Page 94 of Maleen

I strike my belt and huge flaming orbs come to life in the palms of my hands as I shift my feet into a fight stance. “Not the time for eyeball hunting.”

I can practically feel him roll his eyes. “It’s always the time,” he states sassily.

Jesper is bouncing on his toes, not an ounce of fear coming down the bond from him, just pure excitement for the hunt—and right now it’s either kill or be killed.

Killian positions himself slightly in front of me while Talyn also summons flames and Aemon unsheaths his sword.

The air is still as we watch the beast watching us, almost as if it’s calculating its first move. I bet it’s not every day five powerful fae wander into its nest.

The web it’s on bounces slightly as its many legs seem to tense. It spins, and shoots a net of webs toward us which has all of us jumping out of the way, separating us. I throw my flames at the webbing below it, and watch in satisfaction as the white sticky substance dissolves like tissue paper. The spider falls to the ground, uncharred.

Killian and Jesper charge at it while it’s stunned. Kill swipes at its legs with his sword, successfully severing one of its legs. It screeches its rage and pain, snapping its pincers at Jesper who flings one of his many knives into an eye.

It bellows with rage and jumps up into the trees, disappearing from sight.

“Where did it go?” Talyn yells, spinning as he searches the towering canopy, but it’s too dark to see anything. It’s as if the sun isn’t up, though it has to be noon at the latest.

My heart pounds with adrenaline and fear as my body stays tense in case I need to pounce at a moment’s notice. A web net shoots in my direction and I blast it clean out of the air with fire, before a barrage of web netting rains down on us.

Talyn and I do our best to protect everyone, but next thing I know, I’m flung back and stuck against the trunk of a tree. The spider drops down in front of me and I see its stinger—aimed right at me.

My hatred of spiders sends an involuntary scream from my throat as the monster prepares to thrust its massive stinger into my stomach. Somehow I get a hold of myself and squeeze my eyes shut, willing myself to blink Nero and I across the nest. When I open my eyes, they widen in horror. Aemon is where I was, holding his stomach with wide eyes before collapsing to the ground. He must have blinked the same time I did, taking the blow meant for me.

I scream, “Aemon!” My shadows burst from the darkest parts of the forest, tendrils gripping the monster’s legs, stopping it from causing any more damage—but its strength is almost too much as it fights against my magick.

Killian, Talyn and Jesper pounce on top of it and simultaneously stab into its body before severing its head, and it thuds to the ground.

My magick takes over blinks me back to Aemon, and I fall to my knees beside him. “No, no, no. Aemon, you’re going to be okay. You have to be okay.” I roll him over and he groans and gasps, clutching his stomach.

“You’re safe,” he gasps, smiling slightly before wincing and groaning.

Tears are streaming down my face. “I need to look at it,” I tell him, moving his hands and removing his armor so I can lift his tunic and see the damage.

He cries out as I shift him around, and Talyn is at my side, helping me move his massive weight. As I pull the tunic off, my heart jumps into my throat but I compose my features. I could fit my fist into the gaping wound in his stomach. Blood and a black substance ooze from it.

“We need to get him back to Celeste,” I say ungently.

Killian passes me a wad of leaves to pack the wound, but they darken and wilt as the black ooze touches them.

Aemon’s breath stutters. “I can’t feel my legs.” He stares up towards the canopy with tears silently streaming down his face. “I can’t feel my magick! Tal, keep her safe, please.”

Talyn grabs him by the front of his tunic. “Listen to me, Aemon Zorn. You are going to pull it together and hold on.” And then he turns to me. “We need to get him to Celeste. If anyone will have a cure, it’s her. Let’s move.” He hoists him up and Aemon cries out in a way that makes me wish he would just pass out.

“I got the hide!” Jesper states, holding up a black furry part of what was the spider, brandishing it like a victory cloak.

I turn towards the dead beast, its flayed body still twitching creepily even in the aftermath of death, and set it aflame before grabbing my mates and blinking us all back to Celeste’s cottage. This is all my fault. I pray to the Fates that she can help him and I won’t lose him. I can’t lose him. I would never be the same.

“PUT HIM ON the bed,” Celeste tells Talyn as she runs around the cottage pulling down vials and herbs and odd objects in jars. “You—Szellemi child—fill his mind with something better than pain. Nothing I have will work for it.”

Talyn does as he’s told and Jesper wraps his arms around me, holding me close as he works his way into Aemon’s suffering. The bond I have with Aemon pulses and dims with pain and numbness, like a flame sputtering before it’s put out.

“He’s going to be okay. Celeste will fix him up right as rain,” Jesper whispers in my ear.

My body shakes with fear. I can’t lose another person. Especially not my males. No. “Celeste please,” I hear myself saying as Nero nuzzles my cheek. I know he’s speaking to me but I can’t focus on anything else but what’s going on with my mate.

I glance over at the old witch as she reads through her book—which I think I heard her call a grimoire—and see her face pale as she glances again over all the things she’s gathered.

“I’m missing something. I thought I still had one, but I must have used it for something else,” she says as she paces back and forth.