She has worn a thousand shapes and never wanted to keep a single one.

Soma is a Naga princess — a shapeshifter of the deep waters, ageless and unknowable, meant to be alone forever. Kaundinya is a yogi from the far mountains of India, who gave away everything he owned and crossed a sea with nothing but a dream of her. When he lands on her shore at the edge of the ancient world, neither of them is built to survive the one thing they find in each other: being truly known, and not wanting to be anywhere else.

For eleven stolen days, in the warm green dark, they are simply, secretly happy — talking late, laughing like fools, learning the shape of each other in the firelight. But loving her is quietly spending the powers it took Kaundinya a lifetime to gather. And loving him will cost Soma every shape she has ever worn, until she is only one woman: mortal, ageing, with a single life to give.

The world was never going to let them keep this. And something old and patient at the bottom of everything offers them a mercy — stop loving, and it will never hurt at all.

They choose each other anyway. Out loud, eyes open, knowing exactly what it will cost — and whether, when the time comes to pay, they can do it not in sorrow, but gladly.

Drawn from the real founding legend of Funan, the 3rd-century kingdom that became Cambodia, The Serpent's Longing is a lush, aching standalone romance for readers of Madeline Miller's Circe — a mythic love story about being fully known, and the courage to give up everything for it, gladly.

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