Page 15 of The Catacomb King
I bit my tongue until the tears behind my eyeballs dried up.
After a moment, when my body had stopped shaking so hard, and the spider-godling hadn’t burst back into the room to eat my face off, I dared to inch closer to the shining object on the floor. Maybe it was something I could use. Or a clue as to what they were going to do to me. I reached out with my spear to drag it over to the fire, so I wouldn’t have to touch it.
It was a small glass container of berries.
Even through my fear, my stomach grumbled.
I winced against the twanging hunger-pain in my stomach. But they’d have to try a little harder than that. As if I could forget the woman who’d escaped the underworld and been dragged back by the magnet in her belly. There was one rule, along withDon’t get kidnapped, and that wasDon’t eat the underworld’s food. I’d never get out if I did.
I unrolled the rug and ground the fruit into it with my bare foot.
The door opened again. I raised my spear. But it wasn’t the spider-godling.
It was the Prince.
My breath went from my lungs. I hated myself for it, but I had never been so relieved to see someone in my life. I was just glad it wasn’t the spider-creature. The Prince was far from safe — he’d kidnapped me, for gods’s sake — but at least helookedhuman. Or mostly human.
On some level, you could tell that he wasn’t really a human being. He was just half an inch too tall, a hair too broad-shouldered. But apart from that…
His thick black hair fell to his chin in blunt sheets. Someone had chopped it off with the same carelessness they’d used tofabricate the rug and furniture, but the rough edges only made him look wilder and set off the line of his jaw. His neck was as corded as it had been under my tongue (and marked with red bite-marks where I’d drawn blood, ha). And the muscles of his arms and chest showed far too clearly through the thin, clinging fabric of his black silk shirt. Muscles that could throw me around like I weighed no more than a feather.
Not that it mattered, but he wasextremelyhandsome.
I scowled. I didn’t have time for thoughts like this. This godling wanted to eat me.
I’d let him, some traitorous part of me whispered slyly.Depending on what part he wanted to eat.
Enough of that, I snarled at myself. I resettled my grip on the spear.
The Prince scowled, too. Then his eyes fell on the berry mush in the carpet. “What is that?”
“I’m not eating your evil food,” I spat.
“Hmph. I could force it down your throat.”
“I’d like to see you try!”
“Your Lordship,” whispered the bug-lady. I jumped. She was sneaking in, hiding behind the Prince, her human face looking for all the world like she was scared shitless. The spear started to rattle in my hands again. I gulped and fixed my attention on her human face, as if that would help me block out the rest of her. “Look out. She has a weapon.”
“Yes, yes, she’s very resourceful,” the Prince said sarcastically. He clearly wasn’t fazed by my makeshift spear at all. “I’m sorry about all this, Elke. You may go.”
The bug-lady hesitated. “Your Lordship…”
“I’ll be fine,” The Prince said. He glanced away from me and toward the bug-lady. Elke. I was surprised to see real tenderness in his face. Dear gods. Was that hisgirlfriend? His bug girlfriend?
And if so, why was she acting so afraid of him? He was being nice to her.
Or… wait.
Was she scared ofme?
Elke backed up, glancing anxiously between me and the Prince. She kept watching us even as she started to close the door.
And kept closing the door.
Excruciatingly slowly.
The Prince rolled his eyes. “It’sfine, Elke.”
