Page 93 of Bitten By the Basilisk

“Oh. Um…” She wanted to tell him, but the news was tangled up in so many different emotions. Happiness, confusion, anxiety, disbelief. How should she explain it? “Something really weird happened.”

Silas’s eyebrows slammed down. “Was it Justin? Did he make you uncomfortable again?”

“No! No, that’s…that’s not what I meant,” she assured him, realizing how nervous she must have sounded. “Justin was a gentleman, I promise.”

He relaxed with a nod, but he was still frowning. “What sort of weird?”

“Like…” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Magic weird.”

He grunted, then glanced about as if for eavesdroppers. “Let’s talk in here,” he said, gesturing to the open garage.

She followed him in, then waited in the empty space where a second car would go while Silas went to the interior door to push the button that would close the garage door. He returned to her as it quietly rolled back down.

“Start at the beginning,” he said.

She first recounted making her ornament, in particular her growing awareness of the heat inside the molten glass. Silas listened with stern focus, his arms crossed, his chin resting on his closed hand, so handsome it was almost distracting.

“For the final piece, I decided I would make…sssomething for you.” Ugh. She had avoided saying the word snake, but he now knew she had a surprise for him.

His tense brow twitched, as did the corner of his mouth. “Something for me?”

She shifted where she stood, his interest making her feel shy. “As a thank-you for the courtship gift.”

He lifted his chin, giving her another of his smug looks. “Traditionally, serpent-folk accept a mate by presenting them with a return gift, often a keepsake.”

“Oh,” she breathed, her heart skipping. “I…wasn’t aware.”

“Now you are,” he said with a light shrug and an easy smile.

She swallowed, wishing the overhead lighting weren’t so bright. Her cheeks felt suspiciously warm.

“A-anyway, as I was shaping the glass,” she said, forging on, “I got that feeling again, but stronger than before. Mostly in my hands.” She described sending heat into the glass and intensifying its glow. How it had felt like a physical action.

Silas hummed in thought, his gaze drifting down to the concrete floor. “I did witness something odd when you and Justin were busy at the melting furnace.”

Her eyebrows jumped up. “Oh?”

“Your shadow,” he said, pointing at her feet.

Confused, she looked down. At the moment, her shadow was short and angled left, her top half appearing bulky thanks to her jacket.

“Justin’s looked normal,” he said, “but yours had two pointed ears and a tail.”

She jerked her head up, her eyes wide. “Seriously?”

“On my honor,” he swore, holding up his hand. She believed him.

No less confused, however, she turned to put her shadow in front of her and studied it, tilting her head and moving her arms. Nothing about its shape was out of the ordinary. “When a kitsune is in their human form, their shadow reveals their true nature.”

“Hm. Perhaps it was temporary. Something that only happens while you’re tapping into your power.”

A good guess. And how often did most people even see their shadow, let alone pay attention to how accurate it was?

“The only way to know for certain is to see what happens when you use your new power,” he drawled.

She drew in a soft breath, glancing to see if he was being serious. “Right now?”

He nodded. “While that feeling you had is still fresh in your mind.”