Even Cash—the big cock who would normally chase a bug like it was his last meal—didn't move this time. He beat his wings fast, jumped off the table, and edged away like the thing was ready to blow. Natalie's chest tightened. Animals never lied. If all three of them reacted like that, then whatever those things were, they weren't good. She stepped back a few feet too. "What the hell are those?" she asked, her voice low. "They were in boiling water and still alive!" Cassian stared at the table, his eyes sharp. "You ever hear of something called a living curse?" Natalie blinked. "You're saying those are cursebugs?" She'd read about them before—monsters raised by dark alchemists to crawl under people's skin, whispering madness into their heads. Old stories said folks from Curseland used them for spells, but when she'd visited years ago, everyone had laughed it off as superstition. She'd believed them. Until now. Now she saw something that could be a cursebug. Her stomach turned cold. That beautiful, perfect innkeeper flashed in her mind. No wonder that woman still looks like she stepped out of a painting after years of hell. She isn't normal. Cassian watched the transparent worms twist faintly on the wood. "I can't swear they're cursebugs, but think about it. If someone wanted to poison us, they'd use something simple. These survived boiling water. That's impossible for anything natural. If they're not cursebugs, then what else could they be?" Natalie's mind jumped back to the two girls from earlier. "Then it's real. It's a living curse. Those girls looked exactly like people under one."In this world, nobody trusted anyone. The fact that those two could smile at the innkeeper like she was family didn't make sense—unless their minds weren't their own. Everything clicked. It was the spell of the living curse. Only that could explain their trust despite their teammates bizarre disappearance in this inn. Natalie stared at the clear bugs, her mouth twisting. "She really dumped that many in there? What, afraid we'd miss a dose?" She'd read enough novels to know how this worked. The woman probably had some sort of hive cursebug that could control the minds of its victims. These worms were the servant bugs meant for her victims, or in other words, them. The innkeeper herself held the master bug. Through the master bug, the innkeeper could control the servant bugs that were burrowed in their victims' bodies. It explained everything—the false warmth, the perfect smile, the way everyone trusted her without reason. Maybe the bugs had other effects too. Either way, they would be under her control. Natalie's jaw tightened. "How about we grab that couple and kill them before they pull anything worse?" Cassian didn't even flinch. His voice stayed low and steady. "Not yet. We don't know how deep this goes. If they have allies, acting now could get us cornered." They had no idea how many cards the enemy had. It was best to lay low until a chance presented itself. Natalie frowned, thinking. "Fine. We'll see what they do first." But she wasn't about to leave the bugs there. Cassian slipped on his gloves, his tone calm. "I'll handle them." Natalie's eyes went wide. "You're not seriously planning to crush them with your hands, right?"Cassian gave a small nod. To him, they were just insects. Break them and it's over. Natalie stepped forward fast. "Don't touch them! What if one bite or scratch curses you?" The art of living curses were more mysterious than they could imagine. Cassian gave a quiet chuckle. "If that's how it worked, they'd have thrown them at us already. No point hiding them in a kettle." He was right, but she still didn't like it. "Then throw them out the window!" Cassian's brow furrowed. "And what if they crawl back in? They survived heat. They might survive the cold too." Natalie thought he had a point. These bugs were invisible. If they crawled back in, they wouldn't even see them. Natalie pictured the invisible things crawling through cracks in the door, slithering across the floor, and creeping into her ear. The curse's survival condition could be mere water. They could coat themselves in melted snow and come back in. The thought made her skin crawl. She shuddered. "Forget it. We'll melt them with acid." She reached into her storage space and pulled out a glass bottle of concentrated sulfuric acid. These bugs could resist heat, but they could never fight off powerful acid. Any carbon-based lifeform would be carbonized when they were hit with concentrated sulfuric acid. She pushed Cassian and the three animals to the far end of the room and slipped on her protective gear.The moment the acid hit, a sharp hiss filled the air. The wood smoked, dark spots spreading fast. The clear bugs twisted for half a second before turning black. What had looked like tiny grains of glass became specks of burnt ash. Natalie exhaled slowly, her shoulders dropping. She scraped the mess together, table scraps and all, and stored them away. This time, nothing came back out.