Rosalind swooped down and handed us back our torches, and we stared into a room filled with cobwebs. Our light shone through the first few layers, coloring them a vibrant gold. Further on they became as opaque as shrouds.
I clenched my teeth to suppress a full-body shudder. “What kind of spider created this?”
“Allow me.” Drayce flicked a hand, and his shadows cleaved the webs in half. They parted to create a walkway to a wooden door with rusted hinges.
Rosalind floated her torch through Drayce’s path, and a long, hairy appendage whipped out from the dark and pulled it so deep into the webs that the light stopped glowing.
“Spider,” I hissed a breath through my teeth and reached for my sword.
Drayce placed his hand on its hilt. “Killing spiders is bad luck.”
I reared back. “What?”
“His Majesty is right,” said Rosalind from behind. “Everyone I know who ever hurt a spider on purpose fell into misfortune. Killing a spider that large might mean instant death.”
Next to me Aengus nodded as though this was common knowledge but Cathbad’s eyes bulged. Perhaps magical spiders were different. The creatures I encountered when I was growing up just spun their webs and caught smaller insects, and nothing happened to humans who killed them.
“How do we pass it without getting dragged into its web?” I asked.
“A gift,” rasped a clicking voice deep into the room. “Give me something you value, and I will let you pass.”
“You already have my source of light,” said Rosalind.
“I require a gift from you each,” said what I supposed was the spider.
With a huff, Cathbad pulled off the ivy from around his staff and threw it into the room. Drayce tossed in a small dagger. Aengus pulled a short sword from his belt, but I gave him a sharp nudge.
He turned to me with a confused frown, and I tugged his damp cloak. When he didn’t take it off, I motioned for him to throw it into the room. Aengus unfastened the garment and hurled it on top of the pile. I reached into the pocket of my leather skirt and threw my handkerchief.
“There,” I said. “Five gifts, including the torch you took.”
What shuffled out from the curtain of webs had eight legs but it was no spider. Its torso was human-shaped with coarse hairs standing from its pale skin like lashes. A pair of long, sinewy arms made up its front legs with two pairs of similar appendages jutting from its spine.
Four jewel-like eyes stared out at us from a bony face consisting of nothing but a pair of pincers.
My stomach plummeted.
“What a majestic spider you are,” Aengus said in a voice meant to encourage us to say the same.
It made several low clicks that almost sounded like purring.
“Very majestic,” added Rosalind.
“The most majestic I have seen in all my years.” Drayce gave me a soft nudge.
Every organ in my body shuddered with horror at the hideous monster, but I managed to say, “I’ve never seen anything so majestic.”
Cathbad made a grunt that sounded like vague agreement.
The spider placed my handkerchief between its mouth pincers and pushed Drayce’s dagger into the shadows. Then it made a headdress of Cathbad’s ivy, picked up Aengus’ cloak and wrapped it around its back. I held my breath throughout this, wondering why it wasn’t skittering back into its web.
We waited several moments for the spider to say something else but it remained silent. I leaned into Drayce and whispered, “Can you create a barrier?”
With a nod, he raised a hand and rolled out a walkway of shadows that stretched up to the ceiling and across. “Nothing should get through this.”
All the tension left my body in an outward breath. “Let’s go.”
Drayce climbed through the window and dusted off the sill before helping me inside. The wood beneath my feet crumbled, but the shadows kept me from stumbling. Rosalind flew in next, and the others followed. We walked through Drayce’s barrier of shadows to the door, which didn’t yield when I turned the handle.
“Allow me.” Aengus jerked down the handle with his strength. The door splintered and fell into an empty hallway of cobwebs that hung from the ceiling like clouds.
Something large dropped down from above, and skittering footsteps hurried toward us. I sucked in a breath, unsheathed the Sword of Tethra, and readied myself to fight. Drayce stepped in front of me, Aengus and Cathbad on my left and right. Rosalind flew overhead, her black sword drawn.
The same spider from before emerged into the light, still wearing Aengus’ cloak. It bobbed its head up and down, staring out at us with its quartet of gleaming eyes.
“We gave you your gifts,” said Drayce.
“Ah… yes,” replied the spider.
Keeping the tremor out of my voice, I said, “What do you want?”
The spider raised itself on spindly legs and tilted its head to the side. “That bearded male didn’t compliment me, and now I will take your lives.”
Chapter 24
The hallway seemed to close in on us, the dust-covered webs over the walls flickering in the lantern light.
Bile rose to the back of my throat, coating my tongue with bitterness. I knew we shouldn’t have trusted the spider to fulfill its end of the bargain, knew Drayce should have restrained it with shadows. Now the wretched monster was playing games with our lives.
With a satisfied groan, the spider straightened its eight monstrous limbs, their bristly hairs quivering with power. A dry chuckle rustled in the back of its throat, and its pincers made satisfied clacks.
Standing six feet tall and with a quartet of eyes that reflected our golden light, it raised an arm-like front appendage to the webs strewn across the ceiling. Dust sprinkled on the floor, creating a small pile.
“I’ve feasted on the human servants and grown to such grand proportions,” it rasped. “I’ve dipped each morsel in my blend of spices. How strong will I become after I consume your powers?”
As slowly and as soundlessly as I could, I slid my sword out of its sheath. If I could create a rift and trick the spider into running into it, we might have a chance of reaching the Fear Dorcha unscathed.
“Do not hurt that spider,” Drayce whispered from the front, presumably for my benefit.
Aengus and Cathbad stepped closer to my sides, and Rosalind placed a hand on my back. Pursing my lips, I exhaled a frustrated breath through my nostrils. Why did that wretched thing get to take our gifts and then fabricate an extra rule about needing compliments?
On my right, Cathbad straightened. “I did not say you were majestic because you are not.”
The spider reared back and hissed. “What?”
My mouth fell open, and words of reproach died in my throat. I glanced at the druid, wondering if he meant to get us killed, but he raised his chin and stared ahead, his eyes blazing with defiance.
“You are indeed monstrous,” Cathbad added.
The spider lowered its arm to the floor, its pincers clicking as though savoring the taste of the words. “Monstrous,” it rasped and crawled toward the wall, leaving a narrow path. “Monstrous is close enough to majestic. I will let you pass.”
Nobody moved. I glanced at Aengus, who shook his head.
“What are you waiting for?” the spider asked, its voice dripping with amusement. “Do you not trust me?”
Still, nobody moved.
I held my breath, willing my heart to stop slamming itself against my rib cage. If I had been alone, I might have tried to slice at the spider with the Sword of Tethra, but Drayce’s words that killing spiders brought bad luck and Rosalind’s guess that it might cause our deaths made me pause.
We were about to face a dark creature who could weave nightmares and a desperate creature who needed my body to survive. Erin would have shared everything she had gleaned about us to the Fear Dorcha, and we couldn’t afford to impair our luck.
“Do you still intend to take our lives?” asked Drayce.
The spider paused, making me wonder if it was also incapable of lying like other faeries. “I must leave at least one of you alive.”
I ground my teeth. It was working for the Fear Dorcha and probably meant to kill my companions all along.
“Ah…” Its voice was as soft as an exhale as it rose. “Who shall I allow to live?”
The spider took a step toward us and then another, its hand and foot-like extremities clicking on the marble floor. “I’ll eat the bearded one first, then pluck the female’s wings, and save the others for later.”
An idea dropped into the back of my head. It probably wouldn’t count as hurting the spider, but it was better than running around the palace trying not to become its meal. I raised a palm. “Wait!”
Drayce turned around and frowned. I shook my head, silently urging him to trust me.
“You are Neara,” the spider lengthened my name.
“I want my handkerchief.” I stepped forward and stood at Drayce’s side.
The spider reached into its cloak and pulled out the embroidered piece of cloth. “This?”
“Yes.” I snarled. “Give it back.”
The spider opened its pincers and swallowed the handkerchief in a single gulp. “Delicious. What a pity I won’t be able to discover if you’re as tasty as your handkerchief.”
I folded my arms across my chest, hoping the spider had enough faerie in it to fall to the effects of the tree sap.
“What is this?” The spider’s limbs trembled, then its massive body thudded to the floor in a cloud of dust.
For the next few heartbeats, nobody moved. The spider’s limbs lay splayed across the hallway, twitching once, twice, and then no more. Only its bony rib cage expanded and retracted with its rasping breaths.
Drayce created a path with his shadows that stretched several inches over the slumbering spider. He stepped over it first, and then we followed. A snore from the monster below us made me flinch as I stepped into the other end of the hallway, which led to a winding staircase of marble steps and silver railings.
As we descended the stairs, Drayce wrapped an arm around my shoulder and gave me a tight squeeze. “How did you know it would work?”
“The sap made Aengus sleepy, and even I felt a little drowsy at its smell.” My gaze dropped down to my leather skirt. “I guessed it would do the same for the spider, seeing as it’s some kind of faerie.”
“More likely a Fomorian mated with a spider and produced that,” muttered Aengus from behind.
Suppressing a shudder, I continued down the stairs. “Can you sense Erin’s location?”
Drayce nodded. “At the bottom.”
The next step loosened granules underfoot. I pointed my torch to the floor and found the marble becoming increasingly worn as we descended. Eventually, splinters of wood protruded from the marble, making me frown. I didn’t know anything about the construction of castles or palaces or buildings other than hovels, but I’d always assumed that marble floors and stairs would be solid stone.
As we reached the bottom of the stairs, the marble gave way to wood, and even the metal handrail warmed under my fingers, reminding me of the oak sprite’s cage. A splinter scratched my finger, making me flinch and snatch my hand away.
“Ouch!” I held my finger to the light but couldn’t find the slither of wood embedded in my skin.
My gaze darted to Drayce, who continued down the stairs, oblivious to the changes. Behind us, Aengus, Cathbad, and Rosalind followed, their faces hardened with grim determination.
“What’s happening to our surroundings?” I asked.
Drayce turned to me and frowned. “I expect with nobody to maintain the magic, the palace is starting to rot.”
“Like the oak sprite’s tree.” I glanced at the walls, which were becoming increasingly dark.
At the foot of the stairs, we stepped into a wide hallway of tarnished silver paintings, pale walls, and a green carpet. Ten feet to our left stood a set of double doors carved with twisted tree shapes. Rosalind flew overhead with her torch, illuminating dust-covered chandeliers and a ceiling caked in thick mildew.
Drayce knelt on the carpet and pointed at a barely visible string of black stretching across the hallway. “There’s my shadow.”
My breath quickened. Cathbad had been correct to suggest that the vines had parted for Erin. It’s the only way she could have entered the palace. “They must be close,” I whispered. “Everybody, ready yourselves for the worst.”
“Now would be a good time to take a grain of salt,” said Cathbad.
Tucking my torch under one arm, I reached into my pocket, pulled out the salt pouch Cathbad gave me and licked the tip of my little finger. Everyone around me did the same. One tiny grain of the white crystals stung my skin, but I placed the smallest amount on my tongue.
Pain burned through my sinuses, swelling my throat and making my eyes water. Drayce coughed, Aengus choked, and Rosalind spluttered. Only Cathbad remained unchanged.
“Right,” I wheezed through tears. “Are we ready to go?”
At everyone’s murmurs of agreement, we set off down the hallway. The green carpet felt lush and spongy underfoot, much like well-tended pasture.
I glanced over my shoulder at Rosalind. “Did the Summer Court have these floors when you last visited?”
She shook her head. “It was a long time ago, Your Majesty. I barely remember.”
“Of course.” Sometimes, it was hard to grasp that everyone around me had spent centuries imprisoned. Even Drayce, who was thirty and extremely young for a faerie, had spent most of his life under the leash of Melusina.
Drayce directed us around a corner and down to a hallway where the carpet’s tread stood six inches tall.
I grabbed his arm. “Wait.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked with a frown.
“Doesn’t this look like the bedroom in your dream?”
Drayce raised a shoulder. “It was probably modeled after the Summer Court Palace.” He threaded his fingers through mine. “Come on. Now isn’t the time to falter.”
“I’m not…” My words trailed off.
Maybe he was right, and I was being overly cautious. Maybe the thought of seeing Melusina—my mother—unsettled my nerves. There was so much I wanted to know but never got the chance to ask Father, and I knew she needed a new body and had no other options but me.
I forced a smile. “Let’s go.”
Despite the grass increasing to a foot tall at the end of the hallway, Drayce and I continued side-by-side. We were walking into a trap, but that was the plan, wasn’t it? To confront Melusina and the Fear Dorcha. To stop them from sending assassins after me and to free the Summer Court.
Regrets rained down on me like Ecne’s tears. I should have left Bresail with Father. Should have trusted him to find a way to fix me. Now, I was about to face my most dangerous enemy. My throat tightened, and my breaths turned shallow. Spots of light danced in my vision, and my head filled with clouds.
I stumbled onto my hands and knees, gasping for air.
“Neara,” Drayce dropped to his knees and pulled me up.
I shook my head from side to side and scratched at my constricting throat. My fingers caught something thread-like. I snapped it off, and the thoughts lifted from my mind. Raising my torch, I held the object to the light. It was as thin as a hair and curled around my fingertips.
Drayce pulled the tendril from my fingers and reduced it to dust. “What was that?”
“There’s something wrong with this place.” I pulled myself to my feet and glowered from the swaying grass to the faces of my companions. “Can’t you see?” I locked gazes with Cathbad, whose amber eyes shone gold in the glowing light.
I moved my gaze to Aengus, whose gold curls still drooped from the tree sap. When neither male replied, I turned to Rosalind hovering above them, staring down at me as though I’d lost control of my senses.
Drayce approached from behind and snaked an arm around my wais
t. “Neara, stay calm,” he murmured into my ear. “It will just take a minute.”
Something wrapped around my torch and pulled. I gripped tight, but slippery tendrils burrowed beneath my fingers and prised it free. I drew in a sharp breath between my teeth, watching my only source of illumination fly from beyond the vines in an arc of light that fell to the ground with a splash.
My breath stilled. Where did the water come from?
As I turned my head to meet quicksilver eyes, another arm wrapped around my middle. It was Drayce’s face, his high cheekbones, bow-shaped lips, and blue-black hair, but the hunger in those wicked, cold eyes belonged to someone else.
Someone who saw me as her property.
Someone who wanted to devour my body and wear it like armor.
Melusina.
Terror tore through my heart with its thorny tendrils. I struggled in her grip, but branches wrapped around me until I couldn’t move my limbs. When I twisted back to Aengus and the others, I found only a trio of trees crowding my other side.
“Hush, dear child,” Melusina crooned into my ear. “I will make this painless.”
“No,” I shrieked.
This had to be a dream, but when did I fall asleep? And how? Tendrils snaked beneath my armor and wrapped around my bare skin, making a slow, torturous descent up my limbs and toward my torso.
“Don’t do this,” I whispered, knowing my words would be futile.
Laughter filled my ears, along with the sound of heavy footsteps and heaving breaths. Darkness closed around my senses, warm and thick and smelling of rot. It wrapped around me like a cocoon of barbs that pressed into my leather armor, daring me to move and rip my skin to ribbons. I thrashed my arms, my legs, my neck but the thorny tendrils held me in place.
The vines squeezed tighter, forcing the air from my lungs and reminding me of Melusina’s snake tail. I couldn’t even twitch a hand toward my sword belt.
“Neara,” a whispered voice poured into my left ear. “You’re a child. A failure.”
Mate of the Fae King (Dark Faerie Court Book 2) Page 22
