Page 92 of The Spider Queen
Blood pounded in my ears. “And this generation…”
Hunter nodded. “This generation, you’re the one.” He closed his eyes. “I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you. You weren’t supposed to fall in love with me. This is…there are rules.”
“I don’t know any of the rules!” I shouted, flying off the bed. I grabbed a mini bottle—I didn’t stop to look and see what it was—I just opened it and chugged. Vodka burned its way down my throat.
“Hunters serve Thane. They have for generations. Our goal—our single goal—find and protect the woman that will one day free him from his prison.”
“Protect?” I interrupted. “Youleftme. And then I was committed. How was that protecting me?”
“I had to leave.”
“What? Why?”
“Thane’s orders.”
“Swell,” I sneered. “That’s it? That’s the only explanation I get?”
“Yes! I didn’t even get an explanation from Thane, all right? I just had to go!”
“So you take orders from an entity that is trapped in the body of a spider in a centuries-old glass cube. Is it a real prison for him?”
He sighed. “The box isn’t a prison. Well, it is. But it’s nothing more than the first test. You shattered the box, freeing him to move. So you passed.”
“I was the one that did that? How?”
He shrugged.
“That’s not an answer.” I gripped the mini bottle, wanting it to break. Because I needed something that would make all of this feel real. Would glass in my hand and blood on the carpet do that?
Hunter attempted to sit up again and succeeded this time, though he put a hand to his head and closed his eyes.
I was pissed—pissed at Hunter for keeping all of this from me for so long, pissed at Thane, who wasn’t a fucking spider…or was he? It was too much! Not to mention thatvoice. Thane’s voice coming out of Hunter’s mouth had confused the hell out of me.
I loved Hunter. But I wasn’t supposed to?
I sifted through all the information Hunter had thrown at me, latching onto a single word. “Test? You said freeing Thane from the cube was the first test.”
“There’s another test,” Hunter drawled.
“Well? Don’t keep me in the dark!” I snapped when it was clear Hunter didn’t want to keep talking.
He sighed. “There’s no way to prepare. You just have to…be tested. Which is why we have to go to Ireland.”
“Ireland? You’re shitting me.”
Hunter’s mouth formed a line, and he shook his head. “No, I’m not.”
“Why Ireland?”
“Because the mists, the Veil, the whatever you want to call it—between our world and the—”
“Oh God, just stop. Stop, I can’t take anymore!” I clutched my head and closed my eyes.
Hunter fell silent.
I crawled onto the bed, curled up into a ball, and tried to shut out everything I’d just learned.
“It would’ve been so much easier if I had just been crazy,” I muttered.
