“Wait, this whole time I’ve been playing spider bait, you haven’t even been working?”
“I’m working now,” King said tersely. He frowned at the spider, still circling its dead leg. “What did you do?”
“If we survive, I’ll explain it. You just get?—”
My words were cut off by the shock of something sticky and whisper-light hitting my skin. Spider silk.
CHAPTER SIX
Unlike the globof webbing that had hit King earlier, this wasn’t a warning shot. It pinned my arm to my body, and I struggled to get free before the spider could pounce, or attack, or whatever it was spiders did with the bugs that got caught in their webs.
The spider had given up on its dead leg and realized that the problem was the two of us. Reaching out with its two front legs, before King or I could even realize the terrible situation we were in, the spider pressed us together and quickly spun its silk.
We were being wrapped up, like a child tying two companions together in a game of pirates.
Normally, I wouldn’t have minded being this close to King, but I could feel the panic rising in my throat. King might not be able to see it, but with each shaky breath I could feel my magic exploding out of me, waking the whole room around me.
If I didn’t get control of this soon, we would end up in the same situation we had when I had taken down the poltergeist. And that would be a little bit harder to explain to a Paranormal Crimes captain than it was to a beat cop.
“Ferro,” King said. “You good?”
“This wasn’t how I pictured getting close to you.” I managed a smirk.
Before my emotions could get the best of me, King wiggled a hand free and slapped one of his spells to the silk the spider was spinning us in.
I felt a wash of warmth surrounded me, as though I had stepped into a hot tub after a long day. It actuallyrelaxedme.
Blinking open my eyes, the silk had disappeared, burned up by whatever carefully constructed spell King had just activated. Alchemists really were too neurotic about their work, if they had spells for burning upspiderwebs. A remaining ember of fire was tracing up the silk that the spider was still throwing at us, actually burning the tip of her body where she spun webs. The spider reared back, its dead leg weighing it down.
It turned, grabbing hold of the leg and ripping it off of its body.
Viscera leaked out onto the floor as it threw the leg at us. We ducked, getting behind a low couch as the spider began moving in uneven circles, still leaking the green goo that it was made of.
“Thanks for the save,” I said.
“Youreallydon’t like spiders,” King quipped.
My heart was still racing, but my senses were coming to me again. In my panic, my magic had woken so many different spirits in the room, and I could feel them all curious, all waiting for interaction. I could use that.
“Does anyone?” I echoed his earlier sentiment. “But, honestly, I think I’m more afraid of spiders than I am of vampires.”
“Really?” King asked.
“I’ve seen my sister take out a vamp. No problem.” I mimed a head falling off of the body. “But spiders… wait. Spiders lay eggs.”
Both of us frowned at that, and I realized that if fate was an actual entity, I had just invited it in for tea.
“You don’t think —” King started.
We both glanced up and, there, on the ceiling, was a heavy egg sack.
“The babies wouldn’t be as big, right?” I asked.
“No.” But King’s voice was hesitant.
I shook my head. “Okay. One thing at a time. Let’s take the spider out, and then deal with the eggs.”
The spider had retreated to a corner of the room, still nursing its missing leg. If it had been so accurate shooting us both with webbing, its eyes must had cleared from the flour.
