Love Croakies by Sam Cheever (the kiss of deception read online .txt) 📕

Sebille hit her with another blast of energy. It smacked the air in front of Desiree and bounced off in a wash of crimson energy that crashed into Sebille and sent her flying to smash against a wall.

Desiree swung an arm at Sebille, and a dense stream of the deadly hearts shot toward the sprite. Shaking off a daze, Sebille flashed out of the way. But Desiree’s swinging arm made something hanging from her neck flash in the light. A thick silver chord hung around the princess’s neck. A small vial hung from that chain. It was about two inches long, slender, and made of silver. Ornate silver vining and leaves wound around the small vial and culminated in a rosebud at the top. Inside the vining, something red glistened in the light.

I recognized that liquid. I’d seen it before. In the vault at Croakies.

It looked like love serum!

I needed to get hold of that vial. But the void behind Desiree was open and, as I glanced in her direction, Desiree was slowly turning as if sensing the abyss behind her.

Narina swung her arm in a fast circle, wind whipping the space around it. I realized she was going to send Desiree into the void with a brutal gust of wind.

If she did, I’d lose my chance at that vial. “Narina, wait!”

Too late, Narina released the burst of air and it slammed into Desiree.

The princess stumbled, her arms flailing and her hair whipping around her face, blinding her. She tried to lean into the squall, pushing back against it, but one of her stumbling feet hit a flying stool and she started to fall toward the void.

Sebille buzzed past and I screamed. “Sebille! The vial!”

She glanced my way. I pointed toward Desiree. The princess stumbled back into the void, and, in the blink of an eye, it started to close.

Sebille shot toward it, but she was going to be too late.

Or worse. She flew into the void with the demon, just as it started to close.

21

Kegel, Kegel, Kegel

Sebille shot through the narrow slit of the void, and there was a burst of green before the opening snapped shut like one of those old-fashioned spring-loaded coin purses.

The screaming behind me stopped.

The wind died on a final, whisper-like sigh.

And everything that had been floating through the air slammed to the floor.

Silence pulsed. I ran toward the spot where the void had been and slid my hands frantically through the spot. There was nothing. It was as if Sebille and Desiree had never been there. I spun around, fixing Archie with a panicked look. “Can you open the void again?”

“I can, but Desiree will be waiting for it. She knows we’ll want Sebille back.”

I paced, my fingers twisting. “We can’t just leave her in there.”

Archie sighed, looking at Narina and Eddie. “Be ready.” He lifted his hands and…

Bzzzz

An insistent dragonflybuzzed my head, sifting green dust onto my face. I fought a sneeze as relief spilled through me.

With a final, whirring loop de loop near my left ear, Sebille popped into full size. She stood in front of me, grinning. The chain with the vial dangled from her fingers. “Looking for this?”

I gave a happy little scream and, before I thought about what I was doing, grabbed the sprite in a relieved hug. “How’d you get out?”

She shoved me away, a look of pure disgust on her narrow, freckled face. “No full-body touching.” She shuddered. Then she shrugged. “I have mad skills.”

“What’s that?” Osvald asked.

When we turned in his direction, we found him climbing slowly to his feet. He was covered in bleeding slices and his dark, greasy-looking hair was a jumble on his head. Like me, he was sprouting green and thorny things from the slices in his flesh. I shuddered, beyond disgusted. Osvald caught us all looking at him and pointed to a spot somewhere in front of where he stood. “That. There. What is it?”

I squinted at the spot, seeing nothing. “I don’t see anything. With Sebille and the vial back, I turned my thoughts to the next problem. “We need to get back to Croakies, like yesterday.” My hopeful glance at Archie earned me a negative shake of the head. “The anomaly is defunct. We won’t be taking it back to the edge of the forest.”

I groaned, my stomach twisting with alarm. “It will take us days to walk back.”

“And don’t forget the wraiths,” Eddie said. He joined us, still looking pale but not quite as exhausted as before. “We could really use that turtle right now.”

“No, really, people. What is that?”

I whipped toward Osvald, ready to yell at him to quit interrupting. But I saw it too. It was a cloudiness in the air. A slight opacity that hadn’t been there before. I squinted. “He’s right. There’s something there.”

Eddie groaned. “She’s coming back. I knew that was too easy.”

My eyes went wide. Easy? What world did he live in where he thought being slashed near to pieces by flying hearts was easy?

Sebille walked over and poked the cloudy air with a fingertip. Energy flared in a spark and she jumped. “Ow!” She sucked the tip of her finger. “Whatever it is, there’s an energy charge to it.”

Something about the sight niggled in my brain. I joined Sebille, squinting at the apparition. It was rounded at the top and bottom, long and slender. It reminded me of something…

“Naida, you’re leaking,” Osvald said.

I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes even more. What was it?

Sebille poked one of my arms. Hard.

“Hey! Ouch,” I complained, rubbing my arm. “What’s the deal?”

“Osvald’s right. You’re leaking.” She grimaced. “And sprouting.”

I looked down at my jeans in horror. Had I peed myself in the chaos? Surely not. Though, now that I thought about it, I did kind of have to pee. I tightened my thighs against the thought.

Kegel, kegel, kegel, I thought frantically until the moment passed. Then I noticed the silvery magic sifting from my