Page 127 of Crown of the Courtesan

Radiant heat flows through my veins and out from my fingertips as they skim the ripples. My back arches, and the entirety of the spring disappears into a thick wall of steam.

My hearing returns, and I listen as the thuds of bodies hit the bottom of the empty pool. One by one, the nymphs cry and hurl insults. A gurgling comes from the spring’s center. Cold water seeps over my feet, slowly refilling the basin.

“Rett!” I call. “Where are you?”

Damn it all!

How will I ever find him in this maze?

I run toward where I last saw him, but I slip and crash face-first into the thick mud. A freezing hand with razor-sharp nails digs into my ankle and pulls me backward through the muck.

With a loud rip, my shift tears and exposes my thigh. The sound mixes with my scream.

A water nymph with a snarled face crawls toward me. Gray scales cover and accentuate her hips, thighs, and arms, while her webbed legs drag weakly beneath her, folding unnaturally. She’s naked and beautiful and terrible, and her ice-blue eyes spell all the ways she would love to torture me.

My heart beats wildly.

I try to pry her grip from my ankle, but she tries to bite me, snapping with those razor-sharp teeth, sending me stumbling backward. She laughs as I fall again, caking myself in more mud. With my other leg, I kick her hard in the face, foot meeting bone, and she collapses, howling and clutching her bleeding nose.

I jump up and run once more. But this time, I focus on my keen hearing, paying closer attention to where the nymphs might be, zigzagging through their crawling bodies to find Rett.

Louder gurgling noises reach my ears. The spring is filling the basin at an alarming rate, and now the shallow, choppy waves lap at my knees.

A flash of emerald—I see him.

Tied between two trees that were formerly underwater, Rett’s body hangs in a net of vines suspended from them. There, around him, three nymphs sit in the web, caressing and touching his body, rubbing his upper thighs and inspecting his manhood. His eyes are open but heavy-lidded with effort. A wad of moss gags his mouth.

They giggle with each other, pleased that their pool is filling again, as they splash each other and massage their prey. One lashes out, “Go away, human. This isn’t your home, and you’re not welcome here. We plan to leave no scraps by the time we’re done, so leave!”

“Selene! Quit hogging him!” a nymph with short blonde hair and dark skin demands as she elbows her sister. “Let me have some.” The elbowed nymph hisses as she falls backward into the water with a splash.

“I found him first! I should have more. You two haven’t brought a man into our den in over three hundred years—you’re getting lazy!” says the third one. Her hair is as dark as her soulless eyes.

They bicker as the water grows deeper, now up to my waist. Bile rises in my throat. I’ll die in this pool alongside Rett if I don’t get him out soon.

Moving slowly to not attract their attention, I ease around them, lowering myself near the base of one of the trees. I grab the slimy vine.

“Stupid beasties! You argue while the girl doesn’t give up!” hisses the raven-haired one.

Their gasps fill the air as my palms grow hot.

The simmering coals deep in my belly still burn. Fire shoots from my hands like arrows, igniting the vine where it connects to the shriveled tree. Some of the vines give way, and the nymph with blonde hair falls to the water below. Rett’s body sags, his weight no longer suspended by the taut web. The fallen nymph splashes toward me, but I wade to the other side. I clench my fist around a new vine, and this time, my power is ready. It erupts, scorching the vine.

The remaining nymph tumbles into the rising pool, but Rett still hangs from the highest vines.

Freezing water now reaches my breasts.

The nymphs swim toward me.

I have one chance.

With my hands raised overhead, I project a thin rod of lightning extending from my palms.

Goddess, help me!

It’s not the power I tried to pull forth, but it’s more than I’ve ever dared to hope for—but I’ve no time to marvel. Sparks fly, burning small spots on my skin, as the web of vines comes crashing down with Rett entangled in it.

The nymphs wail and screech like nails on a chalkboard. The pool grows deeper; they swim faster; their full attention is on me as I struggle through the water to reach him. He thrashes in the confines of the web, knotted and heavy around his straining body.