Crimes of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 3)

Belren starts pulling us into Arachno’s hidden entrance of the cave. Unlike Belren’s, this tunnel is completely dark and has an ominous feeling in the stagnant air. “Can you give us a little light?” he asks.

I give my hand a shake. Immediately, my mark lights up. “I’m a glorified torch,” I grumble.

“At least you come in handy in the dark,” he says with a proud look on his face. “Get it? Handy in the dark?”

I roll my eyes. “Can you please explain the imitating thing? I don’t get what you mean,” I whisper, as we start making the dizzying journey through Arachno’s tunnels.

Belren must have done some investigating beforehand, because he never hesitates at the turns to choose which direction to go. “I mean exactly that. They imitate. Biologically, they become stronger when they ingest soil from the healthiest magical roots. Same thing goes for feces. The more powerful the fae, the better the dung feast.”

“Gross.”

“In return, they take the magic and digest it, only to return it to the ground in new forms. They are responsible for keeping our lands healthy and vibrant with power. A fae’s power comes from the lands, after all,” he explains as we continue down the dark paths. “Unfortunately, the parodworms are often hunted and have become rare nowadays. They’re not just a meal, after all. They’re a power supply. Animals and fae alike often prey on them.”

“So they imitate fae as a defense mechanism?”

“Exactly. And parodworms not only imitate a fae’s appearance, but they can also imitate their powers. Only for a very short period of time, but that’s all we need.”

My heart picks up the pace at this new information. “You’re saying that if we can get one of these things, it can imitate the king?”

He flashes me a grin. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

He stops and holds up a finger to his lips. I watch as he peers over the corner where I can see the glow of a fire casting light and shadows against the walls. “We’re clear,” he murmurs.

He pulls me into the room, and terrible flashbacks come to my mind as soon as I see the space. The huge pot brewing gods-knows-what in the center, the spider web covering the wall, and the shelves filled with bits and pieces of fae at the back.

“What do the things look like?” I ask as Belren hurries to start looking around the space.

“The parodworms are thin, but very long,” he says quietly as he starts to make his way around the room. “One good thing about being held captive here was the view.”

He stops in front of the web wall and looks back at me expectantly. “Can you do your Veil trick and pop behind the web?”

“Yeah, but I can’t bring the worm back out with me that way. I can’t bring living things in and out of the Veil,” I explain as I hurry over to him.

“I’ll get you back out,” he assures me. “Now, when I saw them strung up back there,” he says, gesturing behind the web wall. “They were suspended at the top. They have a slight blue glow to them.”

I rub my sweaty palms against my pants and nod. “Okay.”

“Arachno is probably busy drying her new skins, but that doesn’t mean she can’t walk back in here at any moment. Best to hurry.”

He doesn’t have to tell me twice. I slip into the Veil and walk past the web wall, then gasp at what I find there.

Going physical again, I whisper-shout, “A little warning would’ve been nice!”

“Sorry,” he says, even though he totally doesn’t sound sorry. “I figured it wouldn’t do any good to tell you about the dehydrated corpses beforehand.”

I grimace as I carefully step past the bones and body parts that litter the entire area. It’s bigger back here than I had guessed. There are also more bones than I can count in here. The ground is at least two feet higher with the pile of them.

There are also dangling bits hanging from the ceiling by pieces of web. Some of them are animals, like rabbits and mice, but others are bigger, and from the smell, I can tell that there are definitely dead fae hanging all around me. It’s a terrible way to go.

Debating for a half a second, I start searching the macabre web cocoons to see if I can find anyone alive. Everything is sticky and the webs are stronger than they look, but I manage to rip open a few of them, only to be met with lifeless corpse after lifeless corpse. It’s not a cheery sight.

“What’s taking so long?”

Belren’s hissed voice makes me nearly jump out of my skin. “Holy hearts. Don’t do that!” I whisper-shout.

“What, talk?”

“Yes,” I snap. “I don’t want to hear voices when I’m looking at corpses.”

He gives a long-suffering sigh. “Why are you looking at the corpses? Focus on the mission. Does Princess Soora know that your attention span is this bad?”

“My attention span is not that bad! I was being a good citizen by trying to free a captive!”

“Just get a damn parodworm!”

“Fine!”

I whirl around and trip on the bones at my feet. I throw my hands out to catch myself, and of course, I catch myself on the web wall and get promptly stuck.

“What was that noise?” he asks from behind the wall. I can see his shadow following me.

“Nothing,” I quickly say.

I try to unstick myself, but it’s impossible. “What the chuck is this stuff made of?” I grumble.

“You got stuck in the web, didn’t you?”

“No,” I say hastily.

“Do I need to come in there and get the damn parodworm myself?” he drawls.

“I got it.”

I quickly go invisible, unstick myself, and then go physical again. I double up on my effort, looking everywhere for the damn worm thingies when I spot it, about four feet away. It’s a long, glowing blue worm, with its top-half tucked into the dirt ceiling above.

“I think I found it.”

I kick together a pile of bones to use as a makeshift stepladder until I can reach the ceiling, and then I start digging through around the worm, trying to find the head. It’s in deeper than I thought, and just seems to keep going.

“How long are these things?” I grit out, as dirt falls onto my face and into my mouth as I continue digging. My arms are killing me from keeping them above my head, but I don’t stop, even when my nails break and my arms start shaking.

If Ronak were here, he’d tell me that I need to work on my upper arm strength. I’d argue, of course, but he’d be right. Gods, I miss him.

“Hurry up,” Belren hisses from the other side of the wall.

“I’m trying!”

More clumps of dirt come tumbling down, landing in my hair. I have to wipe my eyes on my arm to clear it away enough to see. Just when I’m sure that my arms are about to fall off, I finally reach the worm’s head and pull it free.

“Yes! I got it!”

“Don’t let it lick you.”

I make a face and hold it at arm’s length as it wriggles and writhes against me. The faint blue color does nothing to make it look less gross. “It has a tongue?” I squeal.

“Yes, now get out here,” Belren says, his voice sounding anxious. “Someone’s coming.”

I hurriedly start to roll up the worm like I’m putting away a garden hose, winding it around my elbow as I hold the end. It wriggles as I carefully remove nearly all my arrows except for two, and then stick the worm into the quiver. I also pick up a few handfuls of soil and dump it in on top, just to make it a smidge homier, and so that the worm is less pissed off about being rudely relocated.

Finished, I carry the quiver in my hand as I rush to the wall where Belren has sliced a single strip, allowing me to squeeze through it. Several strands of my hair get ripped out from the sticky web, and I nearly lose my bow, but Belren cuts away the clinging web strands that want to keep me hostage.

“I got it, let’s go,” I tell him.

Before we take a single step, a terrible cackling bounces off the walls, and we both spin around at her voice. “My, my. The little bird has come back to Arachno,” she says, making my blood run cold.

Her gray, decrepit-looking skin hangs off her bones, which only seems to compliment the stringy hair that reaches her bony knees. Her beady black eyes are all blinking at different times, and there have to be at least a dozen of them. Her mouth though…it’s turned up into a perfect white grin that doesn’t match the rest of her. A grinning Arachno doesn’t seem like a super good sign.

“The pretty little bird flew away and took the Horned One from Arachno,” she says, creeping closer to us.

She’s blocking the one and only exit, because I took way too long behind the web wall. I clench the strap of the quiver in my hands and hold it against my chest like a shield, wondering how the hell we’re going to get out of this.

Belren sneers at her. “I don’t belong to you.”

With the flick of his wrist, he uses his telekinesis to send her huge cauldron full of boiling liquid lifting up off the fire and zooming straight for her. But just as it’s about to tilt and pour all over her, she snaps her fingers and the cauldron is yanked backwards and slams back on to the fire while Belren hunches over and makes a pained grunt.

“Are you okay?” I ask, casting worried looks at him, while I also try not to let Arachno out of my vision for a single second.

His silver skin looks paler than usual but he straightens back up, even though I can tell that he’s not feeling so hot. “She did something. My power. She must’ve…tasted a part of me to have control like this.” He moves his hands to try to use his power again, but nothing happens. “Dammit.”

Arachno keeps grinning. “The Horned One was a gift to Arachno. That means he does belong to Arachno,” she goes on. “And the little bird took him. Little bird didn’t make a trade to take him. She stole from Arachno,” she says, the grin finally wiping away and a terrible evil glare taking its place.

Well, shit. That’s worse than the grin.