Page 94 of Guardians of the Assassins
“Fuck!” Morgan struggled to get free but couldn’t find leverage to break his hold. “Let me go. I can?—”
“She’s already gone.” Caedmon cupped her face, forcing her eyes away from the darkness and the juicy sounds of the spiders consuming their latest victim. “And if we don’t do something, we’ll be next.”
Morgan blinked back tears, her shoulders slumped in defeat.
As much as it pained her to turn away, he was right.
It was a fate she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy, and herstomach heaved at the thought of her mates ending up the same way.
A deadly calm settled over her, and she took a deep breath. “We need to find the queen.”
And fast.
Atlas gently lowered her to the ground and picked up one of the torches, lifting it high in the air. Then he paused. “Here.”
Morgan and Caedmon came to a stop on either side of Atlas. She wasn’t sure what caught his attention…until she saw spiders swarming in and out of the well. “What do you want to bet that the queen is somewhere down the well?”
“Then we better move.” Caedmon lifted his sword and pointed at the darkness. “It won’t be long before the rest of the spiders return.”
Atlas picked up the extra torches and handed them off until they each had two. With a grim nod, they sprinted toward the stone well. Caedmon took the lead, using his sword as a golf club as he swatted the nasty creatures out of the way, the critters screeching in outrage as they flew through the air.
Once they reached the well, the spiders scurried away from the flames, chittering angrily.
Morgan glanced down, not sure what to expect, fearing something would reach out and pull her down into the dark depths.
And froze when she saw the graveyard of bones resting at the bottom. She counted at least a dozen different corpses mixed in the toxic sludge-like soup brewing at the bottom before she gave up. “What the hell?”
Atlas crouched near the base of the well and brushed away the dirt to reveal a thick chain. He glanced up at her with a grim expression. “The villagers lied. While it might have started off like they said, I’m guessing things changed. You heard them—the creatures gave them a reprieve and disappeared if they were fed.”
“The devil take them!” Morgan lurched away in disgust,appalled at the discovery. “They were sacrificing their own people!”
“More than likely.” Caedmon knocked away a few spiders who dared venture too close. “And the villagers decided that we were their next meal.”
“Fuck…that’s what they were doing inside the main building when we arrived.” She should’ve been pissed, but her heart felt heavy as she recalled the scared faces of the helpless women and children. “We can’t leave. They’ll keep killing each other until no one is left alive.”
“Then we find the queen.” Atlas rose, raising a torch above his head.
Something inside her squirmed at seeing so many beady little eyes peering back at her. Hundreds must have gathered while they were talking.
They didn’t move, didn’t fidget, didn’t so much as twitch.
It was eerie.
Like they were waiting.
After another minute, the spiders began to part, and Morgan lifted her own torch, squinting when something in the shadows moved toward them.
Her mouth dropped open when she saw Mirasole gliding toward them, completely unharmed, and everything began to make sense. “No wonder no one could find the queen. You were hiding among them the whole time.”
Mirasole smirked, then shrugged modestly, the thin girl replaced by a confident woman. Her glassy eyes appeared too large for her face, the orbs almost completely black. “Mating season is nearing. It’s survival. I must have enough food while I prepare my nest.”
Even as she spoke, her back arched, and two long rods punched out of her spine with a moist, sucking sound. The poles cracked much like a bone, bending and arching over her head. When six more rods joined the first, her mind finally processed what she was seeing.
Spider legs.
It was all she could do to swallow the bile that rose in her throat. “An arachne.”
Mirasole smiled, her jaw opening a little too wide, revealing a mouthful of needle-like teeth that should’ve been impossible to fit inside her mouth. “Smart and pretty. You will taste delicious. A simple bite from my beauties, and poison will flood your system. Your insides will liquefy, then I’ll crack you apart and savor you slowly.”
