Artical

Jade Green and Jade White are snake-sisters. They were born a year apart from the flesh of their half-human, half-demon serpent mother, but they feel as close as if they had broken from her womb on one breath of air. Their mother tells them, “Always protect your sister. Be together, always.” Too small to understand, they can feel her words in hearts that beat in harmony. Together they are whole, their bond stronger than iron. They promise to remain together for eternity.

When small they swim in the white rivers, playing with the silver-brown pebbles. They feast on the glittering fish still slippery from the river and, occasionally, when older, on the warm human flesh of an unlucky traveler who happened by. Jade Green giggles as blood smears milk-white skin and watery-green snake scales. Jade White smiles at her sister and wipes her red lips clean with shimmering silk. They tuck flowers into each other’s black hair, admiring themselves as they try on glass and wood and jewel beads they found in the travel bags of their kill.

At night, exhausted, they sleep tucked into each other’s arms, pulse to pulse. Jade Green is sinewy and fresh as the forest leaves that burst from the trees. Her teeth are sharp and silver like knives - but her tongue can be sharper. Jade White is the elder and cooler, remote as the pale light of the moon. Sometimes she seems emotionless but Jade Green is devoted to her like she is a beautiful marble-lotus goddess.

“I will protect you,” she promises fiercely when they are young. “I will never leave you.”

Caught up in these words, she does not hear Jade White whisper, “Are you sure?”

Never is quite a promise.

When they are older, a young man wanders into their forest. Jade Green watches him, biding her time. Jade Green changes her snake-scales to human legs and appears to him as a pretty human girl. She intends to kill him as she has countless others, but there is something different about him. He smiles innocently and asks...