Limitless Evolution As a Snake

How does she do that? One touch and all the power, all the new scales, it all just melts. I drift closer. ”So you’re not mad.”

”I didn’t say that.” She tilts her face up toward mine. ”I said I’m not your parole officer; I’m allowed to hold both.”

I lean down and press my snout soft against her cheek, right at the corner where she’s almost smiling.

Down the hall, Cherry swings the bedroom door open. She’s got my blanket wrapped around her shoulders like a cape, and she reads the room in about half a second, face breaking open into a grin.

”We good?”

Lyra doesn’t even look back at her. ”We’re good.”

We all get ready and head out, me hovering along the floor while the girls throw on real clothes like normal people. Lyra goes business casual with hidden armour plates because she never really clocks off. Cherry takes twenty minutes picking a dress and ends up in the same tight black one she always ends up in anyway.

The coffee shop smells like burnt beans and fried protein oil from the place next door. Spider barista sees us coming and lights up, all eight eyes crinkling in what I think is a smile.

”Morning crew! The usual?” Then his smile drops a little, eyes flicking past me toward the front window, which is currently held together with duct tape and a prayer. ”Also, someone smashed our window last night. Whole pane gone, cost a fortune to replace.”

Lyra elbows me in the side ribs.

I don’t even flinch. ”That’s rough,” I hum, not even a little sorry, because I am not.

I order my iced ami, extra shot, the drink that basically keeps my whole nervous system online. Lyra gets her espresso shot, straight, no nonsense, just like her.

Cherry bounces on her toes, horn stumps twitching with excitement. ”Can I get the unicorn one? The pink one with the glitter and the little marshmallow horn on top?”

Spider barista nods and starts working. I pull up the little floating menu in my head, the one Hana wired straight into my scales a few weeks back, and fire off payment. A few grand extra for the window, plus the drinks, gone in half a second.

No apology attached. Why would I apologise for something that’s already paid for?

[System: He knows you did it, mate.]

I know he knows.

[System: You could like, say sorry.]

Nah.

[System: Ok, ok, we cooking.]

Spider barista’s got a little sweat forming under a couple of his eyes as he rings it up, clearly aware there is a giant snake standing near her register that just casually dropped four figures without blinking.

I coil off to the side to wait, humming something with no actual tune to it.

Then the door swings open and Channel struts in, not walks. Struts, shoulders back, hips doing something dangerous, wings tucked just enough to look modest and not enough to actually be modest.

She walks straight up to the counter, past the line, past common decency, and picks up Cherry’s drink. The one with the little marshmallow horn, my Cherry’s unicorn drink.

[System: NO SHE DIDN’T, WHAT A DROP KICK!]

Cherry’s horn stumps go rigid.

I don’t even think. I just move, gliding up beside Channel before she can take a sip, and something happens that I did not plan, did not know was a thing my body could do. Smoke curls off my scales and knits itself into the rough shape of a hand, solid enough to actually grip the cup right out of her fingers.

Wait, I have hands now?

[System: fuck me sideways, I didn’t know.]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDN’T KNOW.

[System: I didn’t know okay it just happened.]

”Sorry, sweetheart,” I say to Channel, smooth as anything, like I definitely meant to do that and have always been able to do that. ”This one’s for my Cherry.”

Behind me, I hear Lyra’s voice go up an octave. ”Hands? You have hands?”

Cherry’s just staring at the smoke curling around my fingers like I just performed actual magic.

Channel pouts, bottom lip out, blue eyes wide and innocent like she didn’t just steal a drink in broad daylight. ”Where’s mine?”

I ignore her question completely and just breathe in, out, get my head around the fact that I apparently have hands now, and turn to Cherry with the drink still balanced in my smoke-filled fingers.

She takes it slow, like she thinks it might vanish if she moves too fast. I let the smoke curl around her cheek instead, soft, warm, tilting her face up toward mine.

”I love you so much,” I tell her, and I mean every word of it. ”You have no idea how happy I am that I can actually hold you now.”

Cherry just stares up at me, mouth slightly open, eyes doing that shifting colour thing they do when she’s too overwhelmed to speak. Her horn stumps twitch once, twice, then just kind of give up and vibrate steadily.

I pull the smoke back before she melts into a puddle right there on the cafe floor, and turn to Lyra next.

Different move this time, just a gentle pat on the head, and I throw in a wink because why not, I’m on a roll. ”You’re wonderful,” I whisper. ”I’m so glad I met you. I love you so much.”

Lyra’s mouth opens, and nothing comes out, not one word. For a woman who runs a whole casino and once threatened to shoot me in the face, that is genuinely impressive.

Both of them just stand there, fully combusted, cheeks doing matching shades of red, and I feel pretty damn good about myself if I’m being honest.

Spider barista is not doing much better. He’s gone full red under all eight eyes, looking anywhere except at us, very suddenly very focused on the unicorn drink he’s now making a second of, glitter and marshmallow horn and all.