Page 42 of Daughter of the Drowned Empire

The black nahashim’s bodies were pulsating, and their hisses came more rapidly as their bodies lengthened and retracted—excited, eager to begin.

My stomach twisted as Kunda sat beside me, the nahashim vibrating in his hands. His face came within inches of mine, his eyes moving rapidly as he placed the nahashim on my face, one on each cheek.

I sucked in my breath and squeezed my eyes shut. Their scales were surprisingly hot, almost burning. My hands clenched again. The nahashim were scalding my skin as though I were holding my face over an open flame.

“Why are they so hot?” I was beginning to sweat.

“Open your eyes,” Kunda said.

“No.” I didn’t want the nahashim anywhere near my eyes. I wanted them off my face, out of my cell, back in their box, and on a ship to Lethea.

“They’re hurting her,” Brenna said.

“They do that,” Kunda said. “Once your eyes open, they’ll begin. It won’t take long.”

My breath came in quick hot spurts, and I kept my lips screwed shut, fearful they’d slip into my mouth.Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm….

But when I felt Kunda pull my shift up to my chest—without warning—exposing the length of my stomach, my eyes flew open in surprise. The nahashim lifted their paper-thin heads, and with sharp hisses, dove between my eyelids, slipping in.

Everything went black as fiery tears welled. The burning sensation moved, traveling down my cheeks to my neck. But the fire wasn’t on my neck.

It was inside. The nahashim were inside of me, sliding, slithering, and hissing past my throat. I sat up on my elbows and screamed. My skin was translucent against their dark bodies stretching and slithering in every direction. Every place they moved within burned, and my skin outside turned black.

I cried out in pain. I couldn’t stop myself.

“What’s happening?” my father called. “Kunda!”

“We are nearly finished with the first stage of the process,” he said.

Two black marks slid down my chest, their bodies disappearing beneath my shift, inside my breasts. I could feel them descend deeper, wrapping around my heart, squeezing, burning, casting their shadow over it.

“Please,” I said. “Get them out. Get them out. Gods! I can’t stand it!”

“Not much longer.” The examiner’s eyes watched as they slid from my heart to my belly, sliding down my torso and curving around my back, until they moved between my legs.

I threw my head back and clenched my teeth as the burning moved lower and lower, intensifying. I lost control, whimpering and sobbing, pleading for it to be over.

As their heat singed my toes, I clenched my teeth. “Is it done?” They’d passed through my entire body, so now it was time to leave. He could cut off my feet for all I cared—so long as he took them out.

“They must search deeper,” Kunda said.

“Deeper?” They slid further inside me, into my muscles. I imagined their slim, burning bodies wrapping around my bones.

I closed my eyes, my entire body shaking, raw and burnt as they continued moving inside of me. I tried to breathe, to stay calm, but my next breath turned into a keening wail.

“They’ll exit now,” Kunda said.

I opened my eyes as wide as I could, chest heaving.

The examiner shook his head, and it was only then I saw his eyes were glowing blue. The blue of Lumerian magic. “Not through there.”

I started to ask where, but my answer came swiftly.

The nahashim hissed, making my throat rumble and burn as they slithered onto my tongue. I gagged as the examiner pulled them from my lips. He quickly rolled me to my side just before I threw up all over the stone floor.

“Help her,” Kunda told Brenna. He shoved a glass of water into my hand as I sat up. “Drink.”

I took a sip, my throat scratchy and irritated. Kunda held the nahashim in his palm, staring at them intently, before he replaced them in his black box, his eyes returning to their natural, darkened color.