Page 136 of Sonnets and Serpents
She’d been so certain he would never leave Pravusat, so certain he would never chooseher.
But he had.
“You came back for me first,” he said. “After the library, I was cruel. I pushed you away. And you still came to save me—even when it meant facing snakes and worse.” Tilting his head slightly, bangs falling in his eyes, he added, “You chose a flawed donkey over a perfect ideal when I never thought anyone would.”
Eliza started trembling, and Silas’s brow furrowed. Before he could worry that he’d said something wrong—because he hadn’t; she’d loved every single word—she rushed to confess.
“I’m afraid too!” she blurted. “I said I would never hurt you, but I’m not certain that’s a promise I can keep. I might hurt you onpurpose. You changed your entire life for me, but in a single bad day, I might get swept up in a storm and—”
He caught her chin, smirking in his roguish way. “I can forgive a few rage transformations,” he said, and then his expression softened, his thumb tracing the edge of her lips. “Because there’s a difference between a momentary hurt and a real betrayal. I realize that now. And because I love you, Eliza, just as you are.”
All her life, she had obsessed over every romantic story she could find. She’d swooned over men fighting monsters, knightsundertaking quests, heroes trekking across deserts, everything in the name of saving the women they loved.
Now she realized she could never be saved more than she was by Silas’s promise of forgiveness for her mistakes.
“I’ll be your sword,” she vowed. “Any prejudiced law, any tradition, any sheep trying to spread hate—I will fight for you. I’ll reshape the entire country until you don’t have to hate it.”
He drew her closer, one hand pressed against the small of her back, the other caressing her face.
“Good,” he murmured. “I’m really better suited to a pen.”
Then he kissed her in a way that put every romantic story to shame.
With the queen’s approval and help—as well as with the assistance promised by Iyal Afshin—Silas established a warlockry department at Loegria’s university. It started small, just one other teacher representing Casters while Silas represented Affiliates. He kept his residual Artifact abilities under wraps. He was still struggling to trust his home country with the knowledge of his animal link, and he wasn’t about to invite more danger by coming out as some never-before-seen magical hybrid.
But he chose to trust Eliza with the truth.
“Don’t turnmeinto a cup of tea,” she said when witnessing his Fluid Casting, followed by a grin, and, “Show me again!”
With her help, he set up experiments to test how his Affiliate magic might have changed. The result was an office filled with small animals and a collection of avians knocking sharp beaks against his window. While Silas tried and failed to banish them all, Eliza sagged against his desk from laughter.
He could only transform into a snake, but now he could establish a communication link with basically any other animal. The resulting obedience, however, was ... variable.
“This is not how Affiliate magic works,” he grumbled, scratching frantic notes in his journal while someone’s lost hunting dog chased a gopher out the door.
“You’re discovering howyourmagic works,” Eliza said, rescuing a rabbit from the chaos. “Good thing you have a research assistant to help.”
Silas smiled down at the page. “Research partner. It’s more accurate.”
Even though they were no longer bound by magic, he preferred having her by his side. She made good things more enjoyable and difficult things easier to bear.
When he was finally ready to visit his family, he told her she didn’t have to come, but she insisted. Truthfully, he was grateful. What he was about to do was hard enough—at least he could know there was one person on his side.
The Bennett estate remained as he remembered. Grim black gates and square hedges surrounded a manor house with dark trim. His father wanted to appear sophisticated, but the end result was simply oppressive.
Eliza pursed her lips. “We could splash some orange on the front, Izili style.”
“I’m here to speak to my father, not stop his heart.”
The family butler greeted Silas stiffly, like he was a stranger in his own home. Rather than introducing herself as the crown princess, Eliza had worn her Pravish clothing and called herself Yvette, a friend from university.
“So I can be dramatic, if needed,” she whispered as they followed the butler to the sitting room. She touched the scarf over her hair. “I’m prepared to throw back my scarf and make royal decrees if he so much as touches you.”
Silas slipped his fingers around hers and squeezed.
He’d gone over what he wanted to say repeatedly, but once he was actually in the same room as his family, his carefullychosen words fled. His mother took his hands and kissed his cheek, speaking as though he hadn’t been gone more than a day. Maggie complained about the lack of any letters, and though she presented it as teasing, he saw the genuine pain in her eyes. He was about to cause worse.
Could he really go through with it?
