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Behind me, I heard, “Taliesin belongs to me, and no mutt queen will take him from me.”
Warmth burst along my back. I barely had time to register that I’d been stabbed before the throb of magic pulsed inside my body. Foxglove had disappeared only to return with an enchanted weapon. The magic seized my body. Every muscle clenched and tightened before twisting.
I had barely enough strength left to half-turn and glare down at Foxglove before I found myself glaringupat him.
I wanted to figure out what’d just happened to my body, but the ground beneath us buckled. The floor tiles bulged and cracked open. Green life burst from the floor and shot into he ceiling, ripping the building wide open.
Foxglove cried out and turned to run. Even the quick fae man couldn’t get away from the twisting vines and roots that snatched him up from the ground and hoisted him high in the air. Tal rose up beside him in a similar twist of roots.
A vine of crimson and white flowers reached for Tal’s head. I watched as the vine wormed its way into the crown of thorns and ripped it apart. The illusion shattered and sent a shock rippling through the room that rattled the leaves and made the ground tremble.
“No!” Foxglove shouted.
That was more than enough to tell me that Fox had played a part in this illusion. He’d let Beryl in and played along so that he could steal Taliesin away from the Seelie court and Cerridwen.
I couldn’t wait to banish the bastard.
When I turned, I expected to see Cerri standing over me, but she was nowhere to be seen. My heart leapt into my throat. I jumped forward only to fumble on four unsteady legs. Looking down, I counted more than four legs. They were spindly and black with little tufts of fur at the joints.
Had Foxglove turned me into aspider? I looked back at the fallen blade painted with my blood and noted Athena’s owl on the pommel. The man had retrieved a damned artifact from his vault. It was the same magic that Athena had used to turn Arachne into a spider for her pride in the face of divinity.
Well, this was inconvenient. Divine magic was a bitch and a half to circumvent. Besides, I had bigger issues at hand. Commanding all eight legs at once, I did my best to get to where I’d last seen Cerri.
The beastly half of me thrashed in agony. It wanted out, to feel claws pierce flesh and to taste the blood of vengeance on its tongue. I just needed to know that my queen was safe.
A hill of moss and flowers sat near the counter where she’d been. My feet tangled beneath me and sent me tumbling to the broken floor. I crawled my way out of the jagged tiles and twisted roots to scurry over to the small hill.
Above, I heard Tal say, “Is…is this my fault?”
“Darling, you had nothing to do with this. It was your bitch queen’s fault.” Fox’s voice was laden with venom.
At first, I thought he was talking about Beryl. It took several heartbeats to realize that Foxglove spoke of Cerri.
“Oh, you bastard!” Tal shouted from behind the hands over his face. He tossed his hands in the air and served Foxglove a dark glare. “You did this, didn’t you? Don’t you dare lie to me. We have been together on and off for over two hundred years. I know when you’re trying to lie to me.”
I turned away from their conversation and crouched beside the hill of moss and flowers. If I’d had a mortal mouth, I would have cried for Cerri. I would have begged her to come home. I couldn’t see a future without her.
The court mattered little when I couldn’t stand at her side.
I dug through the layers of moss and roots, but I could not find Cerri beneath it all. The Sluagh beast rose and nudged me. I wanted him to help me dig, but I had no mouth and tongue to speak. This damned spider form cursed me in more ways than one.
How could I hold my queen with spider legs? How could I kiss her sweetly and saver the taste of her lips with these pincers? I would have screamed in furious rage if I could have made more than a chittering sound.
When I got my body back again, I was going to tear Foxglove limb from limb. The man deserved nothing. I would make sure to cast him out so that no court ever accepted him again. If Tal took him back after this stunt…
We needed to have an intervention with Tal. He really needed to come to terms with their toxic relationship and leave. Toxicity got really out of hand when it came to supernatural partners.
A hand touched the top of my head. I heard Cerri’s familiar chuckle, and my heart stopped.
“What happened to you, my love?” Her voice was so soft and gentle, but there was an echo to it that seemed other worldly.
Looking up with my spider-eyes, I was blinded by the glow of untamed magic writhing around Cerri’s form. I could see nothing else but the magic surrounding her. It teemed with infinite possibility the same way that divine magic did.
Had my queen stepped into the realm of the divine and become a god?
Before I could really consider the implications, the glow flowed down her arm and wreathed my head. The world grew smaller while I grew larger. I tumbled forward and mortal hands hit the broken ground. Immediately, I looked up at my queen.
She smiled down at me and laughed. “How was your time as a spider?”
