Page 192 of The Spider Queen
“Xan and I were foolish and hadn’t yet come into our powers.” Thane’s tone was wistful, his gaze resting on a faraway sand dune. “We got trapped here. Walked in circles for…what turned out to be twenty human years. We were buried under sand avalanches, and even after we clawed our way out of them, another would come. We were also taken prisoner by the Iron Soldiers. They’re faceless warriors wearing iron armor. They’re…well, I think they’re enchanted, but they’re tied to the desert.”
“Who enchanted them? Who do they belong to?”
He shook his head. “I have no idea. They were here long before my father and his father before him. Just one of those things.”
I bit my lip and nodded, lost in thought.
“They captured Xan and me, chained us up, and let the scorpions feed on us.”
“Holy hell.”
“Father came to our rescue, but not before we’d lost a few layers of skin.”
My stomach rebelled at the mental image.
“And I’ve never been back to the desert since.”
“Until now.”
“Until now,” he repeated with a nod.
I took his hand in mine. “Then let’s make a vow that when we get out of this alive, we’ll never come back here.”
“Please, yes,” Thane growled. “Never again.”
We continued on in silence. The moons finally set and the sun rose, a blazing yellow disk that heated my skin and felt like it had reached inside my body to scorch my bones. Even with the suit on, I struggled.
I wished for something to keep the sun off me.
A moment later, I felt a hat on my head and sunglasses perched on my nose. The spiders reached out with their mental connection, asking if I approved.
Thane let out a laugh.
“What?”
“That hat is too big for your head.”
I reached up to take it off. It was one of those floppy boho hats women wore on beach vacations.
“I like it. Actually”—I set it back on my head—“I love it.”
The spiders hummed with pleasure.
“Like yours are much better? You can’t pull off a cowboy hat and aviators,” I lied, gesturing to the accessories his own spiders had given him.
“Oh, really?” he teased.
How about this picture?
He showed me a vision of him in chaps and bare-chested.
“Damn,” I said with a grin. “You win.” I looked across the desert and stopped. The landscape had changed while I hadn’t been paying attention. Dunes had shifted. I looked behind us at our trail. Our footsteps had disappeared.
“Oh, I see what you mean,” I said.
“That wasn’t even that bad yet.”
“Why do the dunes shift?”
