“I don’t give a fuck what he has to say,”Savage snarls.“If my regina wants to be a shadow princess, she gets to be a shadow princess.”
“Do you know what? You’re right, Savage.”
“Huh?”Savage says out loud in utter shock.“Since when do you agree with me?”
“Since…Since I realised you’re right.”
“Well, fuck me sideways,”Savage chuckles, slapping me on the neck with glee.
Chapter 53
Ghoul
Fifteen years ago
Mace Naga has filled my house with clothes and food—special sweet treats, warm rich foods that remind me of my homeland. He also gave me many books with words and pictures and told me to read them. He sang my praises. Told me he was excited for me to meet the rest of his people.
One day after sunset, he brings those people to my house. Through the thin bandage around my eyes, I stared open-mouthed at the tall serpent animuses, who wear interesting clothes the colour of the landscape at night. Their faces are covered in white masks, making it look like they wear the skulls of other people.
“These are my friends,” Mace says. “They have come to help you control your powers.”
I don’t see it coming. Don’t completely understand what’s happening to me. They take me by my arms and pin me to the floor. Their fangs bite into my body, sharp, toxic, and devastating on my young flesh. Venom pours into me, its burn entering me like poisoned fire. My screams tear through mythroat until the venom makes my heart slow. Makes my lungs stiff. Makes me a prisoner in my own body.
“Fight it,” one of the old generals says. “Let your beast take over.”
All I can do is stare in horror as the grown beasts stand over me and tear my skin to shreds with their fangs. I can’t move. I can’t even talk.
“The last basilisk,” they jeer. “Where are his scales? Where are his fabled shadows?”
I don’t know!I want to scream, but my voice won’t come.Why are you doing this?
It goes on into the night, me nothing but a prisoner in my body to their violent ministrations. By dawn, the house is empty, and Mace returns with the rays of sun. He cradles me in his arms, speaks gentle, soothing words, and wipes my tears and blood with a black handkerchief.
“They hurt me,” I whisper to him.
“Yes, they did,” he says seriously. “And I will make it better.”
And so he does. He feeds me from his own hand, smooths down my hair, and puts me to bed. In this moment, I feel safe.
But when night comes, so do the generals. I cower inside my wardrobe, but they find me and drag me out, setting me on the kitchen table before turning all the lights off. They shine torches under their chins, and through my blindfold, I can see the creation of ghastly shadows along the planes of their masks.
“You see this?” one of them says, moving the torch this way and that. “These are shadows. They go wherever you tell them to go. Wherever they are, there is no light. We want to see yours.”
Fangs sink deep into me once again, and I know they enjoy it. My pain, my fear. It only makes them more feral to see the struggling of their prey. I don’t understand what they want me to do, why they’re attacking me. I only want to hide. I want to hide in the dark where the monsters can’t get to me.
Mace comes with the dawn, and I’m glad to see him because it means day has come. He picks me up from the table to clean me. He holds me in strong arms and puts new clothes on me, then feeds me again. Finally, I pluck up the courage to ask him why they come for me at night.
He frowns. “Why do you not fight them?”
“But I did. I fought until the venom made my body stone. They are stronger than me.”
“But how is that possible?” he asks, appearing confused. “Are you not a monster? Is that not why your people sent you away?”
It’s true. All these things are true.
On the seventh night, when they come for me again, dragging me out from under my bed, I crave to see Mace. I crave for day to come and to see him walking through the doors with hot food and a gentle hand. But when I tell them Mace will come to save me, they just laugh and dig their fangs deeper. His words echo in my mind.
Are you not a monster?
