Serpentine Love by Sabine A.Reed Read Free Book Online

mountain would help her figure out how to persuade him to
let things be?
    “ Once you’re back, we’ll
talk,” Arya said.
    Maya nodded and watched as the boys
took him outside. He knew her true identity. She couldn’t escape
from him, even if she wanted to. Her only choice was to plead with
him to let her live in obscurity--and somehow she had to figure out
a way to do that.
     
     

Chapter
Seven
     
    Twilight had crept in by the time Maya
made her way back to her car. All day she had prayed at the base of
the giant tree, seeking guidance from the god of the mountain and
the snake goddess.
    She cared for Arya. Perhaps, loved
him?
    None of it mattered because they had no
future together. She would never forget the horrorstruck look on
his face when he realized that she was an inagimi. At that point,
she had given up all hopes of a life together.
    Now, all wanted was to salvage her
dignity and privacy. Somehow she had to convince him to let her
identity remain a secret. Perhaps, he wanted monetary compensation.
She had access to gold. In the form of a snake, she could explore
untapped mines of gold and precious stones. She could give him
enough money to make rich beyond belief for the rest of his
life.
    Would that be enough?
    Who did he intend to sell her to? And
why?
    Maya made her way to her grandfather’s
cottage. In the distance, Mount Kenya stood as a sentry, its twin
peaks gleaming in the fading sunlight. In the far off distance, she
heard the faint sounds of drums, a sure sign that some kind of
celebration was taking place in the nearby village.
    She wondered what it was, a birth or a
wedding?
    She parked the car, and got out. There
was no light in Arya’s window. Perhaps he was with her grandfather?
Maya debated, and decided to visit her grandfather first, mainly to
assure him that she was all right and also to seek his advice as to
how best to tackle her situation with Arya.
    Perhaps he could talk to the younger
man and influence him to give up on his quest to publish the
inagimi secret?
    The main door to the cottage was open,
as always. Locks were never required, everyone knew each other and
safety was not an issue.
    The muffled sounds coming from her
grandfather’s office surprised Maya. Quietly, she crept up to the
door and opened it. The lights were off and the room was in
complete darkness. With her keen eyesight, she detected a man bound
to a chair behind her grandfather’s desk. Throwing caution aside,
Maya stepped in the room and switched on the lights.
    It was Arya. He was tightly bound with
thick ropes, his mouth gagged and a blindfold covered his eyes.
There was no one else in the room.
    “ What happened?” Maya said.
Rushing to his side, she removed the ropes and took the gag off his
mouth. “Where is Isaac?”
    “ They took him.”
    “ Who did?”
    “ Archan and his men.” Arya
stood up, his legs trembling with fatigue.
    “ Archan?” Maya took a step
back as anger bubbled deep inside her. “You…you’re involved with
Archan?”
    She knew about Archan, although she had
never had met him personally. The man was evil personified; a mad
wizard who had gone awry and sought the gift of immortality to
further his thirst for power. Her mother escaped his clutches forty
years ago by coming to this world, and yet it seemed he was still
after the grand prize of an eternal life.
    “ I had a contract with him.
To deliver the inagimi.”
    “ Why did he take
Isaac?”
    How could she have trusted this man and
sent him back to her grandfather when she knew that he had
knowledge of her true identity? He must have called Archan and told
him to come.
    Arya rubbed his wrists. “I don’t know,
ok? Do you think he would’ve tied me and left me here if I was a
part of his plans?”
    She stepped forward and jabbed her
finger at him. Her breath came out in one long hiss. “This whole
thing was a setup, wasn’t it? No one tied you. You just made them
do it so that you could take me to Archan yourself?