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She crawled over, gawking, as I shoved the human’s messy corpse away. “Eyes on me, my love,” I told her, willing her to not think poorly of me.
I hadn’t had the strength to shred the man as he’d deserved—but he was dead nonetheless.
“Nia’n’an—what’s wrong?”
What was wrong was that my mate was still inside Threadstone with me. But I couldn’t tell her that. I carefully wiped my hands on the ground beside me, so that there would be no trace of acid left upon them, and then reached for her, giving her two dusty handprints across her tearstained face.
“My love, are you okay?” I asked, looking her all over.
“I’m fine!” she protested, seeming to know what I asked. “But what’s wrong with you?” she pressed again.
“My love,” I told her, drawing a fingertip down her cheek. And then I used that hand to make a gesture like I was holding a phone up to my face and pointed. The exit of the caverns was that way, and she’d make it, she had to.
I wanted to die knowing my mate was safe.
Her eyes went wide, as she understood, and then she nodded.
“So I’ll go get you help?” she said—and I nodded back.
“The only help I have ever needed was meeting you, my love,” I told her—and she started scurrying around.
I watched her yank the tip of my broken leg out of the man’s chest, so that she could lean on it, and once more I thanked the Great Mother for blessing me with such a fierce little mate.
Because surely whatever was wrong between us, whatever reason we hadn’t bonded, had to be because of me.
And then she got the phone out of the bag behind the rock where she’d left it and hopped near once more.
“I’ll go outside. I’ll make the call. I’ll be right back.”
I ran the back of one hand down the smooth skin of her cheek. “I know you will, my love,” I said.
She leaned forward to kiss me, putting her lips briefly against the space right underneath my eye, where my cheek would be if I had one like she did, and then she commanded “Don’t die” right before she started hobbling away.
I watched her go,and then when she was too far for my eyes to see, I heard her path, and then when she was past where I could hear her, I scented her, for a long, long time, as some unseen breeze at this cavern’s entrance blessedly pushed her scent back to me.
I was home. I’d made it here. And I’d been in love with the most perfect mate a spider might ever have.
I felt at peace—until I didn’t.
Some strange desire came over me.
It was akin to the one I’d been afflicted with weeks ago, when I’d first resigned my Monster Security commission. A feeling deep inside my spider-half, that there were things I had to do.
Perhaps I needed to make a final nest?
All I knew was that the situation I found myself in currently wasn’t quiteright.And while I was ready to die, I needed to perform one last task first.
Thirty-Six
SLOANE
I’d hadto sit outside for half a day until a helicopter landed, and then the minotaur who’d been flying had been a little bit of an asshole.
He was nice enough to turn the blades off and come out to meet me, once he realized I couldn’t come very fast, leaning on Nia’n’an’s severed leg—but when he realized that’s what it was, he looked horrified.
“Whatever did that—we’ve gotta get you out of here,” he said at once, rushing forward to scoop me up.
I balanced on one leg and swung the blood stained tip of Nia’n’an’s leg at him. “Only one man gets to pick me up—and he’s back in that cavern over there.”
