“Umm…Arachno, I want to make a trade!” I blurt out desperately.
She doesn’t even deign to give me a response to that. Not that I expected it to work, anyway.
Instead, she lifts a bony hand and snaps her fingers again. Immediately, a circle of fire appears around us like a lasso, yanking Belren and I together so that we’re back to back. The sudden movement makes me drop the quiver from my hands, and the soil spills over the ground as the parodworm tumbles out. I let out a surprised yelp as the fire rope cinches around our waists. It’s hot enough to make me instantly break out into a sweat, But it doesn’t burn unless I move or try to strain against the bindings.
“Hold still,” I tell Belren.
He does, and the smell of burnt clothing fills the air.
“Birds and horns,” Arachno tsks as she comes forward. “Horns and birds. What a nice meal they’ll be for Arachno. Arachno had just a taste before. Just a morsel. Arachno is hungry for more.”
“Go invisible,” Belren whispers over his shoulder to me. “Get out of here.”
“I’m not leaving you,” I argue. “Like any respectable spy would even do such a thing!”
I’m almost affronted that he would even suggest it. Except for the fact that, you know, he doesn’t want me to die. That’s nice of him.
“Then do you have any other ideas? Because I’d rather us not be eaten alive today.”
“You and me both, buddy.”
Arachno starts moving around her cavern, tossing spices and…pieces of fae into the cauldron. I have to breathe through my mouth so that I don’t gag from the smell alone. She starts singing some song about a bird with a broken wing who can’t fly home.
“That’s not very nice,” I mumble.
“What’s the plan?” Belren says.
“Don’t worry, Horny Hooker. I got you,” I say.
As soon as Arachno’s back turns, I go invisible, notch an arrow, and shoot as soon as I pop into my physical body again. The arrow hits her dead in the center of her back…and bounces off.
“What the heck?”
Arachno turns slowly around. Like, creepily slowly. I swallow the bile that wants to rise up my throat. She raises her arms up, and I flinch back violently.
With a strange motion, Arachno creates a huge bubble of water from nowhere, and sends it crashing into me. It encases my body, stealing all of my air and making me flail around in the water. Water tries to invade my every orifice, burning my eyes, pressing against my nose and ears and closed lips.
Arachno steps right in front of me, and I can see traces of the death and the rot on her disgustingly perfect teeth. There are tiny bits of bone and skin still stuck between them.
“Go invisible!” Belren shouts as he struggles against the fire ropes. I hear his distorted voice through the water, much fainter than it probably is.
I try, but I can’t. I try again and again, but it isn’t working, and panic sparks to life inside of me. Whatever magic she’s using against me, it’s keeping me from being able to go into the Veil.
When she snaps her fingers again, the water slowly starts to heat up. I can feel the temperature rising, rising, rising, right alongside with the tempo of my panic.
I try to punch my way through the magic bubble that’s keeping the air from me, but it won’t burst no matter what I do. I toss a panicked look at Belren. I know that if I open my mouth and let water into my lungs, then it’s all over. Belren is being held by fire, while I’m being threatened by water.
“Little bird may fly, but little bird cannot swim,” Arachno cackles. “Little bird will boil. And Arachno loves a good bird stew.”
Being drowned and boiled is not a nice way to go. I feel my bonds writhing inside of me just as much as the worm is writhing on the ground behind me. And even though Okot may have betrayed me, I still have three mates that I love, and I feel that now more than I’ve ever felt it in my whole existence as a cupid. It’s what people have always been after. It’s what I’ve always been after. Tears prick my eyes as black dots appear in my vision. I love them, and I never got to tell them.
That one word seems to catch inside of me, deep behind my ribs. I suddenly light up with it, a thousand times brighter than that of the faint pink glow of my cupid mark.
One second, I’m suspended in the water bubble, staring into Arachno’s excited face, and the next, white light is pouring out of me. I open my mouth in a soundless scream, and water rushes into me, just as more light rushes out.
In an explosion of sound and heat, light erupts out of every pore of my body, instantly bursting the magic bubble and making water crash to the ground. I don’t breathe, because I don’t need to. My eyes stare straight ahead at Arachno’s panicked face, her countless eyes blinking in shock, the light coming from me so bright that she shields herself with her arms.
But it’s no use. She can’t fight the light, and it engulfs her immediately.
In the span of a heartbeat, the light disappears, and I fall to the ground on my knees as I cough up water and take in deep, shuddering breaths.
I feel Belren beside me in an instant, slapping me on the back. I’m not sure if that really helps to get the water out of my lungs, but it’s the thought that counts, I guess.
When I’m done spluttering and hacking, I look up at where Arachno used to be. All that’s left of her is a shiny outline of her footprints.
“What in the realms did you do to her?” Belren asks, shocked.
“I think I just…destroyed her with the light of the heavens.”
He looks at me incredulously. “I’m sorry, what?”
I shrug a wet shoulder. “I kind of have angel and demon traits. And maybe a few others…” I mumble. “But that one felt…angel.” I don’t know how to explain it, but there it is.
I notice the damn parodworm trying to slither away and quickly move to scoop it up. Taking up my quiver, I replace the soil and worm, and pack it in.
Belren blinks at me for a moment and then shakes his head as we start making our way out of Arachno’s cave. “You’re just full of surprises, Veil female.”
He has no idea.
