Page 95 of Split or Swallow

“Which stories?”

“The ones about basilisks.”

“That depends,” Caspen said, tilting his head. “There are many stories about us.”

Tem nodded, trying to muster the courage to ask what was on her mind:

“Do you really burst into flames when you tell a lie?”

To her surprise, Caspen threw his head back in laughter. Tem had never seen him laugh like that before, and she couldn’t believe she had caused it.

“What’s so funny?” she asked, suddenly self conscious.

Caspen smiled.

“Your question,” he replied. “It is not what I expected. And to answer it, no, I would not burst into flames. But lying is…uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable?”

“Yes. It requires effort, and our bodies reject it.”

Tem nodded. So there was some truth to the legends after all.

Caspen’s mouth tilted in an amused smile.

“Is there anything else you wish to ask me?”

Tem considered the question. There were plenty of things she’d always wanted to ask him, but now that she had the opportunity to do so, she couldn’t remember any of them. There was only one pressing matter she could think of:

“Why do you have a mirror?”

Caspen arched an eyebrow.

“To check if I have anything in my teeth.”

It took Tem a good long moment to realize he was making a joke.

“Oh,” she said. “Right.”

She had no idea how to react to his humor. Caspen was watching her with such obvious amusement she couldn’t help but blush.

“You are wondering how I can look in a mirror without dying,” he said before she could figure out how to recover.

“Well…yes.”

“The same way I can look at you now without killing you. My gaze is not lethal when I wear my human form.”

Tem frowned. “But that means you can…”

She trailed off. She was going to say that if it was true he could look in mirrors when wearing his human form, it meant he could bypass the mirrored wall that surrounded the village.

“What is it that I can do, Tem?” he asked softly.

But there was no point in saying it. If the basilisks were going to invade the village, they would have done so long ago. The fact that they hadn’t meant they knew the wall was useless, and chose to remain outside of it anyway. Tem couldn’t imagine why.

So she shook her head.

“Never mind.”