Chapter 9: "Venom's Embrace"

The Forbidden Ruins

Dr. Sana Rathore had spent her life chasing myths, but she never expected to become one.

The ruins of Nāgakara had been lost to time, buried beneath centuries of jungle overgrowth. No one dared venture this deep into the wilderness, not after the disappearances, not after the whispered legends of the Nāgaraja—serpent gods who once ruled the land and took human mates.

But Sana was not like other scientists.

She was here to prove those legends false.

Armed with her journal and flashlight, she stepped cautiously into the cavern beneath the ruins. The air was thick with humidity, the scent of damp earth and something strange—something ancient—coiling around her. She ran a hand along the carved stone walls, her fingertips tracing the intricate depictions of half-serpent figures standing over kneeling mortals.

Her heart pounded.

She had spent years searching for this place, but now that she was here, something about it felt wrong.

"Turn back." The words slithered through her mind, though they did not belong to her own thoughts.

Sana spun around, flashlight trembling. "Hello?" Her voice barely echoed in the stillness.

No response.

And yet… something in the darkness watched.

Then, the ground shifted beneath her feet.

The stone floor cracked, opening like the jaws of a beast, and Sana had no time to react before she was falling—plunging into the depths of the forgotten kingdom.

The Serpent King Awakens

Pain shot through her as she hit the ground below, the wind knocked from her lungs. Gasping, she struggled to her knees, heart hammering. Her flashlight lay shattered nearby, its flickering light illuminating the vast chamber she had fallen into.

Towering pillars stretched high above, lined with torches that had no right to still be burning. At the far end of the chamber stood an altar, black as obsidian, and beyond it… something moved.

Sana's breath hitched.

A figure uncoiled from the shadows, rising with an unnatural grace. He was tall, his bare chest sculpted like a warrior’s, his skin an unnatural shade of deep bronze, gleaming in the firelight. But it was not his human form that made her blood run cold.

It was the serpent’s tail that extended from his waist, coiling and uncoiling like a living thing.

His eyes, golden and slit-pupiled, locked onto hers.

"A seeker has come at last." His voice was a whisper in her mind, but it carried the weight of centuries.

Sana scrambled back, her hands scraping against the stone. "Who—what are you?"

The being tilted his head, considering her. "You already know."

The truth hit her like a lightning strike.

Nāgaraja.

A being of myth. A god among men.

And she had just awakened him.

The serpent king’s lips curled into something that might have been a smile. "You have trespassed into my domain, little seeker. And now, you are mine."

The Ritual of the Nāgaraja

Sana’s body refused to move as the king—Serik—descended upon her. His tail slithered forward, the smooth obsidian scales coiling around her ankle, then her calf, then higher.

She gasped, struggling against his impossible strength, but Serik merely watched her with predatory amusement.

"You fight," he mused, "but your body knows the truth."

Sana trembled. The heat coiling within her belly was unnatural, something foreign and wrong. It was the air in this place. The magic. The legend said that Nāgaraja did not merely take mates—they transformed them.

Serik’s hand cupped her jaw, tilting her face up to meet his. "Your kind betrayed mine, long ago," he murmured, his forked tongue flicking against her throat. "But you… you will atone for their sins."

The torches around them burned brighter, casting eerie shadows across the chamber. The altar behind her pulsed with power, as if the very walls of Nāgakara were waiting, watching.

Serik’s golden eyes darkened with something possessive.

"You will give me an heir, Sana."

The words sent a shock through her, but before she could speak, his lips crashed against hers, stealing her breath, her thoughts, her will. His venom laced the kiss, intoxicating, binding.

Her vision blurred, her body growing heavy. She was lost in him, drowning in his ancient power.

And as his tail tightened around her waist, pulling her against him, Sana realized one terrible, undeniable truth:

She wanted this.

She needed this.

The ritual had already begun.

And there was no stopping it now.