Serpent Witch

“I can’t stand it,” he told her, his voice deepening as he fought for control of his emotions. “I can’t fucking stand the thought of him—of anyone—pleasuring you except me. I’d rather cease to exist than know you’ve looked at anyone else the way you look at me when I’m touching you.”
― Kaylie Smith, Phantasma

“Tsk. Roshana, Roshana. You know me better than that. If I want fresh blood, I’ll go on the hunt for it myself.”
― Harper Hawthorne, Of Blood and Aether

“It was such a strange contradiction. Though I often felt like a spectator, an outsider looking in on the human experience, I had also studied it. My empathy became an obsession sometimes, an urge to dig deep. A selfish impulse to sink my teeth into what made other people tick, as if it might explain what I was lacking. And I could often taste the emotional wounds of others long before they ever revealed them out loud. Though that was also why I had a tendency to keep to myself. It was overwhelming, feeling so much all the godsdamned time. I could never seem to turn it off. To then inadvertently collect the burdens of others, to experience that weight alongside them whether I liked it or not, to feel their emotions as if they were my own… It was a lot. Very few people that I had encountered in life were worth that headache. People like Laurel, like Kieran… they were exceptions. “Lost in thought over there, Asher?” Laurel teased. “Or just very focused on capturing that mushroom with flawless precision?” “Both,” I laughed, finishing up my sketch of an unfamiliar cluster of fungi. “Definitely both. Gods, I love mushrooms.”
― Harper Hawthorne, Of Blood and Aether

“Ghost. He hadn’t even considered the connection. He had never seen his face when they traded information, only ever received a name. Ghost—the rebel leader. His contact in the Boundary.”
― H.M. Wolfe, Daggermouth