Eros appeared from the shaded path behind Penny—yet he did not simply walk.
The snake-trees bent for him.
Massive trunks coiled aside like serpents bowing to a master, vines lowering like curtains to clear the path. The forest itself parted in reverence.
And behind him, two women walked with serene, lethal grace.
Queen Eli was dressed in deep obsidian silk—a gown that clung like shadowed water, alive with faint silver scales that shimmered with each movement. Her long dark hair fell in an elegant sheet down her back, woven with tiny jade ornaments that chimed softly like whispers of moonlight on water.
Amanda, by contrast, wore pure white silk threaded with pale gold. Her gown flowed like liquid sunlight, every step causing it to ripple like the surface of a sacred lake. Her dark yellow, serpentine eyes glowed with a soft, magnetic charm, and even her minimal makeup only made her more entrancing—an effortless goddess.
Their snake nature did the rest.
