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The look twisting Mother’s expression was something far darker than disappointment. “Despite my continuous patience and all I’ve done for you, you’re still doing absolutelynothing. How could you be so useless to the one who took you in when no one else wanted you?”
The walls I’d forged around my heart weren’t strong enough to repel such a sharp attack. As my mother, taking me in shouldn’t have been such a sacrifice, especially considering she’d been the one to abandon me in the first place.
“I’m sorry,” I said weakly. I wanted to explain that I wasn’t trying to disappoint her, but she wouldn’t understand the strange aversion I felt to stealing from anyone, evenhim, so I remained silent.
She rubbed her temples as if fighting off an impending headache. “I’m not trying to be harsh,” she said in a softer tone that didn’t at all match the displeasure filling her eyes. “I only want what’s best for you, yet you continue to fight me. My wish is for you to fully realize your special gifts, ones that will help more than just yourself. Don’t you want to be useful to me, Eden dear?”
I squirmed beneath her stern look and managed a nod. “Of course.” For the alternative should I not cooperate would be to lose not just my new home but my own Mother. Without her I didn’t belong anywhere, a thought which only increased my acute sense of loss and hopelessness. I needed her to want me.
Mother’s tight smile almost seemed sincere. “Now that we better understand one another, there’s someone I want you to meet.”
On cue, a familiar aqua-grey spider dotted with bronze lightning bolts popped his head up from her hair, all eight of his eyes riveted to me in concern.
“Bolt?” For a moment I could only stare. Seeing him was like seeing a ghost, for the last time we’d encountered one another, he’d been with—unbidden, thoughts of Darius filled my mind. My heart wrenched, even as all the layers I’d built to protect myself crumbled.
Bolt scurried down Mother’s arm on his eight knitted-slipper-clad legs, the movements so familiar from all the times he’d done that very thing during my Weavings with Darius...moments I’d struggled and failed to forget.
I gaped at the spider and he stared intensely back, as if searching for something he needed to find. His fanged smile faltered. “Are you alright, Eden? I thought you’d look more...happy.”
“She’s fine,” Mother said before I could even attempt to answer. “Aren’t you, Eden dear?”
Afraid to contradict her, I managed the smallest of nods. Unconvinced, Bolt’s frown deepened. I looked away, but my gaze was repeatedly drawn to him, a portion of my old life that had returned to haunt me.
Dazed, I turned towards Mother. “Why do you have Bolt?”
“Bolt is my creation, the first new life I ever succeeded in creating, just before my suspension.” She stroked Bolt’s fuzzy body. His fanged smile reappeared as he leaned against her caressing fingers contentedly.
“But Darius—”
Mother’s laugh was cold. “About a year ago, I sent Bolt to that Nightmare for a very specific purpose.”
My mouth had gone dry. I didn’t like the direction this conversation was going. “Did he know?”
Mother rolled her eyes. “Of course not. If he’d realized Bolt’s origins, he wouldn’t have befriended him. It was the mystery that lured him in, just as he was lured in by you. The fool.”
My heart prickled at her jab.No, I couldn’t feel any sympathy for him, not after he’d betrayed me. Still, annoyance bubbled within me at Mother’s attack on him. This lingering loyalty for my old weaving partner both confused and frustrated me.
I glared at Bolt. “You befriended Darius only tousehim?”
Bolt shook his head. “Of course not. I like Darius. We’re friends.”
“You don’t like him at all, you silly spider,” Mother said.
Bolt tilted his head, seeming confused. “But—”
“Enough.”
At Mother’s sharp command, Bolt immediately snapped his mouth shut. She smirked and stroked him again.
“Good spider. Now that Bolt has finished his purpose with that Nightmare, he’s returned to me. Was it difficult slipping away?”
Bolt lowered his eyes. “No, but he’s likely worried. I should go talk to him and—”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Mother ordered. “Your loyalty is first to me, your creator. Now I’m in need of your powers, specifically your enhanced weaving threads—”
I gasped, ignoring Mother’s glare for having interrupted her. “Is that why Darius always won our Weavings?”
Bolt shook his head. “Though I often offered my powers to him, he always refused; he’s no cheater. His integrity aside, he was anxious to give you a chance to win. He cares about you.”
