“What is it?” Darius murmured.
I hushed him softly, brow furrowed as I cranked up my sensitized hearing, only to jump when I heard the same scuttling to my left—coming from one of the black holes we were all trying to avoid. The hairs on the back of my neck shot up; no one else had made a sound. More scuttling, and this time Catriona’s head whipped to the right in time with mine, her eyes wide and the light from her palm intensifying. Concentrating on the sound itself, I tried to place it, to give it a name. Not a clomping of boots on the stone. Not the slap of bare feet either. Something… less human.
“What are you—”
“Twelve o’clock!” Quell shouted from the back. My heart leaped into my throat as I cranked my head back—and swallowed a scream. There, dangling over the group, was the biggest fucking spider I had ever seen in my life. Like. Larger than an army tank, its eight legs like eight fuzzy sapling tree trunks.
“Hands up!” I cried, hoping that a blast of fae light might send the creature running. All the fae present turned as one, and the creature instantly recoiled, its plethora of eyes reflecting the light back at us.
“Arachne,” Catriona said, voice wobbling a bit. “Descendants of the original… They said Athena turned a weaver into a spider for her pride—”
“Another time, Catriona,” I told her sharply, then raised my voice to address the militia. “If it doesn’t retreat, someone give it a reason to.”
“Got it!” one of our witches acknowledged from somewhere in the middle. A few elves raised their loaded bows. The sight of that mammoth, hairy thing made my skin crawl, but I couldn’t let the others see. Darius stood between Catriona and I, hands in fists, eyes on the enemy—unflinching and strong. That was what I had to embody too.
Just as I was about to issue the order—that spider wasn’t crawling back up its web fast enough for my taste—something skittered behind me. Slowly, I turned back—and found another set of eight round, black eyes peering up at me, this time as an arachne climbed out of a nearby hole. A jet of green light shot out of my hand: a hex that would cut a target clear in half when used properly. The spider uttered a yowl when the curse hit, but its cry summoned more of its brethren to the surface.
A hell of a lot more. And it was at that moment I realized: these weren’t frail old cobwebs sticking to our feet and slowing us down. They were spider webs.
We’d walked right into a nest.
“Kaye!” Darius’s hands slammed down on my shoulders as the spider lunged out of the hole, and he dragged me out of the creature’s reach just in time for me to feel the feathery soft caress of a hairy leg shoot by my face. Catriona toppled back into Quinn to avoid the creature, then blasted it with a pulse of white magic that sent it flying back from where it came. The sound it made—like nails screeching across a chalkboard—sent a shiver down my spine, the hairs on the back of my neck permanently up.
“Move forward!” I bellowed, taking off in a sprint across the hall, doing my best to avoid any potholes that opened into a black, spider-laden abyss below. While I’d expected the militia to rush after me, they just couldn’t, not with at least a hundred arachnes of varying sizes surging out of every shadowy nook and cranny. All of them moving together sounded like one of those rustic rain sticks—like beads tumbling against one another as they fell from side to side, mirroring raindrops. Only these weren’t raindrops. It was spider legs on webs and clacking pincers dripping with enough liquid to sedate an elephant. Within seconds the catacomb was filled with curses, hexes, spells, and arrows, the screams of frightened supernaturals bouncing off the walls.
“Stay together and get to the other side!” Galen screeched from the back—just before the enormous spider hanging over us nailed him with a spurt of webbing.
“Galen!” There were too many people between us for me to help, and I had spiders of my own to deal with, but I breathed easier—sort of—when Quell sprouted wings and sliced a silver blade through the webbing, freeing Galen before zooming up to combat the dangling arachnes head on.
Catriona and I soon found ourselves back to back, both of us alternating between shooting oncoming spiders, squealing with disgust whenever one got too close, and inching toward the other side of the hall. There were so many of them—too many, at least three for every supernatural here.
“Do you want me to shift?” Quinn shouted over the chaos. A neon yellow light—hex, most likely—whizzed by his ear courtesy of a nearby witch, who nailed a rearing spider in the belly. The creature folded in on itself and fell back into the webbing, twitching, bright white saliva foaming around its pincers.
“The cave’s not big enough,” I told him with a shake of my head.
“We risk hitting friend and foe with our flames in here,” Darius added with a grunt, wrestling a smaller arachne onto its back, snapping a few legs in the process, before punting it into one of the gaping black holes. “Do not shift, no matter what your dragon says.”
“Brother, I—”
“Protect Catriona,” I ordered, knowing that would distract him. My best friend scoffed behind me.
“More like I’ll protect him,” she said a little snippily, blinding a spider with an illumination strobe that hurt even my eyes.
After using just about every curse in my arsenal, I shifted my focus away from repelling spiders—as many had fallen away, wounded—to getting the militia to the other side. My inner voice had been pushing that strategy since the arachnes first surfaced. She’d been getting louder the longer I ignored her.
“You start guiding them through,” I hastily told Darius, trying not to shoot a glare up at my forehead—like that would do anything to silence the voice in my head. At least she sounded calm in there. Calmer than I felt, anyway. “Catriona and I will stay back and make sure everybody makes it.” When he had that look, like he was about to argue, my eyes narrowed. “Darius, just do it!”
I inhaled sharply at the fierce kiss he stole before obeying, my body in overdrive—with fear, panic, desire. It wasn’t sure which emotion to hone in on, but having Darius lead the others across the cave as best he could, certainly helped.
“Move!” I barked, gesturing for the battling supernaturals to follow my dragon. “We’ll cover you!”
Chapter Ten
No one had to be told twice. As soon as they were given clearance to run, most of my supernaturals hightailed it across the hall, whether they could see or not, many of them moving at warped speeds. Most continued to fling hexes around the catacomb, while Catriona and I fought to hold back the onslaught of new, less damaged arachnes crawling out of their hidey-hole’s.
A heads-up from the Brisbane clan that their mountain range had a giant spider problem would have been nice. I gritted my teeth, blasting one with a disorienting curse that sent it scrambling in the opposite direction. Just as Galen and Quell rushed by, with Quell in the air slicing at whatever was within reach of his daggers, a petrified scream sounded from behind me. I whirled around, heart slamming into my ribcage, and spotted Erik, a young fae who looked more wood sprite than fae, being dragged into one of the black holes, his body being steadily encased in webbing.
“Hang on!” I shouted. Then, without thinking, I leaped off our secure path, ignoring Catriona’s protests, and bounced across the webbing on my tip-toes, trying not to stand in one place for too long, lest I get permanently stuck. A shadow raced by overhead as Quell zoomed toward the offending spider, and the beast screeched, that same nails-on-chalkboard sound, when one of the fae’s silver blades embedded in its side. A few quick blasts of white magic from me broke the webbing around Erik, and I all but dragged him away from the edge of that black hole—trying not to dwell on the fact that more skittering, shuffling shapes were crawling toward me.
“Give me his hand,” Quell ordered, and I pushed the wounded fae up to him, noting that the spider had sunk its fangs into him at some point. He’d be unconscious soon—but so would I if I didn’t get the hell out of there. With a burst of fae speed, I
made it back to the walkway and out of the deep webs in good time. Catriona stood waiting for me, all by herself, blasting spiders off left, right, and center. Her face screwed up in concentration, one that didn’t lift even when I grabbed her arm and ran, one palm illuminated to guide the way.
“Run!”
“I’m trying!” she shouted back.
As we neared the exit, which seemed to have a light somewhere nearby, the spiders swarmed us, closing in on all sides—and they would have taken us too, had it not been for Catriona’s quick thinking. My foot snagged on some webbing as we crossed from catacomb to claustrophobic tunnel, sending me tumbling and dragging Catriona down after me. However, before we’d even hit the ground, Catriona sealed the opening with a very basic protection ward, her hands trembling. Spiders slammed into the shimmering surface—and bounced off, screeching their dismay, poison foaming down their fangs, and beady black eyes staring us down hungrily.
“Oh, my god,” I whispered, letting my head fall back onto the ground. Adrenaline forced my body to shake, my head filled with fog, my inner voice finally quiet, as Catriona flopped down beside me.
“Tell me about it,” she said, groaning. While I could hear the fading voices of our militia in the distance, for the moment, we were alone. I needed the quiet, the privacy, to recover. However, my peace was cut short by the sound of thundering footsteps clomping toward us, and as I sat up, I spied Darius and Quinn rounding the gentle curve of the tunnel, torches in hand.
“Catriona!” Quinn was on her in a second, hastily helping her to her feet. Darius, meanwhile, had stopped some five feet from me, relief washing over his features as I stood.
“You okay?” he asked, voice huskier, darker—strained, almost. “I hate that you made me leave you in there.”
I caught it then, the barely suppressed rage mingled with fear. It made my eyes water.
“I’m fine,” I told him, quickly brushing the tears away. “Thanks to Catriona, anyway. We’re all good.”
We stared at one another for a moment, until Darius closed the distance between us in a few hard steps and dragged me into his arms. I closed my eyes, squeezing tightly, allowing the feelings of a near-death experience—another to add to my collection, I supposed—to wash over me while no one else could see.
“Thanks for coming back for me,” I murmured against his neck. I felt him swallow hard, his hand in my hair; the other arm wrapped so tightly around my waist that breathing became a chore.
“Always, Kaye. When are you going to get it through your head?” He let out a tense chuckle, and I realized at that moment that he was shaking too. “I’ll always come back for you.”
“Are we sure this place isn’t in a different realm?” I gave the plump, purple, though ultimately unidentifiable, fruit in my hand an experimental squeeze. “I mean… Are we sure we’re even on Earth anymore?”
“The Brisbane clan isn’t afraid to use magic to enhance their lives,” Darius said as he slowly paced back and forth between two trees out of dozens where these delicious purple fruits grew. We’d marked them safe about an hour ago, when we stumbled out of the seemingly endless underground mountain tunnels into a lush valley. So far, no snakes waited to damn us in this garden of Eden, but the day wasn’t over yet. Rich, green grass stretched as far as the eye could see in a valley between two looming mountains. Overhead, the early evening summer sun cast a warm orange glow across the oasis. Not a spider in sight—but orchards of fruit-bearing trees, fields of sunflowers, and pools of clear blue water lay before us instead.
After all the time we’d spent inside the mountain, it had taken a lot of restraint not to dive headfirst into paradise. Our tangle with the spiders, however, had left all of us on edge, and we hunkered down near the small doorway along the mountain’s face. We were definitely above sea-level, so I couldn’t quite call it the mountain’s base. There we tended to our wounded, replenished our fluids, and took time to reassess the situation. While we could see the sky overhead, there wasn’t a dragon in sight, and we couldn’t be sure if they’d surpassed us by now or not.
But if Darius’s estimation was correct, and it took under two hours to reach the Brisbane clan stronghold by air, we were way behind.
The day wasn’t over yet, however. We still had a chance to make up for lost time—as long as there wasn’t a swarm of giant, killer bees waiting in the sunflower fields.
“Father says the clan employs a few supernaturals as a means to build up their defenses,” Quinn added. He and Catriona sat beneath the shade of a tree, one that reminded me of cherry trees in full bloom, while the rest of the militia sat scattered around us, recovering. “This is supposed to be their summer retreat. It wouldn’t surprise me, if they used magic to spruce the place up a bit. Mountain landscape loses its charm after a while.”
“Well, you guys would know mountain living,” I said, setting the fruit aside in favor of a few nibbles of fae bread from my pack. As they discussed the possibilities of this being magically-grown beauty, I let my gaze wander through the orchard, up to the leaves swaying in a gentle breeze. The movement was hypnotic, and with how exhausted my whole body felt, it would have been easy to lie back and sleep until next Sunday.
No sleeping. Not here.
I rolled onto my side and ignored the whispers in my head. If I didn’t know I was a shifter I would think I was mentally disturbed. Fae didn’t hear voices, even if it was just the one.
Before I could sink too far into my thoughts, a figure caught my attention. A face, poking out from behind a nearby tree—the face of a little girl. I frowned and pushed myself up onto my knees. She darted behind the trunk, then slowly looked out again. Grayish skin, sickly almost, paired with straggly long, black hair. When my emerald greens met her near black ones, she smiled, revealing two rows of yellowing teeth.
All things considered, she was rather frightening in appearance—yet I couldn’t look away. At that moment, all I wanted was to protect her, to sweep her into my arms and soothe whatever might ail her.
“Kaye…” Darius sounded far away as I staggered to my feet, then lurched toward the girl, who giggled and darted deeper into the trees. He called my name again, his voice muffled and lost in the wind, and I took off with a burst of fae speed, not wanting to lose this precious little creature.
Slowly, Kaye. Slowly.
“Shut up,” I snapped, pushing harder. Where could the girl have gone? She was just here. Panic gripped me, pulse-pounding fear that she was lost—until that giggle washed over me again, guiding me toward her. I let my feet do their thing, staggering through the orchard, narrowly avoiding trees and unearthed roots, until I finally found her. She stood at the edge of a small pool, her arms opened to me like she wanted a hug.
And I was desperate to comply. Relief flooded through me, the feeling better than the effect of any drug in this world or the next.
“Thank goodness,” I breathed as I stumbled for her. “There you are!”
“Kaye!” Two hands clamped down hard on my shoulder, and I shrieked as someone dragged me away, while another knocked me onto my back. I blinked up in surprise to find Galen and Catriona standing over me. A quick glance back showed Darius racing toward us. I frowned.
What the hell was I doing here? Why was I on my back—and why did I feel as though I’d just been to hell and back? Everything hurt and what little energies I’d been rebuilding after our bout with the spiders were drained.
I set a hand on my forehead, the world spinning as Catriona helped me sit up. “W-What?”
“She’s an Archeri,” Galen told me. His hands pulsed with white magic, and when I looked back to that creature, that thing I’d thought was a little angel, I realized he was keeping her at bay. And she was screaming a soundless shriek; her jaw dropped open down to her chest, mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. Her hands looked more like claws now, and her dress had gone from Sunday School perfect to tattered and thin, a flash of emaciated ribcage catching my eye as she tried to get back to us.
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“A demon who takes the form of a girl,” Catriona added, shuffling back as Darius wrapped an arm around my waist and hauled me to my feet—and didn’t let go.
“But she—”
“They bewitch their victims when you make eye contact,” Catriona continued, darting behind Darius and peering over his shoulder. “Their goal is to make you sick. She feeds off you, then leaves you diseased and broken.”
“Bitch,” I spat, glowering at her. I didn’t have the energy to fight, to be angry, to even try to tear her limb from limb. She’d stolen that from me with no more than a look.
“We should kill her,” Galen insisted, his arms quivering as he kept her back. “And any others we might see.”
“They tend to hunt alone,” Catriona said. “They do usually live in the mountains though.”
“I can rip her in half and be done with it,” Darius growled. He held me up, not back, my body sagging in his arms. “Let me—”
Before any of us could do anything, a scaly arm shot up from the water, breaking the surface with a huge splash. Talon-tipped fingers wrapped around the girl’s ankle, then dragged her into the water as she shrieked. The surface rippled and bubbled for a few seconds, then went perfectly still as we stared in a stunned silence.
“This place is fucked,” I muttered.
Darius tightened his hold on me. “Slightly.”
“Let’s get the hell out of here…now.”
“Agreed,” everyone else said in unison, and we hastily made our way back to the group, always looking over our shoulders, tensed and ready for the next attack of supernatural bullshit that this faux paradise had to offer.
Chapter Eleven
As I watched two sentries lead Darius away, a lead weight made itself at home in the pit of my stomach. Being separated from him, seeing him escorted by two armed men toward a gothic castle, embedded in the mountains, sent a flutter of pulsing anxiety through me. It made my palms clammy and my knees weak, but I just stood there, head held high, and watched him go. I couldn’t let anyone see how this affected me. Not the militia. Not my captains. Not even Catriona. And definitely not the dozen or so armed shifters patrolling the outer wall of the castle, a barricade that stretched some fifty or sixty feet up. I’d no idea what kind of weapons they had up there, but the men who came to collect Darius had automatic assault rifles strapped to them like they were headed for human combat.
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