Filed To Story: Spit or Swallow: Kiss Of The Basilisk
“Someone wants you.” Her mother’s voice tore Tem from her trance.
“What?”
“I said, someone wants you.” Her mother pointed to the end of their pew, where Gabriel was waving at her.
“Oh. Right.”
The hymn was over. People were beginning to leave.
Tem stood with the rest of the crowd, filing toward the aisle, where Gabriel was waiting.
“Well?” he said when she reached him, hooking his arm into hers. “Are you a changed woman?”
Tem had no idea how to reply. She could feel her wetness dripping down her legs and felt a sudden kinship with Jonathan.
“Yes,” she said honestly.
“Delightful.” Gabriel squeezed her arm. “Tell me everything.”
“Not while we’re in church.”
It was an empty protest. Nothing that had happened in the past hour had been appropriate for church.
“Oh, come on, Tem. Kora would be proud. She’d want you to give me all the juicy details.”
Somehow, Tem believed him. Of all the deities, surely the goddess of fertility wouldn’t object to anything related to sex. But still. Her mother was mere feet away, and Tem wasn’t about to talk about this anywhere near her.
“I have a couple roosters to deliver. Meet me at the square in an hour?”
“With bells on.” Gabriel gave her a mock salute before disappearing into the crowd.
Tem tried to act as normal as possible as she followed her mother home, but between the claw inside her and the wetness on her thighs, she was beginning to feel like a walking sin. The moment they were inside, Tem ran to the bathroom and immediately took a cold bath. As she washed her body with soap, she couldn’t help but wonder what Caspen was doing right then. Had he climaxed, like she had? Was he still thinking of her? Did the claw only pulse when his thoughts were sexual, or would it pulse if she crossed his mind at all? What did basilisks do in their free time anyway? Tem tried to imagine Caspen at his version of church, sitting in a pew. Did basilisks worship Kora, like the humans did? Or did they have gods of their own?
Tem toweled off and dressed quickly, heading to the coop to gather the roosters.
Ever since it was discovered that the crow of a rooster could kill a basilisk, each household in the village was granted one rooster to be kept as a form of protection against the snakes in the event that they breached the mirrored wall. Despite their lifesaving properties, the roosters were not welcome gifts. A dead weasel was preferable for most people, especially since dead weasels didn’t make any noise. Nobody wanted to wake up to incessant crowing at the crack of dawn, and for many families, the roosters ended up as dinner. Whenever that happened, Tem was tasked with replacing them.
By the time Tem had corralled the roosters and grabbed two dozen eggs for the bakery, nearly an hour had passed, and she had to rush to meet Gabriel at the square.
He was waiting under the clock tower, leaning jauntily against the bricks. He straightened when he saw her.
“Finally. Thought you’d forgotten about me.”
“Never,” Tem said as Gabriel took the basket from her arms. “You’re unforgettable.”
“Of course I am. Now give me details.”
Tem told him everything that had happened in the caves, including how she had touched herself in front of Caspen, and he had done the same. The only thing she left out was the claw. Caspen had said not to tell anyone, and she had no desire to disobey him. Besides, it felt nice to have a secret, even if it was a small one. Tem’s life had been so uneventful for so long that the prospect of keeping something from Gabriel was oddly thrilling. He’d had plenty of nights that she knew nothing about; now she had one of her own.
“Caspen sounds delicious.”
“He’s a basilisk, Gabriel. He’s terrifying.”
“Terrifyingly delicious.”
If he hadn’t been carrying her basket for her, she would’ve shoved him. “He’s the Serpent King. His girls are always chosen. You don’t understand the pressure I’m under.”
“Tem. It’s good that you’re with the Serpent King. Imagine if you’d gotten a basilisk with no talent whatsoever.”
“I wouldn’t care.”
“Oh yes, you would. I know you. You’d be whining about how you’re with a boring old basilisk instead of one that knows what he’s doing. Admit it. It’s better this way.”
Tem scowled. Gabriel was right, and they both knew it. Regardless of her mother’s ambitions for her, Tem was participating in the training for her own selfish reasons, and those included getting as good at sex as possible just to prove to herself that she could do it. Like it or not, Caspen was the easiest route to that goal.
At the thought of sex, the claw pulsed.
Tem froze. They were in the middle of the road, in broad daylight. There was nowhere to hide if Caspen decided to send her anything else.
Gabriel stopped, looking back at her. “What’s the matter with you?”
“Nothing,” Tem said. “Cramps.”
“Ah.” Gabriel nodded knowingly. “Woman troubles.”
“Something like that.”
She stood still for just a moment longer, but to her relief, another pulse didn’t come.
The rooster delivery was uneventful, and Tem was thankful Gabriel was there. People in the village liked him; they tolerated her. Gabriel had always protected Tem to the best of his abilities, but he was a year older than her and hadn’t always been around when they were in school. He hadn’t been able to stop the schoolyard bullies from chanting “chicken shit girl,” but he had always been there to wipe her tears on the way home.
By the time they reached the bakery, Tem wished he could do that delivery as well. But she knew Gabriel’s shift was about to start, and he kissed her on the cheek with a flourish before heading up the hill to the castle. Gabriel worked as a dishwasher in the castle kitchens, a job that gave him unending access to the stable boys. Which was just the way he liked it.
With a heavy sigh, Tem turned toward the bakery.
“So,” Vera said shrilly. “How was it?”
Once again, Vera was leaning conspiratorially over the counter. Only this time, everything was different. This time, Tem was no longer the girl who had never seen a naked man. Between her experience in the cave and the presence of the claw inside her, the last twenty-four hours had been life-changing, plain and simple. But she couldn’t say that out loud. Vera was such an insufferable blabbermouth that the entire village would know every detail by the time the sun had set. Tem settled on her usual strategy, which was to ask her something in return.
“How was it for you?”
“It was thrilling,” Vera gushed, leaning forward. “My basilisk wants me. I can tell.”
“What makes you think that?”
“The way he looked at me.”
“Mine looked at me too,” Tem said.
“Of course he did. That’s what they’re supposed to do.”
Tem set her jaw. “He looked at me for a long time.”
Vera sneered. “Well, so did mine. Forever, practically. And by the time he was done, I was wet. I’m sure he could sense it.”
Tem had nothing to say to that.
“And that wasn’t all,” Vera continued.
Tem stiffened. Was she about to say that her basilisk had touched her? Kissed her? Done something beyond what Caspen had done with Tem? She braced herself, ready to hear confirmation that she had somehow messed things up already, that Vera was further along in the training after just a single night in the caves.