Book One – Chapter 18

She studied the colour in silence. And as she did, the scales across her chest stirred, shifted and folded back. Yu saw it clearly this time, and he heard it as well; the ripple that ran across her body, like the surge of a conscious wave. She sat in plain view, with no more than three steps between them. The orblight revealed everything. First, the seam, a thin line across her blackened collarbone. Then, the maw. It opened without teeth, exposing layered folds of flesh that glistened with moisture and twitched like tongues. They grew inward, curling up into her throat and down into her chest. A slow pulse rippled through them as they closed around the needle, careful, tight. The sound was not a sound, but Yu felt it echo in his ears: a wet pressure, a contraction, as though the thing inside was tasting. It did not swallow, yet when the shaman withdrew the needle, the shaft was blank, leeched of all colour. Without pause, the seam closed, her shoulders adjusted themselves, and the petal-scales swept back across her collarbone. Already her left hand was moving. Once again, the shaman set the emptied needle into the selder’s skin.

Yu’s ears filled with pressure, a sharp ringing that would not break. “What are you doing? Bubs told you to use potions.”

“We administered potions,” she said evenly. “For vitality. For sombre sleep. For strength restored. These touch his body. I may assess their effect. I may take what should not remain.”

The ringing swelled. It pierced, from the inside. Still, through the stinging, Yu caught the word. The word of soothing lies. May. She spoke of what she may do. Not what she would. Not what she did. It was witch talk. It bound her to nothing. For all Yu knew, she was feeding. For all he knew, the thing inside was drawing out essence, devouring the selder needly by needle.

But what could he do? What even was he doing right now — calling her out like this, pushing his voice against hers as if there was weight behind his words, pressing, challenging, escalating? He needed to stop. He needed to get out.

“You would like to ask more,” she said.