Worlds of BBW Erotic Romance - Box Set Read Free Page A

sphere at the top.
    So they had built this recently… Ed couldn’t remember it from when he’d last seen the faerie mound several months ago.
    He carefully made his way around the outside edge of the platform.
    On the far side of the mound—the southward side—he paused, looking down. There was something there: an opening, set into the side of the mound, high as a man and a few feet wide.
    He eased his way down for a closer look. There was a pale light inside the opening, and he could see what looked like the glassy stone walls of some odd cave. He felt compelled to see more. But did he really want to risk going down and—
    “FOULES HT SSSINNER!”
    Ed jumped when he heard the shout. The voice came from his left; he jerked his head that way, and saw the shadow of a man running towards him from about sixty paces, robes fluttering around his body and a hood hiding his face. Was this one of the Rector’s people?
    Ed tried not to panic. But something about this just felt… very wrong, somehow. His heart was pounding and his head spun and his instinct was to bolt for cover.
    “Why dosht thou wallowww in thy sssacrilege? Filllth be thine until the end of dayssh!” hissed the newcomer. His voice was lisping and raspy, like that of an old man, but his tone was that of a preacher—as the youngest son of the right Reverend Daniel Bolt, Ed recognized that immediately.
    But why was this one screaming sermons out here in the rain?
    “I’m the Constable!” Ed tried to shout, but his words were muffled by the storm. “I just wanted to—“
    And then there was a flash of lightning, and Ed saw something that made his legs tremble under him, and the bile rise in his throat. In that moment of brilliance, he saw the mouth of the screaming man under the hood.
    The grin was impossibly wide—because the mouth itself was lipless. It was the grin of a skull. The flesh around the mouth was rotted, filled with holes, and he could see glistening bone underneath.
    Ed didn’t think. His body just started to move, his primitive mind knowing that he had to get away. Following his instincts, he plunged into the shadowed opening in the mound.
    The walls and floor of the cavern inside were made of a dark, glassy stone like he’d never seen before. The floor sloped sharply down into the bowl of the cavern, and faceted dark crystal columns supported the roof of the place. The light illuminating the chamber was faint, and he couldn’t see its source.
    There had to be some other way out, some passage or door—right?
    That was his only chance. That preacher-thing out there meant to murder him, he was sure.
    In the center of the chamber was a pedestal, and upon it sat a glass sphere, like an exhibit in some wealthy man’s art collection. A framework of wood was set up above and around the pedestal, supporting a shiny silver claw which hung suspended just over the glass sphere. A silver canister sitting on the floor nearby cast white light from a hair-thin slit; it was apparently a kind of lantern, the source of the light in the chamber.
    As he approached the far wall, Ed saw a wooden door set into it. A way out! Some kind of shiny silver rope was stuck under the door, trailing into the chamber, but he barely registered this.
    He ran faster, as fast he could manage with his lame foot anyway …
    … And was so intent on reaching the door that he neglected to look down as he went. Suddenly, his bad foot caught on something on the floor, and flew forward—only to find himself sliding down a steep shaft in the darkness. His body twisted around as he panicked, trying to find a hand-hold.
    There was a sharp, throbbing pain as his head hit stone. His body felt numb, and he dimly realized that he had struck bottom.
    But he was not alone.
    There was something else in the pit. He could smell the rancid stench of it, hear the leathery rustling as it moved, the clacking of claws on stone.
    This wasn’t the preacher-thing, but some new terror--something