Page 1 of Shadow Weaver
One
Two Weeks Until Term Two
The critter spat a stream of green goop at me and then lunged, its teeth chattering in anticipation of taking a bite.
“Now,” Brady ordered.
I sliced with my axe, timing it perfectly to cut the critter in half. Green goop exploded out of it, splattering my chest.
Not that it mattered, I was already covered in the gunk.
I turned to my broody mentor for the day. “How many is that?”
“Six,” Brady said from a safe distance, arms folded across his breastplate. “You’re doing good.”
The critter nest was barely visible through the mist. It rose up past the red posts that indicated where sector one ended and sector two began. Only two more weeks to go and we’d be introduced to the rest of the monsters that called the mist their home. The monsters of sector two. Meanwhile, it was our job to keep them out of this sector.
“Eyes up,” Brady called. “Stay alert.”
I fell into a defensive stance and scanned the mist. The mound that housed the critters was five feet high and freshly risen. According to Brady, this breed of critter used to be prevalent in sector two for years, but activity had dropped to negligible over the past six months. Until now.
The past few weeks, the critters had emerged in force. This nest was the closest they’d ever gotten to sector one. Carlo had explained that a nest could house anything from ten to twenty critters at a time. Today, it was our job to clear this nest, which meant smoking it out and cutting the beasties down.
I played defense of sector one while Aidan and Carlo cleared the area surrounding the mount in sector two.
Carlo’s whoop rose up in the air somewhere ahead of us, followed by Aidan’s cursing.
The mist shifted, and two critters were visible barreling toward me.
“You got this,” Brady called out.
And then the critters were on me, and I was in motion, slicing, stabbing, ducking, and rolling to avoid their teeth.
It was over in a matter of seconds, leaving me covered in even more gunk and reeking of rotten eggs.
I turned to Brady and raised my axe. “Whoop.”
He arched a brow, his mouth twitching as he suppressed a smile. The almost-smile didn’t last long, though; it dropped as his attention slipped over my shoulder. I followed his gaze to see Aidan and Carlo strolling toward me.
Strolling.
Laughing.
Not a speck of green gunk on them.
What. The. Fuck.
They slowed when they caught sight of me. Aidan’s gaze raked me from head to foot, and Carlo snort-laughed before covering his mouth with a hand. A clean, ungunked hand.
“What did you do?” Aidan asked me. “Bathe in the secretions?” He shook his head with a frown. But there was definite amusement in his hazel eyes.
I indicated their spotless armor. “What didyoudo? Shoot lasers at them from a distance?”
“Practice, baby.” Carlo wiggled his eyebrows. “We got the moves.”
Brady joined us, shooting the guys a confused glance. “You got lucky,” he said. “Best get back and wash off before it stains.”
“Stains?” I looked from Aidan to Brady. “You’re joking, right?”
