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“Oh, such trifling rinned widely, her teeth like perfect chips ofsmaller, I would have continued to offer my aid But this is quite a deift A final favor But noyou ask of me or my brood will involve payment more expensive than, say, a handful of fortune cookies”

She laughed again, one hand over herdisesture in the past It looked like she was panto to be human Technically, Arachne was human once Still, it felt tooto put us at ease, but it only made me that much more apprehensive

Asher itching his gaze rapidly between the three of us, the fat, huge straw of his tea drink still stuffed in hisof popcorn in his hand, really He ht have been new to this, but even he could sense the potential severity of Arachne’s payment

“Dude,” Herald said softly “She’s given you enough freebies as it is This is your investment Whatever she demands from now on, that’s Future Dustin’s probleht Do it”

I stared at Arachne resolutely This wasn’t about burgers So my face And if it was Thea, then we needed so sharp into her heart and stop her fucking our lives up, once and for all

I nodded

Arachne clapped her hands together and squealed She was far, far too happy about this “Excellent, sweetling” She raised her head, then cooed “And what ti to deliver what she’s discovered of your father”

One of Arachne’s secret-spiders descended fro, its strand of web so fine that it looked like it was floating towards h soic, these bejeweled spiders were connected to Arachne with bonds even stronger than her regular children,it so they could flawlessly store and convey infored ence, and possibly a very terrible enemy to have

I held out my hand as the spider descended, and when it was only feet away I noticed that it had its legs wrapped around soem? What the – no It was the plastic wrapper of a fortune cookie, the saht Arachne

The spider landed gently in my palm, deposited the fortune cookie, then ascended into the ceiling once again, the sapphire on its back turning into a bright blue speck as it disappeared into the darkness

“A cookie?” I said, hoping that my confused expression wouldn’t offend Arachne

“With information on your father,” she said, her head raised with confidence and, I thought, what looked like triumph

I knew these entities were crazy Who knehy these gods and deical creatures wanted to be so obtuse about everything, but hey, they came from a different time There was no sudoku to pass the time and shit, no porn, so it was all about the riddles

This all grumbled inside of my head as I unwrapped the fortune cookie, then split it in half I pulled out the tiny scroll of paper, unfurled it, and read the words printed there I couldn’t help myself My mouth fell open

“What is it?” Asher asked, his mouth a perfect, dumbstruck mirror of my own