Page 7 of Hot Summer's Prey

It is unusually eerie, even still. There are no other fish within visible range. Only the most dangerous are out, and even they seem too afraid to do much. For me to come here as I have without a gift is idiotic, but there is no time to find a suitable offering. Instead, I must wait, offer complete subservience—whatever else she desires.

It is unheard of to call out for her once I am in her lair—the Lantern Witch will appear when she wishes.

A deep horribleness echoes through the waters, sending even the most dangerous of fish scattering. The nudibranch snuggles against my neck, hiding underneath one of my fins. A wail fills the silence. Shivers run up my spine.

Silence fills the water.

Then finally—a light, foreboding in the blackness. It can only be her.

“You dare to intrude upon my anguish,” she grumbles out.

Flashes of her face—skeletal, gaunt, and sprinkled with flecks of bioluminescence—flicker in the glow of the light extending from her back. Her hair is stringy, sparse. She looks many years beyond the last time I saw her, which was only a few weeks ago.

“I come offering my services,” I explain quickly.

“Your services,” she balks. “Seducer. Men are parasites, and yet you think you can offer me something worthwhile?”

A glance at her belly shows that none of her mates are there. Another terrified shiver runs through me as I realize what must have happened to them. How cruel she can be.

“Not like that. A…variation on our previous arrangement.”

Her eyes, ghostly white, narrow skeptically. “What use do you have for my magic now?”

I swallow hard. “The garden has been destroyed.”

This causes a strange reaction in her. She twists, mutters.

“Ahh… Where is your offering, then?” she asks.

“I have none to give. Everything I had was in that garden.”

The Lantern Witch ambles towards me. Everything in me says to run as her gaping maw grows closer. I try hard not to look at it, but her teeth are so impossibly sharp and her mouth so large. There is a face above her mouth, one that looks almost human, but it is just artifice I have grown accustomed to ignoring.

“Beggar. Parasite. Less than plankton,” she spits out.

The words vibrate against my skin, trembling the waters.

“I deserve all of your insults,” I say. So many years mollifying her, at this point I’m almost not scared.

The nudibranch wiggles under my fin, tickling me. My response is reflex, for no other reason would I have revealed them, but it is too late.

“What is that?” the Lantern Witch coos.

“A slug,” I say, apologizing internally to the nudibranch for the coarse language.

Normally, I would not offer her an animal. Every offering I have brought previously were plants or simple organisms. Never something so delicate, so beautiful as a nudibranch. I wish there was a way it could turn off its bioluminescence, but the poor animal’s beauty may be its demise if I am not careful.

She hisses. Displeased. It’s both relaxing and terrifying.

“A slug. When I am at my darkest? This is your offering?”

“It is not. What I do offer to you, Lady of the Dark, is the best service I can offer. A connection to the world above.”

Her eyes fill with sorrow for a moment before the expression flees and she is hardened edges again.

“Very well, seducer. You will travel to the surface, use your skills to suck the pleasure from what humans you may, bring it to me so that I may sup from it. But what else I need from you is far more important.”

“Whatever you desire,” I offer, knowing the danger that awaits with such promises. Yet the words are second nature to me.

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