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“Not yet.” Maddy raises a finger. “But I have to get back so I can help Caleb. Spider is still there, and we have to make sure everything is okay.”
“I’ve been all over this place, and the webs are all I’ve ever found.”
Maddy bites her lower lip, her new teeth poking the fleshy part. “I have to get back. They were losing when the venom hit me. What if they aren’t okay? What if Caleb isn’t okay?”
Nim says nothing.
The panic swells in Maddy’s chest. “I can’t be here. I can’t.” Her breath catches. “I have to.” She flaps her hands, trying to lessen the horror tearing through her. Her heart should be pounding, but there’s nothing. “I have to get back. I have to. I have to.”
“Calm down,” Nim hisses. “I’m more worried about the spiders in this dimension. With all your shrieking, you’re going to lead them right to us.”
Maddy’s eyes widen. “There are spiders here, too?”
“You haven’t seen them?”
“I haven’t been here long. Are they big?”
Nim swings her arm through more webbing, making the space around them a little larger, but she stops as though she’s listening. “You’re in luck.”
“What?” Maddy wrings her hands in front of her, fighting the returning fright.
Nim’s lips flatten to a thin line. “You get to see the spiders.”
“What?”
“They’re on their way. Listen.”
Maddy tips her head toward the strands as the low thrum of vibration works through the webbing. “Is that them?”
Before Nim can answer, little spider bodies are moving along the network, scurrying toward them both. Maddy’s eyes widen as they multiply until there are hundreds of them stampeding toward them. The vibrations grow louder, turning into a low rumble, like thunder in the distance. A moment later, the ground begins to shake, and a herd of spiders heads their way.
Maddy gestures toward the marauding arachnids. “What do we do?”
Nim can’t answer. She swats two spiders climbing on her feet. She flicks the ones that leap onto her hands and scurry up her arms. She kicks another three.
A dozen crawl up Maddy’s legs, burying their fangs in her skin. She screams out as pain stabs through her, each time their serrated teeth pulling bits of her flesh from her body. Blood pours from the wounds, filling the air with its coppery scent. Maddy knocks them from her and kicks six more before they can land on her.
She scoops the next one from the ground and rips it in two, throwing the legs aside. She glimpses one feeding on her calf muscle, and she stomps her leg. Maddy’s breath catches in her throat. Each bite feels as though it’s pulling her farther and farther from the link between her and the warlocks.
What spell can she use? On her own, with her connection so weak now?
Another wave of spiders run at her, overwhelming her, and she screams as they rip into her skin again. Her magic is lessening as her link withers. Maybe this is Orion’s plan. Maybe it’s been his plan all along. The darkness presses in, obscuring the webbing.
The spiders are heavier than they should be, denser from the evil they carry. Maddy’s knees buckle, and she doesn’t know how she’s going to win. The bites are like a thousand stabs from knives. So many gashes.
Shadows cloud her thoughts.
Beside her, Nim’s barely holding her own, and she falls to the ground as the spiders overwhelm her, crawling all over her. It’s terrifying—the stuff of nightmares.
“No!” Maddy screams. They’re going to die here. This is it. She’s not going to make it back to Caleb, and she’s not going to be able to help him end Orion once and for all. She slips to the ground, and her chin quivers. Hundreds of spider bodies, thousands of spindly legs rush over her.
She chokes on a sob, pressing her lips into a tight line to keep the hairy legs out. It’s the end.I’m so sorry, Caleb.
Then, as suddenly as they arrived, the wave of attacking spiders retreats, and Maddy feels something different in the air. Maybe the darkness is ebbing. The vibration of the hundreds of bodies moving along the silken lines begins once more.
Maddy fights her way to her feet, and she hooks her arm in the crook of Nim’s and drags her to her feet, too. They bat away a few of the stragglers, relieved they weren’t completely overrun.
Nim gasps, sucking at the air. “I’ve never seen them that bad.”
