Limitless Evolution As a Snake

My coils tighten, every muscle screaming to strike back. A warning shot at me, the guy who literally just traded his soul for an upgrade? The audacity.

”That’s a warnin’ shot,” he says. ”Next one won’t miss.”

I want to ask what the hell that means, but the white space is already tearing apart around me. The last thing I think before it all goes dark is: Different? Good, because the human loser was holding me back anyway.

Old Mate’s voice is the last thing I catch before everything vanishes. ”Wake up different, mate. You’ll thank me later.” Water dripping from the ceiling hits my face first.

Cold, sharp, relentless. The shock jolts through my scales, forcing a hiss from a throat that feels lined with gravel. My lungs burn, unused to this new depth. I rear my head, heat pits registering the cold air against the faint warmth of a body nearby, and for a second I don’t know where I am or what just happened to me.

Then Lyra’s face fills my vision, and I remember everything.

”Matt? Matt, oh my god, Matt!”

Her voice cracks on my name. She’s got both hands on my scales, pressing down like she’s checking I’m still solid, still real, still breathing. Her silver hair is plastered to her face from the rain, her green eyes wide and wet, and I’ve never seen her look this wrecked before, not even close.

”I’m here,” I try to say, except what comes out isn’t quite my voice.

It’s deeper. Rougher. There’s a rumble underneath it now, low and steady, like something predatory woke up deep in my coils and decided to stick around. But the words are still clear and it’s still me.

Lyra makes a sound that’s half sob, half laugh, and just about collapses on top of me. ”You scared the hell out of me, you absolute- I thought I felt you slip away.” She doesn’t finish the sentence, she doesn’t need to.

I rear up slowly, testing muscles that feel bigger than they should be, heavier, packed with something new. I can tell my scales look different. Darker. Almost black in this light, but when the lightning flashes outside this room, I catch the shift—deep midnight-crimson, glinting wet and rich like something out of a nightmare.

There’s a mirror a few feet away; I lean over to get a look at myself. Yeah, that’s not the face I had an hour ago. The fangs are longer, curving down past my bottom lip now, and my spine’s got these jagged ridges running down the back, sharp enough that I could probably open a can with them. It’s a lot, it’s a lot to take in all at once, especially with Lyra still gripping onto my midsection like she’s afraid I’ll disappear if she lets go.

”You feel different,” she says, quiet, studying my face. ”But you’re still you, right?”

”Still me.” I flex my tail, watching the way the muscle moves underneath the scales. ”Just... more.”

”I try to say it again, softer, to reassure her. ”Still me.” But the words feel like a lie the moment they leave my mouth. I don’t feel human anymore. I feel like something that used to be Matt, wearing his memories like a jacket that doesn’t quite fit.

I want to say something smooth. Something like Don’t worry, babe, I always come back.

She pulls back a little, just enough to look at me properly, and I watch her face change in real time. Her eyes go wide, wider than they already were, and her mouth drops open like she’s trying to find words that aren’t there.

”Matt,” she whispers, and her hand comes up slow, fingers brushing over my scales, ”you’re... you’re darker.”

Yeah, she’s right; I can feel it too. My scales used to sit somewhere between deep red and black, but now the black’s winning, crawling up over the crimson like ink soaking through paper. I flick my tongue out without meaning to and taste the night air, and even that feels different, sharper, like my senses got turned up a few notches I didn’t ask for.

”Lyra,” I say her name slowly, trying to figure out how to start this without sounding like a lunatic. ”Do you remember the drink? At my dad’s place?”

She goes still against me. ”The champagne I was drinking?”

”Yeah, that one.” I swallow, and my throat still feels wrong, too big, like I’m talking through a mouth that used to belong to somebody else. ”Channel, the harpy bitch, put something in it. Poison, I think, some kind of nasty stuff made that I can’t get rid of for you.”

Lyra’s hands go tight on my scales. ”Stronger than you?”

”Yes.” I dip my head, slowly.”I’m supposed to be resistant to that stuff, you know, snake thing, built-in immunity, all that. But whatever she mixed up wasn’t normal poison. It got into you, and it started eating through you fast, faster than anything I could just shrug off or bite away.”

”So what did you do?” Her voice was barely a whisper now, green eyes locked on mine like she already knows she’s not gonna like the answer.

”I pulled it out of you, all of it. Every drop. Through the bond, through skin, I don’t even know how; I just knew I had to or you weren’t gonna make it another minute, and I can’t lose you.”

She’s shaking now, actual tremors running down her arms, and I feel it through my coils where they’re wrapped loose around her waist.

”That’s why you look like this.” Her fingers trace the edge of a new, harder scale on my jaw, her touch a mix of awe and terror.

”That’s why I look like this.” I flick my tongue out, taste the rain, taste her fear sitting sharp in the air between us.

”Whatever was in that poison, it finished something. You know how I was sitting right on the line, half one thing, half the other? That line’s gone, burned completely out. I’m not split anymore, Lyra. Just this, just beast, all the way through.”