With great effort, I lifted my hand and ran knuckles over the side of her face, tracing the line of her jaw and the soft warmth of her cheek. Real. She was real. For a while there, I didn’t think that this reality would exist again. “So?” she said expectantly. “So what?” “So, mysterious snake man—” “Ascended above, give me a minute, demanding rot goddess.” “A minute for what?” “A minute to be glad that we have one.”





