Page 73 of The Iron Vow

Puck raised his head, eyes wide and bulging. And I realized he had no mouth, just smooth skin between his nose and jawline. Varyn let out a soft curse.

A soft, feminine chuckle echoed around us. “Dance for me, little insects,” the new voice whispered, directly at my back. I spun, lashing out with my sword, and saw it pass through a tall figure in white, her eyes as dark and empty as the void. The figure blinked out of sight the moment the blade touched her, the echo of laughter lingering in the air.

“You are all but drones in my nest. Puppets in my game.”The figure flickered into view once more, a stunning faery with long black hair and an eternally young face. Shimmering wings sprouted from her back, neither feathers nor scales nor gossamer, but something in between. Both Nyxes, Varyn, and Keirran stiffened as the familiar form of the Lady—the First Queen of Faery—smiled down at them.

“My beautiful killers,” she whispered. “None of you have changed.” Nyx, bent over the still-moaning form of Puck, clenched a fist as the Lady threw back her head and laughed, her voice like chiming bells. “I will make you destroy everything you care for, and you will love me for it.”

She raised her arms, and a flurry of projectiles came from all directions, slamming into the Lady: daggers, ice, and moonlight crescents, striking her at nearly the same time. But instead of vanishing, the Lady unraveled. Hair-thin strands of silver uncoiled, flying out in an explosion of gossamer. A scream ripped through my head, turning everything white, and for a moment, I felt myself falling.

Gasping, I raised my head, and a wave of vertigo washed over me. I might have been floating; I couldn’t feel the ground under my feet. My ears throbbed, nausea and dizziness raging within. Wincing, I managed to look up...and realized Iwasfloating, held off the ground by dozens of silver threads. As my senses grew clearer, I saw that the threads weren’t wrapped around my limbs or binding them in any way; they seemed to go straight through my body, suspending me several feet in the air. Looking around, I saw in horror that the rest of my allies were in the same situation: suspended above the ground by threads that pierced their limbs and bodies, holding them immobile in the darkness. Ash and Keirran dangled, motionless, several feet above me. Their eyes were closed, though Ash was beginning to stir. Puck hung like a gangly marionette beside Nyx, with Other Nyx and Varyn a few feet away. Even Gilleas, his antlers tangled in gossamer, floated in the grisly spider web like some kind of monstrous insect himself.

“All my little drones. All the puppets in my web.”Something pale and monstrous came through the threads. An enormous, bloated spider with the Lady’s face, smiling as she crawled into the light. I jerked up, but I was barely able to move. My body felt sluggish, and pain stabbed my skin like needles where the threads came out. Clenching my jaw, I drew my magic to me, feeling it spark to life...and then vanish. Glamour drained from my body, siphoned away through the gossamer strands.

The Lady-spider creature gave me an eerie, soulless smile. “You are powerful, little queen, but this is my web. Everything trapped here is mine.”

She turned, and one thin, pointed leg rose, touching one of the threads. A ripple went through the strands, and Varyn dropped from the web and hit the ground with a thump. Almost immediately, he rose to his feet, his body pulled upright as if he were still attached.

The Lady smiled.

“Varyn...” Nyx’s voice, faint and breathy, drifted into the silence. Beside her, Puck struggled weakly against the strands, still unable to make a sound because he had no mouth.

“Now, my drone. Show me you still obey.”The spider creature half reared up, raising its front legs, as if controlling a marionette by the strings. “Kill your allies. Starting with the one you love. Kill them all, then slice your own throat. Obey, because you are mine.”

Slowly, Varyn turned, a knife appearing in one hand. His jaw was clenched, his back stiff, as if he was fighting not to move. But he took one step, then another, walking steadily toward the two Nyxes dangling helplessly in the strands.

I could sense everyone around me struggling, trying to throw off the weakness and call on their magic. But the more I tried to draw on my glamour, the faster it drained away. My sword lay on the ground several feet beneath me, out of reach. I could only watch as Varyn walked, zombielike, toward Other Nyx, the monstrous form of the Lady-spider standing behind him.

Something glimmered in the light: the thinnest strand of gossamer, spanning the distance between them like a spiderweb. It was visible for only a moment, but Puck’s gaze flicked upwards, and as Varyn calmly raised the knife toward Other Nyx’s throat, he jerked one arm forward, reaching not for the dagger, but the back of Varyn’s skull. I saw the flare of pain through Puck’s eyes as he tore his limb free and swiped at Varyn but didn’t seem to touch him.

Varyn, however, jerked away with a gasp, immediately dropping the knife. It hit the ground with a clatter, and I realized Puck had severed the gossamer thread attached to Varyn’s skull. As the Lady reared up with a hiss, eyes glowing in fury, Varyn whirled and threw out his arms. Crescent blades left his hands, but they were not aimed at the Lady. Instead, they curved around and flew into the webs, slicing the strands apart. I was suddenly free, and the magic that had been siphoned from my body flooded back with a roar.

A rush of glamour filled the air, furious and deadly. The air grew frigid, lightning crackled, and the scream of a raven echoed overhead. The Lady-spider skittered back and raised her thin legs, but before the barrage of magic could be unleashed, our Nyx darted forward, leaped onto the spider’s bulbous thorax, and calmly decapitated the Lady. The Evenfaery’s expression, as the spider creature’s skull toppled to the floor, was terrifying and triumphant.

The spider’s body shivered, then dissolved into a swarm of smaller spiders that scattered in every direction. Nyx leaped down, squashing several underfoot, and was immediately crushed in an embrace by Puck. She hugged him back fiercely, and I breathed a sigh of relief, as the strands around us frayed apart and vanished, returning us to the void.

For a moment after the Lady disappeared, there was silence. Varyn and Other Nyx stood to one side, foreheads pressed together and eyes closed. Ash strode up and pulled me to him with one arm, and I relaxed against him, relieved that the ordeal was over.

“Well.” It was Gilleas who spoke first, and even his calm, exasperated voice wavered a moment. “That was...extraordinarily unpleasant. I did not realize how much the Lady had affected all of us until now.”

“Is everyone all right?” Keirran asked, gazing around.

“Oh, I’m just peachy, princeling.” Puck’s voice rang out loud and clear, making me smile. “You try having your mouthpoofedaway and see how well you like it. It ain’t funny, I’ll tell you that right now.”

“Really?” Ash began, and Puck whirled on him, an almost feverish gleam in his green eyes.

“Ice-boy, I swear, if I hearone thingabout this, one teensy little joke or comment or snicker, I won’t stop talking at you for the next millennium. In fact, I’m pissed enough that I might do that anyway.”

“Fools.”

A shiver went through the air, and a wave of cold washed over us. The Nightmare King floated down from the darkness, sword in hand, a vortex of black surrounding it. He did not look any weaker; power flared around him, the sword pulsed as it sucked in the light, and the aura of terror spread out from the Nightmare King, making it hard to breathe.

“You cannot kill fear so easily.”

Despair filled my heart, and I clenched a fist in Ash’s shirt as his arms tightened around me. How were we going to beat him? No matter what we tried, no matter how many times we “killed” the Nightmare King, he simply vanished and reappeared as something even more terrifying. Like the Wailing One, who couldn’t be slain unless...

I straightened. The Nightmare King. Of course! He was an Elder Nightmare, anamedElder Nightmare. Which meant, somewhere in this terrible, twisted castle, there was a core. The essence of this Nightmare.

“I grow weary of this game,”the Nightmare King stated, observing us with cold indifference.“Your fears are varied, yet you face them well. You choose to face the Nightmares together instead of alone. But there is one fear that not even the bravest can stand against. One fear that no one can escape.”

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