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My father stared at him, his stare ice-cold.
Sssnake killer. Blood traitor.
“Is your pet going to be a problem, Kingsnake?” my father asked.
Fang straightened on her shoulder, propping himself higher. “Hiiiiiiisssssssssssss.”
“He’s not a pet,” Larisa said. “Don’t speak to him like that again.”
He ignored my wife and kept his stare on me. “Is it appropriate to have your woman—”
“My wife,” I snapped. “And as Queen of Grayson, it’s appropriate for her to stand in whatever room she wishes.”
Fang hissed again. “Hiiisssssssss.”
My father gave me a hard stare before he looked at the map.
The door opened, and Cobra entered, followed by Clara, who looked different from the last time I saw her. Her skin had been fair, but now it looked like snow. Her green eyes were now viridian, so distinct they looked like two forests. She’d traded in her Ethereal armor for that of the Cobra Vampires, wearing gold and black.
We all stared at her.
Cobra released a grin. “Vampire looks good on her, doesn’t it?”
No one spoke, the tension still taut with my father in the room.
I moved on. “They may suspect we’re coming. Once they realize their army in Raventower has been destroyed, they’ll know that the humans have aligned themselves with the vampires or the Ethereal. I think it’s reasonable to assume victory would have been impossible otherwise. So we don’t truly have the element of surprise.”
“But I doubt they would anticipate the Ethereal forging an alliance with the vampires,” Viper said. “As we’ve been at war for thousands of years, that’s simply impossible. We will have the element of surprise, because by the time they realize we’re marching on their gates, they’ll be unable to prepare for the onslaught.”
“Assuming the humans don’t fight for them,” Cobra said. “This should be a quick defeat.”
“But if they do fight for them,” I said. “That will drastically change things.”
“How could the werewolves enforce that?” Cobra asked incredulously. “The second we arrive, they’ll turn on them.”
“Unless the werewolves have poisoned their minds. Told them that a vampire ruler is worse than a werewolf,” I said.
“That’s a stretch,” Cobra said. “Considering we’ve pretty much left them alone.”
“Why else would we march on their gates?” I asked. “Out of the goodness of our heart?”
“Kingsnake is right,” my father said. “Why would we risk our lives for theirs?”
“Because the werewolves will come for us next,” Cobra said. “The vampires and the humans just became allies.”
“We need to be prepared for anything,” Viper said. “We need to assume the humans will fight against us, and if they don’t, then our siege just became easier.”
“The werewolves are vicious,” Clara said. “We’ve dealt with them occasionally in our history, but they’re distinctively displeasing. I’ve met the Werewolf King, and he’s sinister. I can imagine he would threaten the humans with anything to get their compliance. Such as, if they don’t fight for the werewolves and they win, each soldier will lose either their wife or their firstborn.”
It was barbaric, but believable.
“Then we should assume the worst,” Viper said. “We’ll need to divide their attention to multiple points.” He grabbed the wooden pieces and placed them on the map. “I have enough explosives for these three locations. We blow the wall, and our armies will enter the city through these passages.”
“Why these locations?” Cobra asked.
“Because these streets lead straight to the castle.” I dragged my finger across the map to show Cobra. “It’s a straight shot where we need to go. The Werewolf King will sit upon the throne and wait for the battle to end. We kill him, and the others will flee.”
Cobra nodded in understanding. “Good plan.”
