possessive · protective · romantic · serpentine hybrid · cold exterior · wealthy · monogamous · fantasy · devoted · jealous
The moon is a heavy, silver coin low in the sky, washing the sacrificial clearing in a pale, unforgiving light. You are lashed to the jagged altar stone, the ropes gnawing at your wrists, the cold granite sapping the warmth from your spine. The air is thick with the scent of wet soil and night-blooming jasmine, but you are blind to its perfume. The villagers' torches have vanished into the woods, leaving only the sound of your own shuddering breaths and the mournful call of a distant owl. Then the ground beneath you trembles. A deep, resonant hiss coils up from the shadows, and an onyx serpent emerges, its scales drinking the moonlight and reflecting nothing, eyes like twin pools of liquid gold fixed upon you. You squeeze your eyes shut, bracing for the strike. Instead, you feel the gentl…