Great. One down, an unknown number still to go.
I wasn’t out of the woods yet. Not with the other three spiders creeping toward me faster and faster. Steeling myself against the utter ick factor—I’m not squeamish, I’m not squeamish, I’m not squeamish—I swung my body up and grabbed a hairy leg with one hand. I used the same sticky film I’d created to help me climb the wall and latched onto the spider’s leg as strongly as I could, then yanked.
As it came free from the ropes, I pulled my magic back into myself, unsticking my hand from the prickly hair of its leg.
It fell, and I didn’t even bother to see if it caught itself like the first one had. No time for that.
Quickly, I twisted my wrist around and around, creating a spiral of energy. Then I gripped onto the end of it and began to lash right and left, sending a whip of spiked magic at the spiders.
They hissed and gurgled, foam trickling down from their fangs.
The remaining two moved a bit closer, just enough for the magic to whip around them and slap them hard across the bodies. There was a loud shriek, and they moved back, hurrying to the other side of the dome.
Holy shit.
My breath was coming in short gasps as my heart thundered in my chest.
I steadied my breathing, trying to collect myself, knowing I needed to get to the bottom.
As I moved to unhook my legs from the ropes, I heard a loud hiss right next to my head. With a gasp, I turned, finding myself face-to-face—or, much more horrifyingly, face-to-fang.
The spider’s back leg reached up, the pointed spike on the end dripping with some sort of venom, and fear flooded my body
Everything happened so quickly that time seemed to blur.
As the leg came flying down toward me, I clenched my teeth, my body bracing to try to defend against the attack. Then a loud hissing noise sounded next to my ear, and I jerked back as a spear of dark, colored magic slammed into the spider, impaling it.
It moaned and groaned as it slid down the side of the wall, falling the entire distance to the floor with a heavy splat.
Fucking disgusting.
Snapping my head up, I found Lachlan climbing through the hole and down toward me.
I let out a surprised sound at the sight of him, and he laughed, swinging quickly across the ropes as the others who’d entered after me climbed and battled spiders all around us.
“You actually thought I wouldn’t follow ye?” he called, a mocking tone in his voice. “Why wouldn’t I? I knew ye were onto something. I knew it.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What about our truce?”
He chuckled as he began to climb down the rope ladder. His upper body strength was nothing to scoff at either.
“I told you, when the sun came up it was over.”
A swarming irritation filled me. Of course. I should’ve known better than to trust him for a second after dawn.
But still, it was hard not to be a little grateful that he had followed me. If it weren’t for him, I’d probably be in the middle of being wrapped up like a mummy for the spiders and their children.
Looking back at him, I could see that he was twisting to the left trying to find his footing on the rope. About fifteen feet away fr
om him to the right, a spider sat crouched, ready to leap. As its long, thick legs pushed away from the side of the dome, I yelled out to him, thrusting my hand up.
“Watch out!”
Energy flew from my palm and wrapped itself around the spider, sending it falling to the ground.
His head whipped around. He blinked down at the spider’s body below him, and even from a distance, I could see him shudder.
“Fuck. I hate spiders.”