We turned south according to Beezle’s directions and entered a hallway that was filled with spun silk. The bodies of dead faeries hung in the webbing.
“There had better not be any more spiders down here,” I said. “Because I just can’t take another one.”
It was difficult to get through the hall without disturbing the webs. We had to stop and untangle from the sticky stuff more than once. I was hyperventilating by the time we got to the end—without encountering any more spiders, thank goodness.
There was a wide set of stone steps at the end of the hall and we followed them up. At the top of the stairs was another long hallway. Both sides had large arched window openings cut out. The left side windows were covered in multicolored glass and looked out over the forest that bordered Amarantha’s castle. The right side windows were free of glass. I stepped forward to peek around the arch, and my heart stopped.
The windows looked over a large, long room that might have been a dining hall once. It was still a dining hall—of a different sort.
The room seethed with spiders of all sizes. They fed on faeries and charcarion demons—obviously Amarantha was willing to use whomever she had on hand to keep her pets satisfied. Everywhere I looked there were clutches of eggs hanging in the webs.
“An average-sized spider will lay about a hundred eggs in one of those sacs,” Beezle said quietly.
“Those aren’t average-sized spiders,” I replied. “There are probably thousands of them in there.”
“What shall we do?” Gabriel asked. “We cannot leave them here to breed further. If Amarantha releases these upon a large population of humans…”
“They could wipe out half a city in a day,” I said. “Normal people aren’t prepared to deal with monsters like this.”
“Are you going to set everything on fire again?” Beezle asked.
I looked at Gabriel. “Probably. It’s the most effective way to take out a bunch of them at once. But if I do that, we have to make sure that Wade and J.B. and Samiel are clear of the building first. And then we have to make sure that the spiders can’t escape from this room.”
“Well, I don’t think they can open doors,” Beezle said.
“But they can break them down if they’re in a room filled with smoke and flame,” I replied. “And the smaller spiders can easily escape up the walls and out these windows. Every creature has a self-preservation instinct.”
“I know. Mine is kicking in right now,” Beezle said.
“Let us find the others, then return for this,” Gabriel said. “We do not want to attract the creatures’ attention.”
I crouched to the ground and duckwalked below the bottom sill of the arches until we reached the end. I was terrified the whole time that I’d see the hairy leg of a spider creeping through a window, but we managed to make it through safely without being attacked.
We climbed another set of steps, came to another hallway.
“They all look the same,” I said desperately.
“We’re heading in the right direction,” Beezle insisted.
“But are we choosing the correct passages?” Gabriel asked. “One wrong turning and we will miss them.”
Then we heard it—the clatter of footsteps, angry cries, and the howl of a wolf.
“This way,” I said, turning to the right and running down the hall to another junction.
I was knocked from my feet by a large furred body, and when I stopped seeing stars I looked up to see a panting black-and-gray wolf standing on my chest. He licked my face.
“Wade,” I said, putting my arms around his neck. “Wade, thank goodness.”
J.B. and Samiel pounded up behind him.
“No time for happy reunions,” J.B. panted. “There are about a hundred demons behind us.”
“And we’re running for our lives again,” Beezle said grumpily.
Wade leapt off me, and Gabriel helped me to my feet.
“We don’t have time to fight off all those demons,” I said. “We still have to destroy all those spiders.”
Wade whined, nudging my leg.
“I know—walk and talk,” I said, and we ran into the hallway. “J.B., do you think we could collapse the passageway behind us?”
“This castle is bound by more than brick and mortar. There’s magic in every crevice. You’d never be able to knock even a part of it down,” J.B. said. “Besides, it wouldn’t really help. There are multiple ways in and out of every part of the castle. If you collapse the passage, they’ll just go through the walls.”
“Right, too easy,” I grumbled. I could hear the demons shrieking behind us now, getting closer.
We pounded down the steps, Wade leaping ahead of us, and stopped at the bottom.
“Why are we stopping?” Beezle asked, alarmed.
“If we run across that passageway, we’ll attract the spiders,” I said.
“If we stand here, a whole bunch of demons are going to fall on our heads,” Beezle said.
Everyone looked at me.
“Why do I have to be the one who decides?” I muttered.
“Because you’re our leader, Morningstar help us,” Beezle said. “So lead.”
“Okay, everyone get low and get through the hall as quietly as you can. I’ll hold the demons off here until you’re through.”
“No,” Gabriel said.
“Look,” I pleaded. “Just trust me. I need the rest of you to be safely out of the castle. I’ll come back another time for the spiders.”
“No,” he repeated.
“We don’t have time to argue about it,” I said. “All of you, go.”
Wade, Samiel and J.B. carefully made their way through the hall. I turned to face the stairs and readied my magic. Gabriel stepped up beside me.
“I will not leave you,” he said. “And you cannot make me go.”
“I’ve never been able to make you do anything,” I said.
“Nor I you,” he replied. “So we are even.”
“Oh, my gosh, the two of you are just the cutest,” Beezle said. “Is there some reason why I couldn’t go with Samiel and get away from the lovefest?”
I shoved Beezle back inside my jacket. “Why can we not do anything without a running commentary?”
Beezle popped his head out again, looking disgruntled, but he didn’t say anything for a change.
The demons were getting closer. I could hear them thundering in the hall above us. My heart beat faster.
“You know, all this noise is bound to attract the spiders anyway,” Beezle said.
“I know,” I replied. “I want the others to get out of the castle.”
Beezle snorted. “And you think they’re going to leave without you?”
“Well, I told them to…” I said, turning to check, my voice fading.
J.B. and Samiel and Wade had gotten through the hallway without the spiders noticing them, but they all stood expectantly at the other end, beckoning to us.
“What is the point of being the leader if no one will listen to you?” I asked.
I didn’t know if Gabriel or Beezle answered, because that was when the demons poured down the steps.
There were a hell of a lot more than fifty, and I was sure that Samiel and J.B. had taken plenty out already while freeing Wade. Gabriel and I fired at them with everything we had. Demons fell screaming, acidic blood splattering on the steps and on us, burning our faces and hands. I was already covered in spider goop so I was sure I looked just delightful.
J.B. cried out behind us, and when I glanced back I saw that several of the smaller spiders were crawling through the arches behind us. J.B. and Samiel shot spells at the spiders while Wade tore several of them apart with his teeth and claws. I did not want to think about how completely gross it was to have a spider in your mouth.
“Of course,” I muttered, throwing magic at the demons. I could feel my temper rising, and the hall was lighting up. Several of the demons stopped where they stood and covered their eyes, which made it
a lot easier to kill them. “Of course. Nothing can ever be easy. I can’t just rescue Wade and get out of here, no. There have to be giant…freaking…spiders…again!”
There was a sudden buildup of magical pressure, something I hadn’t felt for a long time—not since I’d fought Ramuell in the cave in the Forbidden Lands.
“Get clear,” I said, gasping for air.
“I will not…” Gabriel began.
“GET CLEAR!” I shouted, thrusting Beezle at him.
Something in my face or my voice convinced him, because he took Beezle and ran down the hallway. I didn’t stop to check if he gathered everyone else—I knew that he would.
The demons stood frozen on the stairs as light and magic burst from me like a star exploding. I let the power flow through me without fighting it, but it still hurt. It hurt to breathe; it hurt to be a conduit for something not meant to be contained inside a mortal body.
All of the demons disappeared as the light touched them, just fell to ash like a nuclear blast had hit them. Any spiders that were within the reach of the light were destroyed, too. The power inside me cut off abruptly, and I felt drained. I knew I would not be able to use my magic for a while, but hopefully I wouldn’t need to. Maybe Amarantha’s castle was out of tricks.
There was a sudden rumbling, and chunks of stone fell out of the ceiling.
“Oh, damn,” I said, turning to run to the others, but it was already too late.
The passageway collapsed in front of me, rock raining down. I backed up, coughing, covering my mouth with my sleeve.
Now everyone was on the other side, and I had no idea how to get out. And there was far too much stone between us to communicate.
All I could hope for was that they would try to exit the castle and meet me by the portal.
“Which is what I wanted in the first place,” I muttered.
The only passage left to me was going up, so I climbed the steps, kicking piles of demon ash aside as I went. The building rumbled ominously and the stairs shifted beneath my feet. I scrabbled at the wall so that I wouldn’t fall down the stairs and get a concussion on top of everything else.
“Are you kidding? I thought J.B. said that you were bound by magic and all that,” I said to the wall. Then I rolled my eyes. “I am losing my mind. It’s all those spiders. That would put anybody over the edge. Nobody should ever have to see one giant spider, much less dozens of them over and over.”
It didn’t seem smart to continue going up when the castle might fall down at any moment, but I needed to find a window to the outside. I could fly out and get around to the front of the castle and find the others.
I sped up the steps and entered yet another hallway filled with the bodies of demons. The passage was lined with more multicolored windows.
I covered my hand as best I could with the sleeve of my coat and used the pommel of the sword to break the glass. Despite my precautions I ended up getting little cuts all over my face and hands from glass shards. I squeezed though the hole I’d broken—must lose thirty pounds—and emerged into the dark night.
The moon hung low over the trees. I had no idea how much time might have passed while we were inside the castle. I flew around the castle to the front door, where I hoped I’d see the others waiting for me. There was nothing except the abandoned cars and bodies that had been there when we arrived, which meant that I had to go back inside the castle to find them.
“We need some kind of magical IM-ing,” I said. I could probably text Gabriel, except that if he was fighting for his life, he doubtless would not be checking his cell phone.
The open door yawned before me, the empty foyer black and menacing. The last thing I wanted to do was go back inside, but I would never leave my husband and my friends behind. I pulled the sword from its sheath and held it before me like a talisman.
I crossed the threshold, my boots unnaturally loud in the silence. Far away inside the castle I heard the howl of a wolf.
I ran across the entryway, trying to figure out what direction the noise was coming from. And that was when I was hit from behind.
A heavy body crashed into me, sent me face-first to the ground. Fangs pierced the back of my neck and I screamed in pain. I elbowed Violet with all the strength I could muster—not much, considering how tired I was, but it was enough to make her weight shift.
I wriggled out from beneath her and rolled onto my back as she dove at me again. I slashed out with the sword and felt the blade slice through bone. Violet screeched and fell away from me, clutching her left arm with a clawed hand. The arm hung by a few ragged strands of muscle. She glared at me in hatred.
I struggled to my feet, dizzy and bleary-eyed.
“Poison,” I gasped.
Someone trilled a laugh to my left, and I swung the sword awkwardly in the direction of this new threat.
“Yes, of course there’s poison in her fangs,” Amarantha purred. “And there is no thrall here to heal you.”
I wiped dripping sweat out of my eyes. Amarantha was just a blurry shadow in the hall. I could feel my heartstone throbbing in my chest as the poison careened through my bloodstream.
Violet lunged for me again and I swung the sword at her, both of my sweaty hands gripping the hilt so that I wouldn’t lose it. She danced backward away from the blade. I kept my eyes on her. Violet seemed more inclined to do me physical harm than Amarantha. The Queen liked to keep her hands clean.
“What will you do now, Lucifer’s child?” Amarantha taunted. “The poison will kill you long before your friends get here—if they get here. I’ve left a few obstacles in their way.”
“You really are a gigantic bitch, aren’t you?” I said. My tongue felt thick and heavy in my mouth. “That’s your son up there. Don’t you care if he lives or dies?”
Amarantha was silent for a moment. I didn’t want to steal a glance at her since all of my attention needed to be on Violet.
“Once, I would have cared,” Amarantha said finally. “But he chose his loyalty long ago.”
“Because he fulfilled his duty?” I asked. This was an argument I’d had with Azazel several times. “Because he chose not to abandon the dead to dance at your heel?”
“Yes,” she said. “He is no son of mine.”
“Well, if that’s the way you feel about it,” I said, and I turned and threw the sword at her.
She didn’t expect it, and neither did Violet. There was a moment when time seemed to slow down. The blade flew through the air and passed through her chest, throwing her backward to the floor. I saw blood pooling beneath her.
Violet howled and ran at me. I had no magic, no sword, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to stand. So I didn’t. I threw myself to one side and cleverly dodged her attack by falling to the ground. Then I kicked out with both legs as hard as I could, aiming for her knee. I’m not as strong as Samiel, but I am significantly stronger than the average person. There was a satisfying crack and she tumbled forward.
I scrambled backward just enough so that she couldn’t grab at me, but Violet was no longer interested in fighting. She was dragging herself on her one good arm and leg to her Queen’s side.
The snake on my palm wriggled in warning. The sword was still embedded in Amarantha’s body. Violet wasn’t trying to hear the Queen’s last words—she was trying to get the sword so she could chop my head off with it.
“Damn it all,” I said, trying to stand and falling again as my head swam.
I army-crawled toward Amarantha’s body as fast as I could, but I wasn’t going to make it.
Violet used one of the columns to pull up to her feet and yanked the sword from Amarantha’s body. She stood unsteadily on the dislocated knee, but her expression was full of triumph and malice. I heard the last rattle of breath from the Queen, and the misty ectoplasmic form of her soul emerged. The soul looked as Amarantha used to, a vision of otherworldly beauty, not like the twisted demonic body Lucifer had given her.
“Kill her,” Amarantha said.
I pushed to my knees as Violet ran toward me with the sword raised. As she did, the castle began to tremble alarmingly, as if an earthquake had struck. Pieces of the ceiling rained to the ground. The magical spell that bound the castle together must have broken completely with Amarantha’s death.
I heard voices coming closer, J.B. and Gabriel, and Wade’s barking. Violet tumbled to the ground as the castle shook, the sword flying free of her hand. I crawled toward it, sickness rising in my throat, my body on fire. The poison was going to kill me before Violet had a chance.
My fingers closed around the sword. Stars filled my eyes and I rolled onto my back, coughing blood. The poison was in my lungs. It was burning me alive.
Violet closed her good hand around my wrist, tried to wrench the sword from me. We must have looked pathetic, two mauled and half-dead creatures wrestling over a sword as the building came down around our ears.
“Kill her!” Amarantha’s soul screamed.
“Shut…up,” I slurred. “I killed you so I wouldn’t have to listen to you anymore.”
Violet slashed at my face with her claws and my cheek split open. I punched her where Samiel had broken her jaw and she rolled away from me, thrashing in pain. A chunk of the ceiling landed on my stomach and all the breath whooshed out of my body.
I rolled over, knocking the rock to the floor, and tried to fly since I couldn’t walk. But I was too tired to hold myself up and I managed to flutter only a few feet before collapsing again. I didn’t know where Violet was.
The floor cracked underneath me. I could barely see now, between the salt burning my eyes and the pain that turned them black. Even the rumbling of the castle seemed a distant thing.
“There, there, you idiot!”
Beezle. That was Beezle.
Hands underneath me, a cold wet nose pressed against my face, my body lifted and slung over a broad shoulder. I smelled apple pie baking, and heard Gabriel murmuring.
Then I felt cold air on my face, and went out.
14
I WOKE IN THE COURTYARD, SORE ALL OVER, GABRIEL’S lips on mine. I opened my eyes and felt everything whole again, although angelic healing doesn’t do anything for dirt and encrusted blood and spider goop all over you.
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