.

More like a wisp of mist on the verge of scattering.

But the instant he appeared, every snake and insect nearby crawled up from beneath the ground.

Malo took half a step back.

“Lord God, long time no see.”

Semyre did not look at him. He turned back to me.

“Run.”

“What about you?”

“I’m only a shadow.”

His voice was very calm.

“Don’t waste it.”

Gritting my teeth, I carried Norn and ran up the mountain.

Behind me came the scrape of scales against the ground and the sound of blades snapping.

I did not dare look back.

By the time I reached the entrance of the Serpent Lair, Norn had already lost consciousness.

I stumbled inside with him in my arms.

The darkness in the cave surged up like an open mouth.

Semyre’s true body stood beside the pool.

His face was even paler than before, and there was a new split wound across his shoulder.

I rushed over.

“Save him.”

He glanced at the scale pattern on the back of Norn’s neck.

His gaze darkened.

“As expected.”

“What do you mean, as expected?”

He reached out and pressed down on Norn’s wound.

Threads of black blood were slowly drawn out of the boy’s body.

Norn trembled from the pain.

I clutched his hand, so anxious my voice changed.

“Semyre!”

The Snake God lifted his eyes to me.

“He wasn’t struck by my Venomous Curse.”

“The Temple planted a Divine Bone Fragment of mine inside him.”

My mind went blank for a second.

“The Temple mixed the fragment into the Black Lotus Medicine and fed it to suitable children.”>

He spoke very slowly, as though afraid I would not understand.

“Those who survive become a Vessel meant to bind me.”

I did not understand.

Nor did I want to.

“Can he be saved?”

Semyre fell silent.

My heart sank little by little.

At last, he spoke.

“He can.”

I had just breathed a sigh of relief when he added, “But I have to take the Divine Bone from his body.”

“What happens if you take it?”

“He will live.”

Semyre looked at me.

“But once the fragment returns to me, the old chains will awaken too.”

“I will become the snake I was three hundred years ago, pinned inside the Serpent Lair.”