Page 16 of The Naga

I looked up at the building we'd come to a stop before. It lookedabandoned and definitely nothing like a group home of any kind. I glanced over at Khush to make sure it was the right place, and he smiled up at me.

"Come on," Khush said, and Silas pushed him up the ramp as I followed behind. I watched as Silas turned the handle, and the door opened without a sound. If I hadn't been thinking with a lovesick brain, I might've worried if I was walking into a serial killer's lair, but since I was, I followed behind them without a word.

The door closed behind us, and I blinked in confusion at our surroundings. The inside looked nothing like the outside. Here, everything appeared well-maintained. Soft brown walls surrounded us with around a dozen or so doors spaced evenly apart. Each door had a label, and I read the few I could see from where I stood.

Headmaster's Office.

Forest.

Ocean.

Mountains.

I assumed the residents had picked different names for their rooms, though I couldn't figure out why.

"Uh, Dustin, there was something I wanted to show you," Khush said, and I glanced back at him. He'd said that yesterday too, and I was growing more and more curious about what it was.

"Of course. What is it?" I asked, my brows furrowing at the worry on his face.

"Uh, come with me," he said, and I followed him through the door marked Headmaster's Office.

The space inside definitely looked like an office, with a desk full of papers and sticky notes and a desktop with a loopy screensaver playing on it. There was another closed door behindthe desk, and I guessed that was where the actual headmaster was, while this desk was for his assistant.

"Okay…I'm not gonna lie. You're starting to freak me out a little bit," I said, tugging at a strand of my hair. When I'd left my house, I'd thought I would get to meet Khush's friends today, and maybe see his room if I was lucky.

I hadn't expected this, whatever this was.

"Sorry. I'm just a little nervous. Tell me, what are your views on magic? Do you think it could be real?"

I blinked at the sudden change of topic, then assumed he was trying to distract himself from whatever had his nerves all jangled.

Humoring him, I thought about the question for a long moment before answering. "I guess I think about it the same way I think about God or anything else. If I see it with my own eyes, I might be inclined to believe it."

Khush nodded as if I'd revealed some big secret to him, then took a deep breath. "Okay, I'd like you to listen. It'll sound crazy, but just hear me out, okay?"

"Okaaaay?" I answered hesitantly, dragging the word. The lovey haze might have started to clear from my brain a little at this point.

"The place we're in right now, it's called the Sanctuary. The headmaster is a sorcerer, and this Sanctuary is the home of supernatural beings who can't live in the human world. Beings like me," Khush said, and I blinked at him. Shit.

Khush might not be a serial killer, but he was most definitely crazy.

This was what happened when I jumped in feet first. I ended up in a room alone with a crazy—and also crazy hot, unfortunately—man who thought he was a supernatural being.

"Uh, Khush…"

"Yeah, I know it sounds senseless, trust me. But you'll trust your own eyes, won't you?" he asked, and I blinked as he grabbed the cloth covering his lap, unhooked it from near his hip, and then pulled it off, revealing a sack of sorts where the seat of the wheelchair should be. Were his legs folded in there or something? That looked uncomfortable.

"I'm a naga, an Indian snakeshifter," he said, and my jaw dropped as he raised himself up with his hands braced on the wheels of the wheelchair, and a green tail spilled out of the sack.

A moment later, he was 'standing' in front of me, the top half the Khush I knew, while the lower half was thick, scaly, and a soft, fern-green color. I blinked, and his eyes were different too. Instead of the light brown before, they were yellow and black, with vertical pupils like a snake's.

Was I seeing things? This couldn't possibly be true, could it? Magic was real? What. The. Fuck?

"Dustin?" Khush asked, keeping his distance as if worried he'd scare me. I wasn't quite sure if I was afraid or in awe, but I couldn't deny what I was seeing. Khush was half human, half snake. A snakeshifter, he'd said. A naga.

"Uh, wow," I murmured when I finally found my voice, then took a step closer. With the way his tail was coiled under him, Khush was suddenly taller than me (his wheelchair must have been magic too, to be able to hide away all that bulk) and I loved it. It felt right, somehow.

Khush held still as I stepped closer, and I reached out, my fingers inches from the tip of his tail as it curved up toward his hip. "May I?"

---