Chapter 1

A poor student claimed she was a venom-charmer from a remote backcountry village, and to help lift her hometown out of poverty she was selling backwoods charmed snakes in the dorm, swearing the snakes recognized their owner and would protect their owner.

My boyfriend, wanting to back the poor girl, bought over a hundred of the charmed snakes in one go and handed them out to the whole class.

Because my mother is a snakebite specialist, I recognized at a glance that every one of these snakes was deadly venomous, so I called 911, and the fire crew took the snakes away.

The poor student ran straight up to the roof, sobbing her heart out.

"Nancy Fox, these snakes are all trained, they'd never bite anyone. I know I'm poor, I know you look down on me, but these snakes are the tuition money for the children in our village."

I tried hard to explain that these snakes were venomous and would put everyone's lives in danger.

My boyfriend answered with a slap across my face.

"Rachel is working herself to the bone to earn money for her hometown, and you call the police out of pure jealousy. Nancy, how can you be so vicious inside?"

The whole class rounded on me too, pointing and cursing.

"The snakes are gentle once they're tamed, there's no way they'd bite. You've got it in for Rachel, you just can't stand seeing anyone do well, is that it?"

"None of us who bought a snake has anything wrong with us. Even if we did get bitten, we'd have no regrets. Who asked you to stick your nose in where it doesn't belong?"

The argument spilled outside, and I was dragged into the woods nearby, where my boyfriend shoved me into a nest of wild snakes and I was bitten to death, still alive as it happened.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the poor student was selling snakes.

……

Something cold slid across my neck. I turned my head and, before I could brace for it, met a pair of vertical slit pupils, a snake's body a glossy oiled green all over, and I knew at once this was a bamboo pit viper, deadly venomous.

I found the spot behind its head and pinched down hard, and only then did I let out a small breath.

Just then someone shoved me. My grip loosened, and the pit viper slithered straight off.

"Stop it! How could you pinch my little green baby?"

Hearing that familiar line, I looked at the college classroom around me, and at Rachel Harding in front of me, stroking the snake's head.

In that instant I understood: I had been reborn, reborn on the first day of college.

Someone gasped.

"Holy crap, Rachel, is that a snake in your hand? It's so weird how obedient it is with you."

Rachel proudly showed off the snake wrapped around her wrist.

"Yeah, this is my pet, little green baby, so well-behaved. In summer it works as a cooling pack against your skin, the rest of the time it wraps around my hand like a bracelet, and if I run into a creep out there I can use it to protect myself and scare them off."

The whole class crowded around Rachel, envy in their eyes.

"Rachel, I go weak all over just looking at a snake. You're amazing. Aren't you scared it'll bite you?"

Rachel stroked the snake's head, and the pit viper immediately bobbed its head as if to please her.

"No. I'm a backcountry venom-charmer from the Appalachian backcountry. I've been handling snakes since I was one, tamed tens of thousands of snakes and bugs by the age of ten. The snakes I've trained are the most obedient, the most sensible, there's no way they'd bite. Go on, try touching it if you don't believe me."

Someone timidly reached out and touched the snake's body. The pit viper only glanced at the person, then nuzzled against Rachel's cheek.

The person rubbed their hands together, thrilled.

"It really doesn't bite!"

Seeing so many people, Rachel gave a sweep of her hand, and seven or eight more snakes in all colors slithered out from inside her clothes.

"These snakes are all trained, they won't bite. You can all try playing with them."

The others itched to give it a go and reached out to touch the snakes. One of the guys let a banded krait coil around his wrist and cried out.

"Whoa, it's ice cold. Wearing it on my wrist like a bracelet is so cool."

That was when my boyfriend, Luke Delgado, came over with a white-headed viper coiled around his neck, a deadly species with no dedicated antivenom, extremely dangerous.

Luke had no idea. He walked toward me grinning.

"Nancy, this snake's so cute, so dainty. Do you want to touch it?"

I quickly backed up a few steps and warned him sharply.

"Don't come near me."

Luke curled his lip.

"The snake's trained, it won't bite. Look how scared you are, what a coward."