I was about to argue that they were being ridiculous, when yellow smoke puffed from the other toadstools around us, clouding the air and trailing upward. The air grew thick and heavy, and a sour, pungent smell burned my nostrils, making me gag. Wrinkling my nose, I brought my hand to my face as my eyes began to water. “What is that? Goddess, it smells like something died.”
“We need to move,” Locke ordered, stepping past Asher. “Kade, grab the fae.”
But Kade never moved to the prince, and Locke didn’t utter another command. I shook my head as my mind began to spin, a blur of color smudging across my vision. My body grew uncomfortably warm, and my skin prickled with sweat.What is happening?
Blinking, I tried to focus on the shapes of Asher and the others. The monsters swayed on their feet, and as the sheet of color cleared from my vision, I could make out their features again. But they no longer appeared like the monsters I knew. Asher’s horns had lengthened on his head, reaching high into the air like twin branches, and his face contorted, his nose now large and bulbous and his lips swelling to resemble fat caterpillars. Locke’s head was the size of a large boulder, while his two black eyes remained tiny and beady. Kade’s body had shrunk so it was almost stick thin, while his head was short and wide, and Darian now appeared to have the features of a giant tree frog. I couldn’t make sense of it, and as a feeling like warm sunlight poured into me, heating my insides, laughter burst out of me.
Asher and the others laughed as well, their strange bodies jumping in my vision as the hearty tones of their voices vibrated loudly in my ears. On and on we laughed uncontrollably, and I braced my hands on my knees as my cheeks began to ache and my chest burned from the peals of laughter that wouldn’t end.
Something red and blurry flickered in the corner of my eye, but I was lost to the happiness and joy that held me hostage. Tears of laughter leaked from my eyes, and I struggled to breathe as I guffawed and spluttered.
Another flicker of red. I blinked, not really seeing it. Not really caring. Asher’s strange body slapped the back of Kade’s stick form, and the sight made me laugh even harder. But then I heard it. A small, barely audible giggle sounded in my ears, and I knew it hadn’t come from Kade and the others. Fear pierced through my happiness, stabbing straight to my gut, though I couldn’t explain why.
My brows lowered, and I opened and closed my eyes slowly, but I didn’t stop laughing. Before I could make sense of the noise, my fear was soon swallowed up again by my delirium and happiness. I’d never felt so happy.
Another giggle sounded, innocent and joyful, coming from somewhere above me, and fear cut into me again. My instincts screamed a warning at me, and this time, I lifted my gaze to find the source of the noise. Thick yellow smoke clouded the air around us, reaching as high as the tallest trees, and fat crimson droplets were falling from high above our heads.Is that…blood?A sense of unease went through me. My body tightened, trying to lock up despite the happiness and laughter that made my muscles loosen.
I squinted, my face scrunching painfully as I tried to focus on the red droplets while also braying with laughter, but my vision was still hazed. Reaching over, I dug my nails into my other arm, forcing them in as deep as they would go and dragging against my flesh. The sudden sting of pain allowed my vision to clear enough that I was able to focus on the droplets.No, not blood. The red dots are falling too slowly, and the shape of them…
A shudder rippled through me as I realized what I was staring at. As I finally made sense of the white spots marring the red and the tiny faces that grinned with glee as they rose into the air before slowly drifting down toward us.
The red blobs weren’t blood droplets but tiny toadstools. Thousands of the small fungi were now puffing out of the larger toadstools and were being carried by the yellow smoke to high above the tree canopy. They were then dropping slowly, their smiling mouths open wide, showing tiny white teeth, and their little black eyes shining with excitement as they fell toward us.
As one, the toadstools began singing a happy tune, and I strained my ears to make out their words above the laughter:
Yum, yum, yum, for us little ones!
Gonna put them in our tum, tum, tums!
First, we make them still, still, still!
Then we’re going to kill, kill, kill!
Well, crap. The baby toadstools were going to eat us.
CHAPTER 2
~ Raine ~
Itriedtofocuson the danger, but it wasn’t long before the happiness melting my insides made my fear feel like a delusional worry. I shook my head, determined not to forget what I’d just discovered.
Digging my nails even deeper into my arm, I forced myself to keep looking at the toadstools. They fell so slowly, their red-and-white spotted caps catching the wind as they chattered and giggled, drifting down between the trees. There were thousands of them. Too many to count.
I was more aware of the throbbing pain in my cheeks now from laughing so hard, and I tried to focus on the ache, glad it was helping to keep me lucid. My mind cleared even more, to the point I was able to stop laughing, and I struggled to swallow, my throat sore and dry. Rationally, I was now able to put together that the unnatural happiness and urge to laugh uncontrollably were likely a result of the acrid yellow smoke polluting my lungs.
Fighting against the artificial feeling of euphoria, I moved closer to where Locke was on my right. Now that my mind was clearer, his head appeared to be back to its normal size, but the vampire still laughed like a madman, his body relaxed and mouth wide. It was odd seeing him so at ease and acting like he didn’t have a care in the world. A part of me liked seeing this side of him, but I reminded myself it wasn’t real. “Snap out of it, Locke,” I pleaded as I kept focusing on the pain in my arm and cheeks.
The vampire’s only response was to grab hold of my shoulders and laugh in my face.
“Can’t you sense it? We’re in danger!” I told him, but Locke’s eyes remained wild and unfocused.
I moved to Kade next, but like Locke, the wolf shifter didn’t even acknowledge he’d heard me. His growly laughter was almost comical as it spewed out of him.Fuck.
The pain was helping me stay lucid, so I figured it was time to try a different approach with the monsters. My palm connected with Kade’s face with a resounding smack. “The toadstools are going to kill us!” I barked. Kade’s brows lowered, his laughter abruptly cutting off, and my hopes rose as I thought the slap had worked to bring him to his senses, but then he opened his mouth again, laughing heartily in my face.
I cursed internally. Peering upward, I watched as the toadstools fell, drawing closer, their little giggles and happy cries filling the air like a chorus of creepy, eager children.
A chill clawed down my spine, and the happiness inside me left me entirely. Panic went through me as I tried to scramble a plan together in my mind.Pain didn’t work, but maybe desire will.
