The opening feels close now. Then… something tightens around my ankle. Hard.
I jerk to a stop, my breath catching as I look down. Web. Thick. Sticky. Wrapped tight around my boot, already pulling, already tightening.
“No,” I whisper, panic flooding in too fast. “No, no, no?—”
I yank. It doesn’t give. It pulls harder. The strand vibrates, a sharp, awful tremor that runs straight through me.
The chamber answers as a shadow drops from above. I want to thrust my sword, to sever the web, but I barely have to think before a spider slams into the web above me, massive, fast, its legs hooking into the strands as it surges forward with terrifying speed.
Straight toward me.
“Alette!” Oberon roars.
I chop down on the web, but it only partially breaks. I lift my arm to strike again, but the web yanks tight, jerking me off balance, my grip slipping as it drags me backward.
I scream. The world tilts violently as I’m ripped off the staircase, my body slamming into the webbing as it snaps tight around me. Sticky strands wrap around my arms, my legs, my waist, pinning me in place as I struggle, panic exploding through me.
“Help me!” I cry, my voice breaking, raw and desperate.
Fire erupts around me as Oberon hurls it upward, flames racing along the web, burning, snapping strands, but not fast enough. Not when he’s being careful not to hit me.
The spider doesn’t stop. It keeps coming. Closer. Too close.
“Alette, hold on!” Sylvian shouts, his voice strained, the staircase shuddering violently beneath him as his focus fractures.
The web jerks again. Harder this time. Dragging me higher. Away from them. I thrash, kicking, twisting, trying to tear free, but the strands only tighten, sticking to my skin, my clothes, my hair, but I suddenly can’t move. I can’t breathe. The spider is right there now. Its eyes fixed on me. Its mandibles opening.
“No—” I choke out, my vision blurring, terror swallowing everything else.
Below me, I hear them shouting. Feel the heat. The wind. The earth shaking… but it’s too far.They’retoo far. And I’m being pulled away. Higher. Deeper into the web.
Into the dark.
19
Alette
The world jerks violently as the spider hauls me upward, the web snapping tight around my body. Silk bites into my arms, my ribs, my throat, pinning me in place as it drags me higher, higher… straight into its nest. Its legs slam down around me, anchoring into the web with sharp, clicking force. The vibrations rattle through my bones, through the strands wrapped around me, locking me in place.
I can’t move. My sword is trapped against my leg, useless, glowing, burning, but not enough. The spider climbs over me. Huge and menacing. Its body blocks out the dim light, its many eyes fixed on me as it lowers itself, mandibles opening with a wet, clicking sound that turns my stomach.
I suck in a breath that doesn’t fully come.
This is it. I’m going to die. The labyrinth is finally going to finish me.
Suddenly, heat explodes around me. A blast of fire slams into the spider, engulfing it in an instant. Flames rip across its body, searing through hair and chitin, and it lets out a high, shrieking sound as it thrashes directly over me.
The web shakes violently. The strands holding me snap.
I drop.
My stomach lurches as I fall, the world spinning, air ripping past me. I grab out, desperate, one hand free. My hand slams into a strand, and my fingers close around just in time. Pain rips through my shoulder as my weight jerks to a stop, my body swinging hard beneath it.
I scream, the sound tearing out of me as I cling, the web slicing into my palm, my grip slipping. Below me, far too far below, the stone floor waits.One fall. And I’m dead.
The burning spider crashes down past me, its body slamming into the ground in a burst of fire and impact that sends heat rushing upward in a violent wave.
The flames catch.
