Page 16 of Entranced By the Basilisks

As it is, no one else deserves the knowledge. No one but Ari.

This heart-bleeding ache is not the type of pain that I enjoy. Before knowing Ari, I’d have rejected the concept of finding pleasure in pain, the joy of being overpowered. I certainly didn’t enjoy the physical harm that came from being caught unawares by those who hate me for my family name.

But somehow, with Ari, it’s always been different. Even pain.

Being a masochist is the only way I can describe why I reserved the room that Ari had. The sight of the light-blue tiles that match his gray eyes sharpens the ache, like the slow press of a knife.

I’d told myself the room wouldn’t be available. That Ari would undoubtedly pick a new lover out of the bathhouse denizens now that I had shattered our connection.

And at the same time, I’d known that was a lie.

Ari had left the bathhouse before I returned.

The knock on the door is perfunctory and I roll my eyes when Rose strolls into the room. Our relationship is the odd kind that comes from witnessing the other in sexual acts.

Intimate but distant enough not to be considered friends by the larger world.

Rose is an exhibitionist. Anytime that Ari and I could get an invite to watch her and her tentacled lover, we took it. The forbidden sight always spurs our own sexual actions.

Ari enjoys an audience… as do I. It was a relatively safe indulgence in a group of others who enjoy exhibitionism, as the matchmaker does. As long as the people watching our intimate games had no connection to serpent kin, it wasn’t an issue.

“Almost done?” Rose asks.

My mouth twitches at the abrupt question and I lift my arm, thrilled to see the translucent scales slough off into the water. It’s always strange to see the scale skin pull from my human body. I never shift. Unlike Ari, the action requires too much energy for one with such thin blood.

“Just about,” I say. “Why? Have you come to kick me out?”

Rose sits on a nearby cushion. “Not quite. I’ve just met with a woman who’s been cursed by a serpent kin book. I’m trying to find someone to help her. The only serpent kin I know are you and Ari. I wouldn’t have interrupted your soak, but Ari isn’t answering his phone.” Her eyes narrow on me. “And with the angry way he left last night, I don’t know how helpful he feels like being right now.”

“How did she come across a serpent kin book?” I ask, avoiding Rose’s stare and a niggling sensation that tickles the back of my mind. Books of our kind are rare.

“Apparently, she restores books for the library. You know the one that manages the Archive project?” Rose asks. She doesn’t know just how well I know that library.

My stomach drops. My library.

A restoration expert cursed by a serpent kin book…

Fuck.

7

EMILIA

Graceand I manage to avoid everyone on the way to our office. We let out a collective breath of relief when no one tries to talk to us.

“Are you sure this is where you want to be?” she asks.

“I need one thing to be normal today, okay? Just a single thing, whether it’s responding to emails or scraping off the dirt from old books.” I pull the scarf off my head as I speak, grateful for the sight of my hair even if it’s a glamour.

“Okay,” Grace says, nodding like she understands. Which is miraculous because most of the time I don’t understand myself. I do my best with the tools I have, and apparently keep from having a breakdown about snakes.

As if they can’t bear to let me forget about them for a single second, a soft hiss tickles my ear. The sound aspect of the creatures is going to be a problem for hiding their existence in public if they keep this up. That was a super-quiet hiss though, it can’t have been audible, right?

Grace raises a brow. Yeah, she definitely heard that.

Stupid snakes.

“I’ll hide away in my lab in the basement. That should be the safest option.” The thought of being locked away with old books and my tools almost makes me smile. It was a good choice to come here.

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