Wicked Webs

by CoraLee June

  We knew the truth. They just wanted to save face.

  Judge Braxton then went on to describe in graphic detail how the council would ensure that we would stay dead. He described the beheading, the burning, the ocean’s depths that would consume our ashes.

  “Motley, I love you,” Crow said beside me as a hooded figure carrying an axe started ascending the stairs toward us.

  My breath stuttered in my throat and got caught on my panicked fangs. My only consolation was that Risk was safe.

  This was really it. After days and days of waiting, we were about to feel a blade at our necks. The wait was over. It felt surreal almost. But this was happening. I was facing it whether I was ready or not.

  I didn’t know what was worse—staying dead or regenerating inside a steel box that we’d never escape from. My entire body trembled.

  “Hey.” Crow’s soft voice halted my panic, and I turned to look at his steady violet eyes. “I love you so much, Little Spider,” he said, hooking his pinky finger around mine since that was as far as we were able to reach with the magical bindings around our wrists. “My birds won’t ever stop looking for you—either in this world or the afterlife. We’ll find you, okay?”

  I gave him a sad smile, wishing his reassurance held merit. I wanted to kiss his lips. Aside from the sadness in his gaze, he was calm. Crow was my sliver of peace. He was my support. My home. My eyes glazed over with tears. “Okay.”

  I turned to look at Tomb next, and his eyes were already on me. He didn’t offer words of love or reassurance, but that was because Tomb didn’t need words. He bled love through his adoring gaze, instilling promises in my soul with a deep, penetrating look. His face was pure stone, not letting any emotions slip for the crowd to see, but I felt his love. I felt his adoration.

  I realized in that moment how short our time had been. We didn’t have the eternity I craved, but it felt like I knew them better than anyone. Our relationship matured with damage, not with time. We grew together. We loved together. We suffered together. And now we’d die together.

  I claimed every second of our bond and felt thankful for it in the end.

  “Let the executions proceed,” Judge Braxton boomed while gesturing toward the hooded man holding an axe.

  Enforcers stood at our backs, and they pressed us down to our knees with brute strength. Tomb struggled against them, refusing to bow in submission. Crow cursed and kept his eyes on me as he shrugged them off and knelt on his own terms. I dropped with grace, landing on my knees while looking up at the sunlight, letting the bright rays fill my blue eyes. I wasn’t sure when I’d see the sun again, or if I ever would.

  The executioner walked up to us, and I looked at the hooded man. The axe he wielded looked big and imposing, and I kept wondering how my head would roll, how the splatters of blood would look against the clean blade. Would everyone laugh when we died? Would they cheer with triumph? Would Cheryl and Stiles be watching from afar? I saw my reflection in the shiny blade as blood pulsed in my ears.

  My spider stretched out suddenly, filling my belly with giddy anticipation. A gasp escaped my lips as a deep tether within me snapped into place. Relief, happiness, and shining light bloomed inside of me, and beautiful lace-like webs descend from my fingertips that fell in intricate designs on the ground. I guess my spider was welcoming death with open arms.

  The hooded man stood in front of me, his shadowed face hidden from view, but a sense of nostalgia and love overwhelmed me. The axe he wielded glittered in the sunlight, casting glares across my vision. He said two words I could barely hear over the cheering crowd.

  “So risky.”

  Shock shoved at my pulse. My mouth dropped open, and my eyes widened despite the glaring sun.

  And then, all hell broke loose.

  The stage burst into flames as he lifted the axe high over his head. But instead of the blade coming toward me, he turned at the last second and sliced behind me. I turned just as a rain of hot, sticky blood fell over the side of my face.

  A heavy, wet noise dropped beside me, and I looked down to see a head rolling to my left, landing at Crow’s thigh.

  Screams. So many screams as the crowd went fucking berserk.

  Enforcers attacked the stage, only to be blanketed in furious flames the moment they got to the hellfire that circled us. The hooded man swiped the bloodied blade of his axe across the enforcer’s chest behind Tomb. Elementals were trying to put the flames out with their powers as water doused the arena, but it wasn’t working. This fire wasn’t from topside. It was from the pits of hell. Ash singed my cheeks, and a smile broke out across my face.

  Tomb quickly stood up and headbutted the enforcer behind Crow, instantly cracking his skull and exposing brain matter through his concave head.

  “You assholes ready to get out of here?” the executioner asked. Wind whipped at his hood, revealing the sly smile of my mate but still concealing his identity from others.

  “Risk,” I said in crashing relief as Tomb and Crow hauled me to my feet.

  He grinned. “This is fun. Want to kill a few more of these assholes or get out of here?” he asked, looking around. “Damn, it’s like a feast of risk here!” He snapped his fingers, making the flames around us rise even higher and wider, killing more people and bringing more screams. It went up ten feet. Twenty. Fifty. We were in an impenetrable wall of flames. Power laced the air with thick smoke.

  I didn’t even care about his cocky words. Risk was here. He was safe and awake and he was fucking here.

  “You came back,” I said, a sob choking out of me as I stared at him. I was afraid to blink. I didn’t want this to be a hallucination that would go away.

  “Took you long enough, asshole,” Crow yelled.

  Risk laughed, showing off his stark white teeth. “I leave for a little bit, and you almost get our mate killed. We really need to talk about your escape skills,” he said before sending another flame toward a group of shielded enforcers that were getting Judge Braxton out of the arena. The boiling heat rolled off of them, but the scrawny judge still escaped through a side tunnel. “Damn. I really wanted to kill that fucker.”

  “Get us the fuck out of here, you crazy ass demon,” Tomb growled before wrapping his stone arms around my shoulders and pulling me closer to him.

  Crow and Risk bunched together near us as bullets flew past. The crowd was revolting, rushing out of the auditorium while enforcers were coming at us in droves.

  “Aw, but I thought they were bringing more enforcers. Five more minutes?” Risk asked with a teasing glint in his eye.

  A gust of wind nearly knocked me back, but Tomb’s grip kept me in place. “I swear to gods, if you don’t get us out of here, I’ll send you back to hell,” my gargoyle yelled at him.

  Risk breathed in a slow inhale, as if feasting on the risk in the air one last time before leaning forward to kiss me on the cheek and whisper in my ear, “Let’s go home, Wicked Love.”

  “Finally,” Crow gritted before sending a few of his birds at an elemental that managed to break through the flames. The birds immediately pecked at his eyes, bloody splatters and screams making me look away from the gruesome sight.

  “Hold on,” Risk told us as I clasped my mates’ hands. I felt a charge in the air, and then it felt like we were sucked through a thin straw, yanking us out of this reality and into the next.

  I didn’t even mind the painful jarring of traveling through time to get to the Between.

  I had my mates. We were okay.

  We were okay.

  I smiled.

  Chapter 36

  He built me a house.

  It was a beautiful place that somehow seemed to combine all of our personalities into one beautiful home. It stood tall with sharp angles on the roof, mimicking a gothic cathedral, and a wraparound porch with recliners surrounded it. Large, modern windows filled every wall, letting the white light of the Between stream inside. The backyard was a mass of bird houses and trees as far as the eye could se
e.

  “Look at this kitchen!” Crow yelled while opening and closing cabinets, going through it like a kid looking over presents on Christmas morning. I noted that it was stocked with every food imaginable, and my malphas demon was drooling at the sight. The months of prison food and Spector cafeteria lunches had left him salivating for a home cooked meal.

  Risk looked on with pride. “How?” I asked him as he wrapped me in a hug and kissed the top of my head. He smelled like smoke and felt like safety.

  “I woke up in hell about three weeks ago. Envy was there and told me what was happening. Once I was able to go topside again, I found Stiles, and he helped me slip in as the executioner. It was a little too easy for my tastes,” he said with a tinge of disappointment. “You’d think an arena full of those pretentious assholes would fight a bit harder. I wanted to make them suffer more.”

  I shook my head with a smile, still shocked at everything that had just happened. Tomb was silent, sitting at the wood-grained kitchen table and staring at the ground in stoic contemplation. “Are we really safe? Is this real?” he rumbled while rubbing his thighs. My heart sank at his disbelief. Tomb had suffered more than the rest of us. He lived in captivity for so long that I wasn’t sure he could comprehend his freedom yet.

  I crouched down to look him in the eye, using my fingers to lift his chin and meet my stare. “We’re free, Tomb. No one will hurt you ever again. No one will hurt me, ever again,” I promised him.

  His eyes shone with relieved, unshed tears, but he gave me a single nod.

  Risk moved to stand at my back. “We will have to stay here for a while. At least until Judge Braxton is taken care of. We just need to stay low, let some time pass until people forget Spector and the hybrids.”

  “You’ll stay with us, though, right? What about your daughter, can you bring her here?” I asked while looking over my shoulder at him. I didn’t like the idea of Ms. Cainson raising Risk’s daughter. She was cold and heartless. “I still don’t know how you did all this.”

  Risk sighed and held his hand out to me. I felt uncertainty in his grip, but I followed him as he led us into our large blue and gray living room and sat on the plush suede couch.

  “Once I was in hell, my healing sped up, and I was able to come back.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. He had to be even more powerful than I realized. “And we’ll be safe here?”

  Risk shook his head, but I could tell he was struggling with words to say. “Envy helped—he owed me a favor. I once saved his mate, and he’s been pissy ever since that I could do what he couldn’t,” he began with a sigh. “His damn ego wanted to even the playing field, so he offered to take the fall for saving you. As we speak, he’s probably causing chaos at the stadium, taking credit for my risk,” my demon huffed under his breath as he shook his head.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “We decided it’s best if they think you’re in hell. Only very powerful demons can ascend topside, so Envy is telling them that he banished you there. I needed to appear innocent so that I can walk topside. Right now, everyone thinks I’m off healing in hell still. When the time is right, I’m going to go back and help my daughter. She can’t come here,” Risk said with a frown.

  My heart squeezed. “Why not?” I asked. I didn’t want him to doubt my involvement or dedication. “Risk, I’m in this. I’m all in,” I affirmed. “I know we haven’t had the talk, but your daughter is a part of you. I’d love her like my own, you know that, right? Her mother doesn’t deserve her,” I said, my voice trembling. I was young and wildly unprepared to raise a child, but she looked like Risk. She had his smile, his bright eyes. Aunt Marie taught me that motherhood wasn’t always determined by who birthed the child, but by who loved them. And I would love her unconditionally.

  “We could make her a nursery!” Crow interjected. “Let’s paint birds on the wall. We’d need a rocker too. And a crib. What else do babies need?” he mused.

  “I’ll protect her like my own,” Tomb said while putting his fist to his chest in a solemn promise.

  I was so proud of my mates in that moment. We were all in this. Together.

  Risk smiled but shook his head. “I would be proud to share my daughter with all of you, but Devicka is special. She has a lot of powers within her. I can sense it. They haven’t fully awakened yet, but I feel its allure.” His gaze went to me, and he chewed on his next words. “She’s a Void, Motley.”

  My mouth dropped open in shock. I’d studied Voids in school, but only briefly. I couldn’t imagine that perfect baby living such a hard life. Voids were ostracized and feared. They always battled their gift, often times being wholly consumed by it. “The ritual,” I said, as the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place. I remembered Ms. Cainson seeming to absorb all the power in the room during the exorcism. That hadn’t been her, it was Risk’s daughter.

  Risk nodded. “She can’t come here because she would absorb the Between. This place is just a giant orb of power,” he commented while rubbing his jaw. “That reminds me…” He dug into his pocket and pulled out the amulet that Envy had found after the exorcism. “Envy gave me this. Said he was wounded that you lost his gift.”

  I smiled with a roll of my eyes. “It wasn’t like the enforcers were going to let me wear magical jewelry to my own execution.”

  Risk’s jaw tensed at that last word, but he nodded. “It’s out of juice now, but I’m going to try to get it to work again. Granted, I’m not gifted with this particular magic like Collector was, but I’m sure I can figure it out.”

  “Why?” I asked curiously.

  Risk pocketed the amulet again. “Right now, Devicka has to stay with her mother. We can’t go back, since everyone still wants the hybrids dead, and my daughter can’t come here, since the Between would be destroyed. As much as it kills me to be separated, it’s the only way to keep us safe. But councilwoman Cainson won’t hurt our daughter. She’s under a microscope right now. And later, when it becomes public that I’m back from hell, I’ll pay her a visit,” he said with a dark look on his face. “Eventually, when Devicka’s power forms, she’ll need something to help her keep the Void at bay.”

  Realization lit up my face. “The amulet.”

  Risk nodded. “Exactly.”

  We looked at each other, and I recognized his conflict. He’d either have to be here in the Between with us, or topside watching over his daughter.

  “I’m sorry, Risk,” I said somberly before stepping into his chest and giving him a hug. My heart broke for him. I knew he loved his child. Being apart from her would be difficult, and watching that evil woman care for her would make it that much worse.

  “I’ll have to do what I can. I’ll be here with you and go back regularly to watch over her,” Risk said while pulling away. I watched my cocky demon run his hand down his face in worry.

  Crow snapped his fingers. “I’ll send Russell to watch her too. He has a direct link to me, and he’s good at being incognito. If anything happens, we’ll be the first to know.”

  “We’ll make it work. And once the council is purged, we’ll go back to her. I promise,” Tomb added with a firm look on his face.

  Once again, I appreciated the unity my mates were showing. Even so, I had doubts that we would ever go back to the real world. The ringing of the angry crowd was still fresh in my ears. We were hated and feared, a deadly combination that might forever make the Between our home. In that way, I could commiserate with how Devicka’s life would be as a Void. My short time in the public as a demon hybrid hadn’t been welcoming to say the least. I could only hope that her reception would be much better.

  But I knew that even if we never met Devicka, we would know her. We would love her. She’d have an unseen family, watching her back and supporting her every step of the way.

  Time passed differently in the Between.

  We took time to mourn and cope, settling into our new home with gratitude and slow acceptance. Risk split time between here and topside, updati
ng us on Devicka and the council. Envy’s plan had worked. Everyone blamed him for banishing us to hell without bloodshed, but the public was thankful that we were gone.

  Occasionally, Risk would bring letters from Cheryl and Stiles. We’d become pen pals of sorts, updating each other on our lives. I wished they could visit, but the Between was fickle. Risk could only maintain it for the four of us due to our mating bond. One letter even contained a photo of them getting married on a secluded beach. I guess Stiles never got his ring back.

  Years topside went by in a matter of months here. Risk had made time in the Between move faster than the rest of the world. My mates and I cocooned ourselves in waiting anticipation while the supernatural community forgot all about Spector and the hybrids.

  We loved fiercely. We danced in our seclusion, creating entire worlds in the Between while watching over our daughter from afar. I considered her mine. My spider claimed her without question. We sent gifts with Risk, and we hung her photos on the wall. We helped Risk pick out her first bike and then her first motorcycle. She grew up so fast. Every day, she hit a new milestone. Every second, she grew up. Every breath, I craved to have our family together topside.

  Being in the Between was an awesome seclusion at first, but as more time passed, I missed being in the real world. I wanted to see everyone. Walk to a store. See a movie. Be around people and visit my old childhood home. I wanted to meet Devicka and see Stiles. Hell, I even missed hearing Cheryl’s voice.

  Risk didn’t tell Devicka about us. He said it was safer for her if she didn’t know. Judge Braxton was still in charge, ruling the world with his power hungry and prejudice fist. But I knew her despite not being able to meet her. I knew her affinity for risk. I knew her best friend, Reed. I knew that she had a fierce heart and fiery nature.