Page 34 of Something Handsome This Way Comes

More scales climbed his throat and swept across his face. Smaller ones patterned his cheeks, catching the light beneath his eyes, while a striking row spread over his forehead and disappeared into his hairline like a natural crown.

Milo stared.

Well.

Apparently, handsome was no longer challenging enough, and his mate had moved directly on to terrifying.

Grievance smiled, and Milo immediately reconsidered the word smile, as his mouth contorted, revealing way too many pointed teeth.

“Oh, Lanterns.”

A long, forked tongue slid free, flicking and tasting the air. Grievance continued to rise, pulling more and more of himself onto the bed. His serpent body was heavy and⁠—

Fuck! There is so much of it.

His enormous lower body filled the space beside the bed before looping across the floor in heavy coils. He had to be several times longer than Milo was tall. Perhaps longer still.

Milo wanted to touch it despite every primitive instinct currently screaming that this creature could swallow him without chewing.

Another muscular ripple traveled through the coils. The floorboards creaked beneath his weight.

Grievance’s tongue flicked out again. Milo stared, and a thought occurred to him. All this time, he’d been calling that ridiculous tongue a basilisk’s tongue.

Had it been a Naga all along?

Grievance’s eyes fixed on him.

Wanting.

Waiting.

Asking.

Milo swallowed. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how this would play out. His body answered with an immediate protest of absolutely not.

“I need… one moment. I’ll be right back.”

Grievance tilted his head, but didn’t move to stop him.

Milo slipped from the opposite side of the bed and immediately regretted every decision he had made in the last several hours.

“Ow. Ow—Lanterns—ow.”

He shuffled toward the apothecary while attempting to retain what remained of his dignity, clutching his lower back like a man triple his age.

There was only one option. One extremely expensive option. Milo stopped in front of the locked cabinet behind his worktable and stared through the glass.

A few tiny silver bottles sat inside.

Marrowdew Elixir.

One of the most difficult potions Milo knew how to brew. It was the combined skill of potion-making and spellwork, something Milo still had trouble with.

The full name of the potion was Unicorn Marrowdew Elixir, and despite the alarming name, Marrowdew was a substance unicorns naturally shed from their horns during a full moon.

Very rare and extremely restorative. A single bottle took an entire lunar cycle to make. Certain ingredients had to be added beneath specific phases of the moon. Miss one step, mistime one ingredient, and the entire batch was ruined.

Which was why Milo kept them for emergencies. Real emergencies.