Page 61 of Entranced By the Basilisks

A red snake with spikes nudges at Ari’s hand as he continues his show-and-tell. “That beauty is an African bush viper.”

Ari’s eyes crinkle at a smooth snake with red, yellow, and black stripes wrapping around his wrist. He gently pulls away. “And this one is a coral snake.”

His gaze meets mine in the mirror. “Each one is deadly in its own right and gorgeous.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” I murmur, one of the snakes hissing in displeasure.

“They are a part of you,” he says instead of trying to convince me of anything. He runs a finger over the scales of the asp and a sensual shiver runs down my body. I’m transfixed by his movements, by his words.

Ari’s slow smile is pure sex.

“Now, look in the mirror and figure out how to shift.”

* * *

Hours later,frustration has taken the place of the tantalizing tension between us. Nothing that I’ve tried is working. I’ve meditated and visualized all sorts of scenarios, from slicing the power inside me to the snakes to ripping out the pages they’re on and each attempt just makes them hiss and spit in anger.

It’s a fitting reaction considering what I’ve realized. Facing my reflection for so long dredges up emotions about the creatures on my head that I’ve suppressed. It’s easy to not think about the snakes if I don’t have to look at them, but now that they are right in front of me, I can hardly breathe with how angry it makes me.

Ihatethem. I hate them so much. They are a manifestation of how ill-equipped I am to be in this magical world. My friend meets the loves of her life, and I get abducted. I work alone for a moment and get cursed. I try to go home, and I hurt my mother.

It’s all their fault. My eyes brim with tears as the frustration and buried anger surface and build.

I hate them and I don’t know how to make them go away.

And Ari isn’t helping.

“You’re working against them, not with them. You’ll only be able to shift when you accept them,” he says.

“How can I do that?” I snap. “I don’t want them. How can I accept them?”

“Do you want to be able to protect yourself? Protect your mother?”

I glare at him. “Yes.”

“Then accept the power you’ve been given.”

“Fuck this power. I never asked for it.”

Ari’s laugh has a cruel edge that tightens my body, and he spins me away from the mirror. I’m trapped in his gaze as much as my body is by the arm he wraps around me. He grasps my hands together with a single one of his.

“Tell me, sweet ember, if this didn’t happen to you, what would you be doing? Working yourself to exhaustion? Hiding from the things that go bump in the night?”

The hatred for the snakes on my head shifts. How dare he say that? How dare he make that sound as weak and terrified as it does?

Ari’s eyes narrow and his face leans closer to mine. “I hear your nightmares, my spark. I’m not as chivalrous as Jasper to be able to cuddle you through them. You have the power to shape the world how you want it, and you just want to ignore it?”

I’ve never been the most eloquent person and faced with Ari’s words, I don’t start. “Fuck this.”

Ari smiles and something about the carnal nature of it tightens my lower belly. He’s overwhelming me, but I just want to smack him, unleash the anger that’s trapped in my chest on him.

“You can hit me if it would make you feel better,” he whispers, and my heart skips a beat before he continues. “I sense your turmoil, my ember, the frustration that’s cutting you up from the inside. The things I’ve said are not kind, but I suspect they are the same things you’ve thought about yourself.”

His grip around my hands loosens as if in invitation.

“You want me to hit you?” I ask.

“I want you to strike out at someone other than yourself.” His gaze is exacting and it’s as if there is nothing he can’t see.

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