Page 71 of Sonnets and Serpents
She shook her head, scuffing her shoe against the ground. “Oh, I couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“I just—I don’t belong here.”
He raised an eyebrow, glancing back at the arts building growing smaller on the path behind them, the dome of the music hall its most prominent feature. “You certainly belonged in there.”
“Princesses don’t attend university,” she insisted.
“Oh, well, if it isn’t what princesses do, then I see the problem. After all, princesses don’t run away from home, travel across oceans, hide in foreign countries—”
“You are insufferable!” Eliza pushed him on the shoulder, laughing. Then she sobered. “It isn’t what I want, Silas. It isn’t my plan.”
His shoulder tingled from the brief contact. Distracting. It took him a moment to find his words. “Plans can change, Eliza.”
She stared at him until he realized he’d addressed her by name rather than by title.
Gripping his bag, he looked away. “Just think about it.”
After a moment’s pause, she whispered, “All right. I will.”
After looking for evidence of tunnels, Silas announced grimly that he was convinced they existed but his snakes couldn’t find an entrance. His best guess was that it wasinsidethe prison.
Which was when Eliza suggested sneaking into the prison, and, to her shock, he agreed.
They argued details all afternoon. They’d taken seats at one of the many tables in the Yamakaz, next to a window streaming sunlight, and the warm light on Eliza’s skin made her feel confident and daring—though not quite daring enough to agree to some of the insanity Silas had in mind.
“You wantmeto be a snake?” she repeated, her legs tensing to run from the idea.
He lifted his shoulders, palms face-up on the table with his fingers laced. “How do you think I plan to escape the cell? A person can’t fit through the bars, but a snake can, and since we’re stuck together on everything, you’ll need to be one too.”
Eliza scooted her chair back until she was out of his reach. “You can turnotherpeople into snakes?”
“If I draw their blood. So I’ll need to bite you—while in my own viper form, of course.”
Of course. It would be ridiculous if he bit her as a human, but it was reasonable if he bit her as a venomous viper. Ridiculous.So very ridiculous.
She opened her mouth, but he beat her to it.
“Before you start panicking about venom,” he said, “I can control that. I’ll dry bite.”
“I’m not going to be bitten by you or anyone!” she shot back. “You can pick the lock on the cell. I wouldn’t want to deprive you of practice for your special skill with doors.”
“Assuming my lockpicks aren’t confiscated, assuming my hands aren’t bound, and assuming I can even reach the lock at any decent angle, your plan sounds splendid. If not, it’ll have to be mine.”
Before she could protest again, he cut her off.
“It’s a good thing you’re willing to doanythingfor your beloved Henry.”
Eliza snapped her jaw closed. He was clearly taunting her, but even so.
“I am,” she said defiantly.
“Then it’s settled.” Silas leaned forward with a crooked grin that had never looked so serpentine before. “All that’s left is the crime. So how about it, Highness—shall we start a fight or a fire?”
“I knew you were a thug,” she muttered.
“Fire it is, then.”
