Page 17 of Devoted

Black as midnight. Swirling, like they’d come alive.

Exactly like Nico’s.

The ball of magic exploded across the stone with a wet, sticky splat, debris raining from the ceiling, and where those shadows hit… a glistening stain covered the stone, glossy, like fresh tar. For one fraught second, nobody moved. Then out of that dripping mass, something crawled. Something equally dark, with too many legs. Something that moved exactly like a spider.

If spiders were the size of small horses.

“Ember… what the fuck is that?”

I never got a chance to answer because the closest Ashbound lunged, claws scraping down my right arm, carving through skin and tendons like they were butter. Agony streaked up my shoulder, my hand going instantly numb as I rolled away. The thing’s stench was putrefying, stuffing my nose and mouth with brimstone and rot mixed together, and I hacked up a mouthful of blood-flecked saliva.

Bracing my good hand on the filthy floor, I eyed the ten feet now separating me from my brother. I’m going for the guards first, I told him, awkwardly pulling out another knife. Not my dominant hand, but I’d have to make do.

Luca, I’ll draw them off. As soon as you have an opening, run. Get to Gabriel and Nico. You have to warn them.

My brother stared straight at me, shaking his head. “If you think I’m leaving you like this…”

Then Luca froze, all the blood draining from his face. Emberline. Don’t move. Don’t turn around.

Whatever was behind me… the hair on the back of my neck rose, some primitive survival instinct locking up every muscle, heart racing as I sensed a creeping presence behind me, the stench in the air so strong I choked.

My brother lifted his gun and, without blinking, pulled the trigger. The bullets whizzed past my cheek, close enough I felt the heat as each one passed, and whatever was behind me hissed and thumped, like a fish out of water. I didn’t look. Whether one of those spiders or some new, fresh hell, it didn’t matter.

We have to go.

Get your ass up.

Luca fired two more shots, hauled me to my feet and dragged me across the dock, toward the closest cover… straight through one of those open doorways and into the darkness beyond.

We stumbled into that darkness, wet and dank, the air stale from centuries of disuse.

“I can’t see a fucking thing, Luca,” I hissed, pain exploding up my brutalized arm as he dragged me deeper and deeper down the tunnel. Blood dripped from my fingers, the coppery scent filling the air. Somewhere behind us, I heard shouting, an animalistic roar, then even that was swallowed up by the total gloom.

Where are we going?

Don’t know. My brother was panting. Away from the guards and their black magic and whatever spawn of hell that hatched out of it.

So, you saw the spider, too?

Fuck yes, I did, and I never want to see anything like that again.

We lurched through darkness together, feeling our way along the narrow tunnel, barely wide enough for us to walk one behind the other. We’d never be able to fight in these close quarters, never be able to move, especially if that too-many-legged thing was behind us.

At least we could see the Ashbound—they literally glowed in the dark—but every panicked glance I threw over my shoulder showed nothing but a shrinking square at the other end of the tunnel, now filled by swirling fire.

“That’s Dante. We wait here.” I sagged against the cold, damp stone. “We wait until he fries the guards and burns the Ashbound, then we’ll regroup. Figure out how we’re getting out of the city. Since some asshole stole our boat.”

Luca might have answered me, but out of those raging flames the spider materialized, elongated body bobbing up and down on long, jointed legs, as if it had caught our scent.

I looked down at the warm blood sliding down my brutalized arm and dripping off my fingers. “Luca. I’m leaving a blood trail behind us,” I whispered, fighting to stay calm. “I think it smells me.”

Then the thing charged.

Straight toward us.

“Fucking move.” I shoved my brother in front of me, our bodies bumping together as we ran, no sounds except our panicked breathing and that horrid insectile skittering behind us.

Then we slammed into a dead end.