Ruby Shadows Read online

  “Indeed there is,” Laish said quietly. “There are many sins to choose from although some are hard to commit in such a way as to breach the barrier.”

  “Such as what?” I looked around me. “Look, are there any pits here? I’d really like to get down and stretch my legs before we go on.”

  “The area around the Jealous Heart is free of sand traps. Just be careful not to get too close to the mouth of the cavern.” He reached up to take my hand and I grudgingly let him help me down.

  Laish sighed as he got me safely to the ground.

  “Well, pride—the excessive belief in one’s own abilities—cannot be your sin, as you just allowed me to help you off Kurex’s back.”

  “What? I didn’t know we were starting now!” I protested. “Let me get back on and we can redo it!”

  He shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way. And anyway, I do not believe pride will break the barrier or we would have felt it give way when you tried to mount Kurex earlier and nearly slipped into the trap.”

  I shivered at the memory.

  “Ugh! That was awful. Um…” I scuffed my foot against the sand. “I don’t think I thanked you for saving me. So, well, thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said gravely. “And I think we must rule out anger as your potential sin as you no longer seem to be angry with me.”

  I sighed—he was right about that. I had been frightened and upset and yes, angry, with him for not telling me his true nature before. But now I couldn’t summon any rage against him at all. I just felt…sad though I didn’t even really know why. Because I’d been having feelings for him and had been forced to make myself let them go? Because I wished our circumstances were different?

  Things would be so much easier if he was just a nice guy I’d met in a supermarket somewhere. Someone I could strike up a conversation and form a relationship with. Preferably a real one that would end in a soul bond and eternal love, like what my Grams had had with my grandpa.

  Then I realized what I was thinking and scoffed at myself. How ridiculous! As if someone like Laish would ever look at home roaming the aisles of Publix or Winn Dixie.

  As if I could form a soul bond with a being who had no soul.

  I tried to shake the feeling and get back to business.

  “Okay,” I said firmly. “What else could I do?”

  “Sloth cannot be your sin because you have undertaken an arduous quest to close the door into the Abyss,” he said thoughtfully. “Greed will not do as you do not seem to desire either excessive wealth or power.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “Except the power to take revenge on the one who had wronged you?”

  “I’m not discussing that with you,” I said shortly. “It’s not your business.”

  “Of course not. Well, I do not believe it would work anyway. In general, the sin one uses to pay the tax must be an actual physical action.”

  “Great…just great.” I began to pace back and forth, forgetting my earlier fear of the dark mouth of the cave. In fact, I hardly noticed it now—I was too busy thinking about my dilemma. It felt good to stretch my legs but my mind was in an uproar, trying desperately to think of some way to break the barrier between the circles without doing anything sexual with Laish.

  “I think gluttony must be ruled off the list of possible sins since I cannot now convince you to eat anything I give you,” Laish said dryly, watching me pace.

  In fact, I was feeling lightheaded and empty at the moment—it had been a long time since that single bite of cantaloupe that morning and even longer since the PB&J from my broken Sponge Bob container. But I tried to ignore my rumbling stomach.

  “I’m still not hungry,” I lied uneasily.

  “You mean that you still do not trust me.” He cocked his head to one side for a moment and shook his head. “And your lie has not broken the barrier either, though I thought it might. Apparently a stronger sin is needed. Not surprising really—as we get deeper into the Infernal Realm, progressively stronger sins will be needed to break the barrier between circles.”

  “Well, what can I do, then?” I asked desperately. “Because I’m not…not up for what we did last night again. Especially if we have to go further than we already have.”

  “I’m sorry you feel that way, mon ange,” he said quietly.

  “Laish,” I began. “It’s not that I don’t find you attractive—I do. You know I do. I just can’t—”

  But my sentence ended in a strangled gasp. Skuttling towards me, out of the mouth of the cavern Laish had called the Jealous Heart, was one of the most hideous creatures I’d ever seen.

  It was a spider—but not like any spider I’d ever seen. It had the body and legs of a tarantula which was horrifying enough but then it had the head of a chipmunk. Either a chipmunk or a squirrel. Anyway, some kind of little woodland creature you’d coo at and try to feed some of your lunch if you were having a picnic. But that head was stuck onto a huge, hairy, eight-legged body bigger than my hand and it was headed straight at me!

  “Ahh!” I screamed and jumped back. Yes, I know I said bugs don’t bother me but I was talking about insects. Spiders are a whole different ball game. The way they move—all skittery and quick—freaks me right the hell out. Once when I was eight one of those big wolf spiders got on my arm and crawled right up in my hair. I was hysterical for hours afterwards, even after Grams got it out and killed it.

  “Gwendolyn, wait!” Laish was saying but I barely heard him.

  The spidermunk or chipspider or whatever you wanted to call it was coming towards me fast. All I could think was that it probably wanted to crawl on my skirt. Or under my skirt! Oh God, I couldn’t take that! I tried to get away but it kept following me. I was afraid if I went too far back I might fall into one of those awful pits and this time Laish might not be close enough to grab me and save me.

  “Get away from me!” I shrieked at it. “Get away!”

  But it ran right up to me in that awful skittering way, making me want to puke or faint or scream or all three. Yes, I know it’s girly but what can I say? I hate spiders.

  The thing got right up to my skirt and I actually had a mental image of it going right up inside the long green dress I was wearing. Oh no, that’s not happening—no way in Hell! said a grim little voice in my head. Instinct took over and I lifted my foot and stomped down on the hybrid creature as hard as I could.

  It gave a loud shrill shriek and there was an awful crunching sound which is the main reason I hate killing bugs—that sound like somebody stepping in a bowl of Frosted Flakes. Ugh! Then it twitched once and I felt it go limp under my little black ballet flat.

  I skipped backwards and tried to wipe the black ichor the thing was leaking from the bottom of my shoe. I was so grossed out and worked up I almost felt like I wanted to scream. Waves of revulsion ran through me, strong enough to make me shake, especially when I looked at the mangled mess that was left in the sand.

  “Ugh—gross, gross, gross!” I muttered to myself, bile rising in my throat. It was a good thing I hadn’t eaten anything much that day or it would have come right up at that moment. Luckily my stomach was empty but that didn’t stop me from gagging anyway.

  The chipspider looked up at me with one eye which could still see—the other was popped like a smashed grape. It’s long, hairy legs were still twitching feebly and black blood was leaking through its sharp white teeth. It made a final, feeble noise—almost like a squeak you might hear from a regular chipmunk. Then, as I watched, the light died from its remaining eye and it went completely still.

  At the same time I felt a now familiar ripple in the air around me. I looked around, dragging my eyes from the small, mangled corpse that was already being buried by the sand.

  “Congratulations, Gwendolyn,” Laish said grimly in my ear. “You have found a way to pay the tax without giving yourself to me. Now come, we must go.”

  “What? What are you talking about?” I asked, but he was already boosting me up on Kurex’s back and