Page 30 of Hot Summer's Prey

I scream and curl up into a position where I can protect my head—not that it’ll do much good if this place caves in. It’s not even a bad earthquake—but I’ve never been underground during one! A few things fall over, I hear some rocks grind against each other… and then it’s over.

Shaking, I rise slowly, unsure if this has become a death trap. All I know is it’s time to go. As I slide my arm through the gap, I try to slide through just like I did before.

But now, no matter how much I expel my lungs, I can’t get past. My knees scratch along the sides of the rock, my breasts and stomach and back—

Okay, this isn’t happening.

Well, shit.

I pull up my phone and not even the SOS icon is showing. Just a flat line of nothing.

The panic sets in pretty fast. This was so dumb.

I’m alone. I’m trapped. And there’s probably going to be aftershocks—and maybe worse.

I try again and again to get through the opening, because it’s my only path out. Whenever I take a break, I pause to look at my cell only to see that it’s dropped below ten percent and I feel like the dumbest idiot to ever grace this Earth. How did I let myself get so dickmatized I’m gonna die in a cave—and not even the fancy sex cave?

Great. Cool.

With nothing else to do, I scream through the opening.

13

PEARLS OF WISDOM

PACARI

“You forgot to let the nudibranch change back,” I inform the Lantern Witch when she has finally deigned to grace me with her presence.

The power inside my sifon pulsates, making me far too cocky and demanding. Truthfully, I have buried my ire—all my angst over my garden, the anxiety over leaving Slugger at the surface, and most of all, the overwhelming need I have for Teresa.

“He didn’t need to transform to come down here. You chose to leave him behind,” she pouts. “Besides, you’ve left him behind for quite some time.”

“He can’t breathe underwater, he’s a dog,” I growl out.

“Oh, how strange. I suppose it was more than likely—humans care for few things, really,” she murmurs. “Fine, put this around him and he can breathe again.”

She tosses me a necklace, a nautilus with some all-too familiar green pearls decorating the string. Previous payments, from who knows how long ago.

The milky white orbs of her eyes bore into me. My mouth tightens under her scrutiny, but I refuse to break.

“Well, it’s your choice,” she muses. “I can change him back, or I can save your precious garden. You decide.”

I grit my teeth. If I had her power, such creatures would never face instability. But instead, I have to trade with a witch who cares little for any other creature in this ocean but herself.

She sighs, picks off one of the tiny mates attached to her belly, and stares him down. He must be from a new batch.

“Too much,” she growls, flicking him away without a thought. “Too greedy.”

Her eyes fall on me again. At least, I have to assume they do by the way she waits for my response.

“The garden, of course,” I hiss.

On land, Slugger is cute and easy to take care of. He has a much higher chance of survival as a dog than he will with a broken home. And I can’t deny that when I have dealt with all of this, he will make wooing Teresa easier. She seemed much less angry at me when I had the dog, but then again, that was also before I abandoned her in the middle of seducing her in the cave. Her shoes sit amongst some other things at the bottom of the satchel I brought with me. I’m simply that desperate to be close to her.

“Time is wasting,” she sings, nodding towards my crotch.

With a sigh, I take out my sifon and pump it until it shoots out a mass of multicolored pearls. As soon as she sees them, the Witch cackles gleefully, filling her hands with them.

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