Page 83 of Eldritch
“Good. Your next lesson will be pairing the flame with your prodozja.”
“Pairing them? Is that possible?”
“It is the very reason you were gifted the arachnid. Right now, it exists as a useless shadow. A figure of intimidation. But imagine if it could bedestructive?”
Zevander didn’t want to admit how terrifying the thought was. That he could possess a power so dangerous and deadly as a scorpion with black flame.
Thankfully, it would remain confined in Caligorya.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
MAEVYTH
A half-hour earlier …
Iurged Aleysia behind me, while the two of us cautiously crept toward the door.
“One two, three, four, four, three, two, one …” she whispered at my back with a whimper.
“You’re going to be fine. Do not make any sudden moves.”
“What do you expect me to do, if they decide to attack?Calmlywalk away?” Her voice trembled, and she kept on with her counting.
Two more pasty creatures emerged from my bedroom on long, spidery legs, their bodies wriggling to squeeze through the doorframe.
Bringing the total in the room to eight—all of them very slowly making their way toward us.
The largest one, across from me, pushed up onto its hind legs, revealing a horrifically deformed human face fused into its black carapace. Its haunting expression sent a chill down the back of my neck.
“No, no, no, no.” Aleysia whimpered again, and I reached back, gripping her arm to settle her, my palm nearly vibrating with her shaking muscles. “Four, three, two, one, one, two, three, four …”
“We’re going to get out of this. Do exactly as I say, do you understand?”
No sooner had I spoken the words than a spray of fluid ejected from the spider’s mouth, just missing me as it landed on the floor beside my boot, where it sizzled. The wooden floor curled and warped as the acid chewed at its surface.
“Oh, god. Oh, merciless bastard that I prayed to every night without fail, if you abandon me now, I will commit every sin The Red Book denounces!” Aleysia said behind me, and while I was glad for the amusement in her words, I couldn’t fully appreciate them right then, with my heart slamming against my ribs like a drum.
“Have we reached the door yet?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the creatures.
“I …. I can just reach the knob. Yes. Yes, we’re at the door.”
“Very slowly turn the knob.”
“What if they’re outside, too?” Her voice cracked to a pitch of panic.
“Then, we’re going to have to get really creative with prayers. But, at the moment, it’s the only way we’re getting out of this.”
The creak of the door alerted me that she had slowly gotten it open, and as the human spider stepped toward us, I threw out my trembling hand. The Aeryz glyph threw the creature backward into the wall, sending out a shiver of dust and dirt from the ceiling.
Another spider skittered toward us, and I blasted that one backward, too.
“Watch out, Maevyth!” The panic in Aleysia’s voice forced me to shift my focus to four more spiders descending on us from the ceiling, sliding down silky strands of their webs.
Both of us ducked low and scrambled backward, through the front door, to avoid them.
The larger spiders lurched forward on their hind legs, their forelegs grasping at the walls as they hustled toward us.
I threw out my hand, and a blast of air hurled them back just enough for me to close the door. Grabbing Aleysia’s hand in mine, I led her from the cottage through the snow and darted across the open field toward the road. Daring a glance back, I saw spiders of all sizes pouring out of the cottage after us, and had to swallow back the panic rising into my throat.
