Page 105 of Entranced By the Basilisks

“It’s not. Mace found an oracle who claims that it can be done. There’s a spell and a ritual. The risk is steep, but it can be done. If you want to go through with it, I’ll arrange for it, but since this isn’t something you expected to work… I figured that you’d need to think about it.”

I only know Mace Reynolds distantly, but his reputation precedes him. He’s somehow found out the impossible.

“I’ll let you know,” I say.

“Good luck,” Kalos says before ending the call.

I stare at my phone screen, my ears beginning to ring. Emilia could get the very thing she wishes for and lose Jasper and me in the process.

She’ll remain Chosen if you don’t tell her.I place my phone on the desk. Could I really keep that from them?

Could we still be together if she becomes human again? I thought it was impossible, so I’d cast that worry aside. I’d only considered how to help Emilia accept how she’s changed.

But now that avenue is possible.

Serpent kin take mates who aren’t Chosen all the time. Could we do the same? We’d have to be much more careful than we are now. She’d be more fragile and have no magic, we could hurt her without meaning to. We’d outlive her.

All the benefits of Emilia being Chosen would disappear. Would Jasper be able to bring himself to mate with me knowing that all his worries about my business could come true? With a Chosen between us, a gift from the Goddess, no one would have dared be open about their displeasure of our mating.

This risks the perfect solution that Emilia provided, but how can I keep this option from her? She trusts me. Jasper trusts me.

Am I selfless enough to be her white knight and the destroyer of everything I hold dear at the same time?

43

EMILIA

“This is fascinating,”William says. “Thank you for showing me.”

He turns the page of the newly restored serpent kin book. I had been leery of working on it at first, but Ari had verified that it didn’t hold any magic. The book turned out beautifully.

I smile, charmed by his praise. William and Jasper look alike. According to them, basilisks age slowly after reaching maturity, but William still looks older. Their manner is different enough that I don’t get confused and he treats me in a way that’s almost fatherly.

I absorb it like a plant getting water in a desert. It makes me miss my own dad, but it’s a balm, nonetheless.

“I’m just glad that my work impresses you,” I say. “I love what I do.”

“You provide such a service. I can only find things when they’re broken and discarded, while you can actually bring them into use again. Books are such precious things.”

“Did Jasper get his reverence for books from you?”

“I don’t know. We had a home library and he always loved being in there. Even before he could read, he’d stack encyclopedias like building blocks. When I thought he should play outside, Anna told me to leave him be.” William’s gaze drops to the book project in front of him. “She said that he wasn’t hurting anything, and it was what he enjoyed. I think she knew enough by then to know that Jasper’s life as an Adder wouldn’t be easy. I assume they’ve told you what that means to serpent kin?”

“I’ve heard about your family’s history.”

William nods like it’s something normal instead of a weight they’ve suffered under.

“My father didn’t partake in the fighting. Didn’t believe the cause was enough to instigate bloodshed. It saved him, but he was rejected from serpent kin society. He believed that after enough time had passed, our kind would forgive him his connection, but they never did. He chose to join my mother at the end of her human life. I admit I was hopeful too. Hopeful enough to take a mate of my own—” he breaks off.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” I say, remembering that he’d lost Jasper’s mother.

“It was a long time ago.”

“Ari said that the pain of losing someone is beautiful because it’s what we have left of them.”

“Ari is wise.” He clears his throat. “And strong. I’m glad that Jasper has him as an ally.”

My eyes widen in alarm. Jasper had asked if he knew about them… did William think he meant friends?

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