They Said the Serpent Was a Prank, but I Found the Scales This Morning Chapter 01

They Said the Serpent Was a Prank, but I Found the Scales This Morning Chapter 01

After I finished sewing my wedding dress, a coiling serpent mark appeared around my wrist.

My parents turned pale with terror.

They said I had been chosen as the bride of the Serpent Guardian, the ancient protector who had watched over Raven Hollow for a thousand years.

If I refused him, all of Raven Hollow would suffer his wrath.

Holding back my tears, I broke off my engagement to Everett Hale, my childhood sweetheart.

Everett Hale thought I had only invented some ridiculous excuse.

His face darkened with cold anger, and he handed the engagement gifts meant for me to my sister, Tessa.

When I heard he had shut himself in and fallen sick, I still could not stop myself from running away from the old mountain chapel and going back to him.

But before I could even knock, I heard Tessa laughing inside.

“Maren is so stupid. She really believed there was some Serpent Lord out there!”

“She didn’t even realize I drew that mark on her wrist, did she? It washes right off.”

Everett’s voice was dismissive. “Maren can’t read, so of course she never saw the old book of mountain folklore I gave you.”

“But next time, don’t use stories from it to mess with people.”

My parents laughed too.

“Tomorrow is the wedding your Maren has waited five years for. If you make her sit there all night waiting for a groom who will never come, what happens if she misses the ceremony?”

“Then I’ll marry in her place,” Tessa said brightly.

Everett offered no objection.

I stood frozen outside the door, and something inside me quietly broke.

So the Serpent Lord had only been Tessa’s joke.

But they did not know.

That very morning, four chests of gold, silver, and jewels had truly appeared beside my bed as a bridal offering.

And beside my pillow, there had been a single dark serpent scale.

******

Inside the room, only my mother gave Tessa a light scolding.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t just stand in as someone else’s bride.”

“Besides, when Everett was rescued by Maren years ago, he swore that if he won that scholarship and made something of himself, he would marry no one but her. Don’t let him hear you make a mockery of his vow.”

Tessa giggled.

“It’s not like some Serpent Lord is actually coming to get Maren tomorrow morning. When no one shows up, she’ll come home on her own.”

“But to make it look real, we put my name and bloodline mark on the bridal covenant. Maren can’t read, so even if she saw it, she’d never know.”

As she spoke, her delicate brows lifted toward Everett in smug delight.

Through the crack in the window, I looked at him too.

In the shifting candlelight, Everett’s lips curved faintly. He reached out and tapped Tessa on the nose.

“I taught you to write beautifully with my own hand, and this is what you use it for?”

I went still.

Pain tore through my chest, sharp enough to blur my vision.

So he had not been sick at all.

He had known everything from the beginning.

He had known my parents had indulged Tessa in making up the story of the Serpent Guardian .

He had known the betrothal papers clearly carried someone else’s name.

But Everett had forgotten.

Once, he had taught me how to write too.

With a soft creak, the door opened.

Everett’s eyes met mine without warning, and panic flashed across his face.

But before I could speak, his expression hardened.

“You already broke off the engagement,” he said coldly. “Why did you come back?”

His brows were drawn tight, his eyes icy, as if I had truly broken his heart.

I could not help remembering yesterday, when I had swallowed my tears to break his heart for his own good.

All the color had drained from Everett’s face, but his eyes had turned terrifyingly red.

He refused to believe me and stood outside my window in the rain all night.

I had not slept either.

At dawn, I brewed a tonic and went to find him, seized by the reckless thought of asking him to take me away.

But when I arrived, I saw him ladle a bowl of stew right in front of me and place it in Tessa’s hands, nothing left in his eyes but cold mockery.

“You went to all this trouble, inventing some strange tale about the Serpent Guardian taking a bride just to test me. That must have been exhausting.”

“If you don’t want to marry me, there’s no point keeping the engagement tokens. Tessa might as well enjoy them.”

I stared at the meat in the pot, stunned into silence.

I had spent three months going into the mountains again and again before I finally caught those birds.

Because in my heart, Everett’s gentle, elegant hands were meant for holding a pen, for writing words worth more than gold.

Crude work like hunting was something I could do for him.

Even when I slipped into a ravine and hurt my leg, all I had felt then was joy.

But perhaps he had hated me so much for calling off the wedding that he had personally slaughtered them.

The smell of the broth made me so sick my whole body went cold.

How could I have guessed that Everett had never been angry at me?

He had only been playing along with Tessa’s cruel little game.

The handsome young man before me looked distant and disgusted. Not once did his mask slip.

I clenched my sleeves , my throat raw and aching as I tried to speak.

But Tessa, dressed in a wedding gown, came over and linked her arm through mine.

“Maren, weren’t you supposed to be waiting in the chapel tonight for the Serpent Lord to come marry you? Why are you back?”

When she saw me staring blankly at the wedding dress on her body, she winked playfully.

“Don’t worry. Everett only discussed letting me stand in for you with Mom and Dad because he wanted to provoke you.”

“Why don’t you forget about that Serpent Lord? You’ve waited for Everett for so long. Can you really bear to leave him?”

I looked at the wedding dress Tessa was wearing.

The dress I had sewn stitch by stitch with my own hands.

The bright red fabric seemed to sting my eyes until they ached.

I could not bear it.

Everyone knew I could not bear it.

And everyone also knew that no matter how much it hurt, I would still remember my parents’ pleas and sit foolishly alone in that chapel until dawn.

When I did not answer, Everett spoke in a low voice.

“Maren Ellis, I’ll give you one last chance.”

“Admit you lied now, and you can still marry me tomorrow.”

I looked at his cold, flawless face and thought of the betrothal letter left beside the serpent scale.

A bitter curve pulled at my lips.

Word by word, I said, “The Serpent Guardian taking a bride is real.”

“But I heard that if the person I love washes this mark from my wrist with his own hands, the marriage can be broken and I can be free.”

“Everett, can you help me…”

Before I could finish, there was a sharp smack.

Everett glanced at Tessa, who was biting her lip nervously, then flung my hand away without mercy.

“What kind of trick are you making up now?”

Disappointment filled his eyes. His refusal landed like stone.

“Maren, remember this. I gave you your chance.”