Page 24 of Entranced By the Basilisks

The trepidation on Jasper’s face is gone in a flash, hidden once more under his cool control.

“I don’t know what you’re planning, but remember your promise, Ari,” Jasper says before leaving my study, his stride as crisp and direct as his personality. The promise he’d extracted from me is a passing annoyance in the big picture, a single obstacle that doesn’t derail anything.

I’d been too impatient last night when I’d brought up courting. My strategy hadn’t been sound. I had no way of belaying Jasper’s worries. But the possibility of the years spreading before us dotted with intimacies where the man I love gives me fragments of happiness only to rip them away again made me careless.

I won’t be so rash again.

Now, things are different.

An idyllic future is ours for the taking, so close I can practically taste it. Will it taste of vanilla sugar as well as look at us with soulful brown eyes?

11

EMILIA

Home.

The normality of my keys jingling as I open the apartment door has tears pricking my eyes. It’s been aday.

I throw my keys in the glass bowl next to the door and absorb the ambience of our home. The air is a mix of flavors, the spices Ma used for dinner last night, coffee, and the fresh roses I’d picked up a few days ago to act as a centerpiece for our four-person table.

Our place here is similar to the one I’d grown up in in decor but lacks the years of memories and capability to house the rest of the family. I’d been terrified to move across the country, away from our community, but Ma had been there every step of the way, supportive and determined all at once.

Family is family wherever you go, but you only have one life and that’s for happiness and adventure,she’d said.

I take a seat at the table and rest my forehead on my crossed arms. The relief of quiet and comfort has stress rolling off my shoulders. I take a full deep breath without the assistance of Director Jasper Adder.

The hisses from the serpents on my head are soft, almost coaxing like this. As if this whole situation is manageable as long as I don’t see them. The contact of slender bodies slithering against my arms doesn’t make me jump this time.

Like this, I can pretend my day wasn’t unusual in the slightest. It’s all an elaborate fantasy to titillate my mind. The snakes, meeting a matchmaker, Agnes, the arresting sensation of Jasper’s hand on my throat, and the weight of Ari’s mysterious smile.

I take another breath. It will be real soon, too soon, but for now it doesn’t have to be.

I adjust my arms and rest my cheek against the wood surface. The chill against my skin is another relief even as a snake’s scaled head tickles my brow.

The rattle of a key in the lock has me snapping upright and pushing the heart-shaped glasses in place.

The sounds herald my mother’s return and the sight of her face when the door opens is a balm on all the bad things.

Ma blinks at me in surprise.

“Ma, you’re home early,” I say, torn between happiness and leery of fessing up about my situation so soon after finding comfort.

She frowns. “I’m home right on time. You’re the one who is early. Are you okay, mija? Cute glasses, are they from Grace? They aren’t your usual style.”

I snort a small laugh full of disbelief. “You wouldn’t believe the day I’ve had.”

I’m more okay than I was this morning. Everything comes back to reality with a dizzying finality and my lower lip trembles.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Ma says, her voice warm and worried. “Let me put on a pot of coffee and you can tell me all about it.”

Nothing can’t be solved by a rich dark brew. Panic, anxiety, and worry are no match. Tears may come and go, but this is a constant.

I sniff, determined not to cry again today. “I think I’d like that.”

Ma makes an incredulous sound. There is no doubting the power of coffee in this house.

She starts the process of brewing the coffee on the stove like Abuelita does, and every action she makes echoes with familiarity. Spooning the Café Bustelo out, boiling the grounds in water, taking the mesh filter colador out of the cabinet and setting it on the counter next to the milk. It’s meditative to watch her work, like being wrapped in a blanket.

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