Page 63 of The Mating Quest

“Forget me, free Chloe,” heordered.

She freed his sister and Chloe dropped to the ground. And then his heart nearlystopped.

A spider larger than a minivan skittered toward them. It hesitated, and then its jaws clicked together. TheOllpheist.

It sprayed silk over Chloe, who shifted into her wolf. She tore free, running for the crevice. TheOllpheistskittered toward her, fangs dripping and snapping, ready to tear her in half. One bite and Chloe would diehorribly.

“Ilana, forget us! Protect my sister,” Ethanshouted.

Ethan struggled against the threads, sawing through them. Almost there. Dakota and Ryan were more tightly bound. He had to save his sister. Cutting faster, he tried to focus as sweat rolled down his forehead and the silk cut deeper into hisskin.

Out of the darkness, Ilana rushed forward, screaming and holding her sword aloft. She pushed Chloe forward, toward the rock crevice, and confronted theOllpheist.

Ethan worked faster. Ilana couldn’t take on the giant spider alone. Chloe was nearly at thecrevice.

Finally he cut through and dropped to the ground and heard a horrific scream. Torchlight showed Ilana stabbing the spider with her sword, but the blow barely penetrated. The spider’s jaws wrapped around Ilana’s mid-section.

Dear goddess, it looked to be feeding offher…

She kept stabbing, andstabbing.

“Chloe, hurry,” he yelled running forward to the spider, and threw his dagger to divert theOllpheist.

The spider released Ilana, who fell, moaning. Ilana rolled away, out of reach. And then theOllpheistignored him and moved toward Ilana. Cursing, blood dripping into his eyes, Ethan ran faster. Couldn’t shift into dragon, but lizards atespiders…

He shifted into a lizard the size of a four door sedan, and attacked from the rear. Bit hard, the foul taste of black blood in his mouth. TheOllpheistmewled, backed away from Ilana. He attacked again. The monster danced out of reach, but skittered toward Ilana to finish heroff.

Chloe reached the crevice. She shifted back into Skin and picked up the glowing blue bag. The light went to brilliant silver, illuminating the entire cavern. With a banshee scream, theOllpheistvanished, along with all the spiders in thecavern.

Ilana lay on the ground,panting.

Suddenly the cavern walls were filled with brilliant blue, gold and silver colors. Light bounced off the rock walls, shimmering and glittering. So beautiful it hurt. He ran to Ilana. Freed from the webs, Dakota and Ryan shifted into Skin and joinedhim.

“Ethan your wounds. They’ve healed! Mine too,” Dakotasaid.

He examined his arms. It was as if nothing happened and the entire episode was a nightmare, but for the glowing blue bag Chloe palmed in herhands.

“Chloe, give me the decoy scale,” Ethanordered.

As his sister handed him the fake scale, he heard Ilana gasping forbreath.

He knelt at her side. “Why isn’t she healed?” Ryanasked.

It didn’t matter. In the brilliant light her skin was ghastly gray, her eyes growing white. She doubled over and moaned, clasping her stomach. Two round puncture marks showed in the leathervest.

Chloe ran over. “Maybe I can heal her with the dragon’sscale.”

“No! Lucas said not to touch it. We need to get her outside, and call the wizards for aid.” Ethan picked her up. She felt likeice.

They ran outside the cavern room. Lucas sat on a rock, grinning. “Hey you made it! Knew youwould.”

His smile dropped as he saw Ilana. “Oh…damn.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Dakota demanded. “Why wasn’t she healed when Chloe touched the dragonscale?”

“She must have dark magick. TheOllpheistis attracted to that. It wanted her because it needs darkness to incubate its eggs.” Lucas lookedgrim.

Ethan felt sick. “She’s filled with spider eggs from that…thing?”