Page 79 of Shadow Warrior
I reached out to help Carlo up.
“Thanks, twinkle toes.”
“Don’t ment—”
Something hit my back, cutting off my words. The next couple of seconds seemed to pass in slow motion. Carlo’s eyes grew round, and then I was being pulled up into the air, away from him, evading his grip by a mere inch. Webbing. It had to be on my back, which meant I was headed for one of those thing’s mouths. Backward.
Fuck, no.
“Indie!”
Brady?
He was running at me, full pelt, but he wasn’t gonna make it. I twisted mid-air, just as the spider’s mandibles loomed, and stabbed it in the face.
The squeal it emitted made my teeth ache. I pulled my sword out and stabbed it again, and then I was free. Brady stumbled back with me in his arms just as the hairy creature began to shudder and shake. Its body began to pulse as if there was something inside, wanting out.
Wait a motherfucking minute. “Get back, it’s gonna blow.”
I grabbed Brady’s hand and ran with him, away from the sound of flesh tearing and the multitude of tiny screeches as the spider’s offspring broke free. Nope, did not want or need to see that shit, but still, I was turning to look over my shoulder. To watch the mummy spider’s body be engulfed by her babies. To watch as they started to feast.
“Move out,” Lloyd called.
“I’m going to be sick,” Carlo said as he came abreast of me and Brady. “I hate bugs.”
“You’re not the only one,” Brady said.
I looked up at him. His face was too pale, his eyes red-rimmed, and perspiration dotted his brow.
“You okay?”
He nodded. “The mist in this sector fucks with my lungs.”
“Mine too.”
His grip on my hand tightened in a reassuring squeeze.
“Well, we just survived killer beast spiders,” Carlo said. “What ne—” He broke off, and his pace slowed, but then he veered to the left.
“Carlo?” Lloyd called out.
The smell hit me.
Blood.
Fresh.
Carlo had come to a standstill, staring at the ground where dark shapes lay, unmoving, silent.
Cadets.
Dead.
But not mauled. Not torn like the creatures of the mist would do. I stepped closer and then crouched to study the cadet closest to me. His eyes were open as if he’d just lain down to rest, but a neat red line ran across his throat, and the ground beneath him was dark with blood.
Someone had slit his throat.
