Page 116 of The Serpent's Bride
He studied her seriously for a moment before standing and speaking quietly to one of the handlers nearby. The poor employee nearly tripped over himself trying to obey whatever terrifying request The Serpent had just made.
A few minutes later, a small pale yellow snake was carefully brought out. Sienna hid halfway behind my legs.
“It’s okay,” Leo told her softly. “Look at him. His name is Banana.”
“It’ll bite me,” Sienna whispered.
“No,” he said calmly. “He’s more scared of you than you are of him.”
The irony of Leo Moretti saying that about anything almost made me laugh. Sienna peeked out cautiously. The little snake curled lazily around the handler’s wrist, tiny tongue flicking curiously through the air. It looked harmless. Gentle, even.
“He’s cute,” she whispered reluctantly. “Kind of. I guess.”
“There you go,” Leo said encouragingly.
Sienna looked up at Leo uncertainly. “Will you hold him first?”
Without hesitation, Leo took the snake carefully into his tattooed hands. The sight nearly stopped my heart. The Serpent standing beneath soft golden reptile-house lighting with a tiny yellow snake curled harmlessly around his wrist while my little sister stared at him with complete awe.
“You see?” he murmured gently. “Not every snake wants to hurt you.”
Something about those words felt bigger than the moment itself. Sienna slowly reached out before finally letting the tiny snake curl carefully around her hands.
“Chiara!” she squealed happily. “LOOK!”
I was looking. At her. At Leo. At this impossible strange beautiful moment that should never have existed. And for the first time in a very long time, I forgot to be afraid.
By the time we left the reptile house, Sienna had completely abandoned all fear of snakes. In fact, she wouldn’t stop talking about them.
“Banana liked you,” she informed Leo seriously while skipping beside him through the golden afternoon light. “I think snakes know when people are nice.”
I nearly choked.
Leo looked down at her slowly. “That’s a dangerous assumption, signorina.”
“Nope.” She swung the oversized zoo gift bag in her tiny hand. “You’re nice as pie.”
“Poison pie?” Leo laughed. “Fuck, maybe.”
Sienna gasped dramatically. “Chiara! Snakey said a bad word.”
I froze mid-step. Leo froze too. Then he looked at her with genuine disbelief. “Snakey?”
She nodded proudly. “Because you’re The Serpent.”
I pressed my lips together so hard they hurt. Leo stared at the six-year-old like nobody had ever spoken to him this way before in his entire life. And maybe nobody had.
“You just gave a very dangerous man a very strange nickname,” I managed weakly.
Sienna looked delighted with herself. “It’s cute. Like Snakey.”
Leo rubbed a hand slowly over his jaw like he didn’t know whether to laugh or question every life choice that brought him here. Then, horrifyingly, the corner of his mouth twitched.
“You’re lucky you’re adorable,” he said to my little sister.
“I know,” Sienna replied confidently.
The soft golden light filtering through the zoo pathways caught in Leo’s dark hair while Sienna continued happily rambling beside him, completely fearless now. Watching them together did something strange to me. Because Leo wasn’t pretending. He wasn’t acting patient to manipulate her.
