CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED – RESERVATION FOR DINNER

That's when she saw them – twin points of luminous green, flickering in the gloom like eldritch foxfires. As her eyes adjusted, their serpentine forms seemed to coalesce from the very shadows themselves, sinuous coils of glistening scales and cold, reptilian muscle. The hiss that rent the air in that moment was a sound ripped from the darkest depths of Charlotte's nightmares – a sound that spoke of fangs and venom, of death coiled in languid patience to strike. She stumbled backwards, her back colliding with the unyielding stone of the dais as the serpents advanced, their horned crowns rising to towering heights as they flicked their forked tongues. "St-stay back!" Charlotte cried, her voice cracking with barely suppressed terror as she fumbled behind her, her fingers closing around the haft of a golden ceremonial blade. "I'm warning you!" The serpents seemed utterly unfazed by her bravado, slithering ever closer with an almost lazy menace. Charlotte's breath came in ragged gasps,