Page 134 of The Spider Queen

Thane chuckled.Yes. We do.

So, to be clear, we haven’t been together-together.

No, Poppy. We haven’t been together-together. When that finally happens, you’ll have no doubt about it.

Pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?

Focus on the climb. You can challenge me later. I look forward to it.

I laughed and kept going. There was a strange relief in the routine. One rung after another, one step after another. Hunger fell away, tiredness fell away, the cold Irish wind somehow invigorating.

I was three quarters of the way up the ladder when everything around me changed. The air stopped blowing, the birds ceased cawing, and even the waves crashing against the cliffs below me calmed.

My gaze searched the sky and horizon, looking for anything out of place. Seeing nothing unusual, I turned back to continue my ascent, but I caught something out of the corner of my eye.

In my dream, they’d flown in a golden wave. Now, they flew in aswarm.The grating sounds of flapping mechanical wings hit my ears, and I felt something wet pour down the sides of my face. I looked up to see if it had started to rain, but the sky was cloudy and white—not dark and gray. I took one hand off the ladder and touched my ear. It came away bloody.

My ears were bleeding.

I scurried up the ladder, trying to get to the top before the wasps were on me. My feet slipped and my palms were sweaty, making it difficult to keep a strong hold. When I was almost at the pinnacle, the wasps engulfed me in a cloud of gold. They sank their magical stingers into my skin. Poison and pain loosened my hold on the ladder, but I held on, refusing to let go, refusing to succumb.

Screams tore from my throat.

Use your army!Thane yelled.

My mouth opened and a flood of black onyx spiders emerged. They beat the golden wasps off me. My head rang with the noise of metal scraping against metal and rocks as spiders and wasps went down in a cloud of black and gold. I watched the mass plummet, battling the entire way, until the entirety of it dropped into the ocean, landing with a resounding splash.

And then all was quiet.

Taking a deep breath, I gripped the ladder and waited for my heartbeat to calm. Finally, I forced my injured body the rest of the way. I didn’t stop until I was standing on a rocky ledge, the murky magical ward in front of me.

Chapter 53

I didn’t take a moment to breathe—I placed my hands on the invisible wall and braced for whatever was to come.

The ward fell away to reveal a cavern tunnel. I stepped forward immediately, feeling an unmistakable pull. Stone scraped on stone and the ground I stood on rumbled and groaned. I whirled around. The exit to the cave had closed. Instead of dying Irish sunlight and the Atlantic Ocean, I saw nothing but a gray slab of rock.

There was no longer any choice. I had to keep moving forward.

So I took off through the tunnel at a run, holding on to the straps of the backpack. My lungs burned and my legs ached, but still I ran. There was a pinprick of light in the distance. The ceiling of the cavern was widening as I sprinted and stone began to give way to green. A green so bright it made the green of Ireland look dull. I spilled out of the cavern into a magical glen.

The sky was a faded shade of indigo. There was a white moon so full it looked like it was about to sink into the land. Silver stars twinkled in their purplish net. The air was warm and muggy; my damp wool sweater became too heavy. I shucked the backpack and sweater, leaving them on the ground.

In the distance, I saw a bone-white stone platform. A tall man with half his face in shadow, stood at the altar, his hand pressed to a stone table near the base.

I wanted to take my time and look around, memorize the colors and the beauty. But I couldn’t take my gaze off him. My heart pounded with anticipation and knowing. I took a step forward, my shoe touching the first white stone step riddled with ancient moss-filled fissures.

“Where am I?” I asked, my voice shattering the stillness of the night.

Still, but not static, I realized.

“Beyond the Veil,” came the reply. Thane’s voice was nothing like in my dreams or in my mind. It was darker, richer. Like all the exotic temptations the world had to offer were audible when he spoke.

He held out his hand.

I took it.

Thane pulled me up the last few steps, his face no longer in shadow. I looked into his dark, fathomless eyes. I expected them to swallow light, but instead, they reflected the silver glow of the moon. Moonbeams caressed his strong, angular jaw, and my free hand reached up to stroke his cheek.