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She kicked my super light and flimsy coffee table closer to the couch and placed the teas on top of it. “I thought you might want some tea while you tell me just what the fuck is going on.”
Shit. She knew.
“Umm, how much did you see?”
“Everything. Your door was still open.”
Fuck.
“Please don’t go to the EA,” I blurted. “I’ll pay you to stay quiet.”
If the Enforcement Agency knew about my uncontrolled shifts, they’d lock me up for sure, especially since I wasn’t shifting into my natural naga form but into a full-on giant constrictor. Not some cute little six feet long ball python people could keep as a pet. No. I was a fucking monster.
She frowned. “Maybe you should tell me the story from the beginning before I make any promises. You did try to eat me.”
Jesus. I buried my face in my hands.
No. Not eat. Keep. Mine.
“Shut up. You don’t deserve anything.”
“Excuse me?” Sybil stared daggers at me.
“No. Not you.” I held my palms up in appeal. “I’m trying to get my serpent to Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” I directed the last four words to my snake.
I grabbed the tea from the table—straight Earl Grey, no sugar, no milk, just the way I liked it—and took a sip of the steamy liquid. Then launched into my story. I did owe the witch an explanation. Not only because my snake had gone after her, but also because she hadn’t gone straight to the EA.
“My grandfather pissed off a witch when he was young and foolish. A strong witch. And she cursed him. At first, he thought the curse didn’t take because nothing happened. Not for years. Then, sometime in his early 30s, he started having uncontrollable shifts. It took months for him and my grandmother to figure out it was the curse finally manifesting.”
Sybil leaned against the wall as she listened, clearly too wary of me to sit on the couch.
“It didn’t end with him,” I continued. “The same thing started happening to my father. I was still a kid when it first happened. I remember being so terrified.”
“How old was your dad when it first happened?” she asked.
“I was maybe five or six, I don’t remember exactly. So he was probably in his early to mid-30s.”
“What about with you?” Sybil was really digging for information.
I didn’t mind telling her, honestly. I’d kept this secret for so long it was actually a relief finally to share it with someone.
“It started about a few years ago, just after I turned thirty.” Just like with my father and his father before him, the curse gave me just enough time to start enjoying life before it pulled the rug out from under me.
But unlike my dad, I expected this and had tried to set up my life so I could work from home. Thanks to modern technology, I could do my consulting job from the condo over conference calls. And if my snake decided to take over during a call—though it had yet to happen—I could always just disconnect and blame the slow internet service.
I continued telling Sybil my sorry tale. “I thought I had a few more years. I worked hard and tried to make enough so I could buy a place out in the country and not bother anyone with my shifts.” I looked around the small apartment. “But that never happened. Not with the rising cost of living…”
I had saved up quite a bit, but not enough. I’d chosen to move to Darlington because it was a place that accepted magic and monsters. I figured if I were caught here as my snake, the worst that would happen was the EA would take me in; if I was caught somewhere else, I might get exterminated before the EA even got there. And as much as I didn’t want to be locked up for the rest of my life, alive was still better than dead, though I didn’t know if I’d still feel that way after a few years.
Maybe dead was better.
“Is there an escalating timeline?” Sybil asked, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Like, by forty you turn into your snake form forever? A lot of curses work like that.”
Shit. That wasn’t something I’d even considered. How old had my father been when he stopped making deposits into the joint bank account? And was that why? I had no idea.
“Not that I know of. And if there were, I wouldn’t know anyway. My grandfather went on a rampage during one of his uncontrolled shifts and was…put down. And Mom and Dad fought a lot after his uncontrolled shifts started. One day he just up and left. I never heard from him again. Trust me, I’ve tried to find him. Maybe he’s stuck in his snake form forever.”
Andthiswas why I’d never settled down. I didn’t want to start a family only to have to leave them for their own safety. I understood why my father did what he did. It wasn’t because he didn’t love us; it was because he needed to protect us.
