“Oh,fuck no.” Willow’s face pales as she backs up into Rhune’s chest, her eyes wide and terrified as he watches the arachnyx inch inside the cave. “No, no, no, no, no. I amnotdying via giant spider. No fucking way.” She turns her gaze to me, her desperation clear. “You can kill it, right? Or, like… scare it away?”
“Rhune knows what to do if we can’t defeat it,” I say. “You will be safe no matter what, Willow. That is all that matters.”
The weird thing is, I have this feeling that the arachnyx doesn’t want to hurt Willow. Me and Rhune? Sure. But with Willow, it’s like the icepips all over again. It’s almost as if they’re drawn to her, like she’s made of something the rest of us aren’t.
I don’t have time to figure it out, though. Not now. Not when death is so near.
The chittering grows louder, and I swallow the lump growing in my throat as the arachnyx lurches closer. Seeing this, Kevin lets out a horrified bellow and leaps into Willow’s arms, wrapping his gangly legs around her shoulders and clinging to her like a lifeline.
The screech that follows nearly splits my skull in two. The arachnyx presses forward, forcing its massive body into the mouth of the cave, and for one desperate second I think the opening might actually be too small to let it through.
But nothing is ever that easy.
“Move!” I scream, retreating to the other side of the cave as the creature wiggles through the opening. The arachnyx slashes and claws at the walls of the cave, desperate to get closer even as the ice shards rip and cut up its legs and torso—and I know that soon, it will be on us.
“Cover Willow!” I yell, spreading my wings wide.
Rhune takes his place at my side, and we hit it with everything we’ve got. Twin blasts of magic slam into its carapace, but it barely slows the creature down. If anything, it just makes it angrier.
Desperate, I race off to the side, trying to pull the creature’s focus away from Willow and Rhune, but the arachnyx doesn’t so much as flick an eye in my direction.
“Hey!” I scream, shooting it with another blast of magic. “Over here, ugly!”
Instead of reacting to me, the spider raises its head andscreams.I blink, and it’s rearing up on its hind legs, baring its mottled underbelly to a terrified Willow. With another ear-shattering roar, it slams back down to the floor, causing it to shudder underfoot. I barely manage to stay upright as spiderweb cracks race outward across the ice, splitting the ground and filling the air with stomach-churning cracks.
And layered beneath that sound is more chittering. Closer now, drawing nearer with each passing breath.
I look past the arachnyx toward the cave mouth, and my heart lurches into my throat. Two more arachnyx are at the entrance. Both massive, clawed, and just as determined to get inside as the first.
There’s no way out.
The first arachnyx steps closer, feelers twitching and all two dozen eyes looking straight through me to where Willow is hiding.
There’s no way out, but down.
I summon everything I have left. I pull every last thread of magic in my body, forcing it into the palms of my hands until the energy burns white-hot against my skin. When I can’t stand the pain any longer, I release it, willing it directly into the thin floor of ice beneath us.
The ground shudders, vibrating up through the soles of my feet and into my racing heart.
I lock eyes with Willow as the floor splits wide open with a deafening crack, scream her name when it explodes into a thousand jagged pieces.
Not knowing if we will live or die, I fall.
25
Willow
Kevin lets out a panicked bleat,and I clutch him tighter to my chest, my scream lodging in my windpipe as the ground falls out from under us.
This is it. This is how I die.
I close my eyes tight, and then Rhune’s arms are around me, his massive body curling into a shield, folding around me and Kevin with little care for his own body. His wings snap out wide, and I catch one glimpse of the ice-rock raining down around us before he tucks my head against his chest, blocking out the sight.
“Hold on,” he growls, his voice strained. “I have you.”
I do the only thing I can. I hold on to Rhune.
The impact when we hit is bone-jarring, even through the cushion of Rhune’s body. Above me, chunks of ice-rock slam into his back, his wings, and with each strike, a pained grunt tears from his throat, but he doesn’t let go.
