Page 182 of Mud

“Agreed. And how do you suppose we get her down there?”

My hands shook as I reached underneath my jacket and grabbed the biggest blades in my arsenal—my daggers. With the tip of one, I tried the thread attached the sides of the root we were on. It looked so sticky and slimy andugh,but when my blade ran over it, it cut it clean through. With ease.

I smiled. “Likethat.”

We were going to cut off all these threads if we had to because I wasnotgoing to spend another second longer than I absolutely had to in this place.

The way Taland was smiling sent shivers down my back. “We’ll need a good plan,” he told me, eyes sparklingso much he could have stolen a handful of stars from the night. And that thought made me want to look up for once, to see the darkness over us, and the never-ending network of webs that didn’t allow me to see anything else.

“We’ll need a distraction,” said Taland again, and when I lowered my head, he reached up and touched the tip of my nose with his thumb. Just a little touch, like before.

My cheeks flushed.

“You have magic,” I said, my words a bit slurred together. “You can do a spell to attack her.”

“Except our dearest Madame here was raised to be immune to our magics, remember?”

I flinched. “Right.” I’d forgotten about that part.

Hell, I forgot abouteverypart when he looked at me like that, and when he touched me—so simply, sonormally,like we did this on the daily still, like we used to. Like it was the most natural thing in the world to him to touch my nose like that, then carry on with whatever conversation we were having, including those about giant spiders.

“Attacking won’t work—those people would have done it if they could.” Taland nodded his head toward the center of the web.

“People?” I said. “What do you mean, pe?—”

I stopped speaking when I noticed all the otherdotsof white across the threads, up and down, on all levels. Allbodiesthat Madame Weaver had already mummified with her fucking webs.

Five.Fiveplayers—and how many more had she already eaten?

The blood in my veins turned to stone.

Taland chuckled. “I’ve always liked that spaced-out look on you, sweetness.”

He was out of his fucking mind. “We’re going to die.” Just in case he’d missed the memo.

“No, we’re not,” Taland said and turned to the spider again.

Damn him.“Why aren’t you freaking out, for fuck’s sake?!” How was he so calm?How?

He looked at me. “Because the Iris Roe is not going to kill me. Or you.” His eyes fell on my lips. “But I seem to like it when your mouth gets dirty, too. Makes me want to cleanse it.”

Heat in the pit of my stomach, which, in combination with the cocktail of bad emotions I was currently feeling made me want to throw up five times harder than before.

“Taland,” I warned. He couldn’t seriously be this unbothered, could he?

He was, though. His conviction was to be envied.

And he slowly leaned closer to me to whisper, “We’renotgoing to die, sweetness—and it has nothing to do with the fact that I already pledged my life to protecting you from all spiders no matter their size, but with the fact that, whileshemight really be immune to attack spells, she can still be tricked.” He raised his hand between us, and small black flames sprung to life on his fingertips, just for show. “After all, isn’t that what magic is for?”

“Trick her, how?” I wondered.

“With a simple illusion,” Taland said. “You have blades—and I know you can use them.” Another grin. “I have magic that I can use, too. I bring her closer to the water, and you make sure she falls. How’s that sound?”

Um…like the last thing I want to do in my life?

I swallowed hard. “On one condition.” Which wasn’t aconditionat all. “Neither of us dies.”

There he went again, chuckling, grabbing my face in hishands, coming closer until he couldlickmy bottom lip just slightly. Just a little taste.

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