Page 15

A flicker of candlelight highlights the creature’s face, just for a second.

It has a bald, vaguely humanoid head and wholly black eyes.

Shiny and reflective, like a dead TV screen.

Pallid skin covers its entire body, stretched so tight it looks translucent.

And while the upper body is similar to a human’s naked torso, with arms and a heaving ribcage, its lower half is monstrous.

Eight gaunt legs, longer than I am tall, lurch toward me, the sharp ends stabbing into the hardwoods with each step.

“What are you?” I ask. My voice comes as a horrified whisper, and I blink again, hoping the monster disappears.

It doesn’t. It only emits a strange choking sound, tilting its head as it watches me. Its mouth splits into a wide grin, showcasing two rows of jagged teeth.

“No,” I say through a broken sob. “No, Sebastian. Please. One more day. Give me just one more day?—”

Sebastian doesn’t respond. He’s not outside with the others, but he’s clearly not here either.

The creature screams, the sound something between a human wail and an animalistic roar. It’s loud enough I barely hear my own cries as I sprint across the room. I try for the door, but the creature spins, charging. The windows are my only other option, my only other chance.

I make it there in four strides, slamming against the glass. With both fists, I strike the window again and again, until the glass shakes and my bones tremble.

“Help me!” I beg. “Please—I can’t. Please!”

The pretty brunette grins at me, eyes wild with satisfaction.

“Monsters!” I scream. “All of you! Monsters!”

Something—one of the creature’s legs, I think—catches my side. I’m airborne before I can comprehend what’s happened. For five horrible seconds, my stomach drops and my breath leaves my lungs. Then I strike the far wall, landing on the ground in a heap.

I blink at the floor, at my hands trembling against the wood, at the collection of massive spider legs standing too close.

I follow that pale skin up and up and up, over the misshapen rib cage and across broad shoulders and finally to those hideous, vacant eyes.

They reflect me, cowered here on the floor.

Something cut my cheek, and my blood drips down my face, dotting my knuckles.

The creature smiles at me, revealing dozens of small, pointed teeth. It’s the mouth of a piranha, and unless I do something , it’s going to devour me whole .

“Don’t,” I say. I lunge to my feet, legs shaking as I flatten against the wall. The spider-creature watches, tilting its head, smile growing wider by the second. “You stay there. You’ve got nothing to do with me. Whatever Sebastian did to you?—”

At his name, the creature roars. Its jaws open inhumanly wide, as if the bones came disconnected. I shrink against the wall, but keep my eyes steady

“I have nothing to do with him,” I say firmly. “I’m a prisoner, just like you. If we work together, we can both?—”

It surges for me, moving exactly like spiders in the real world.

Fast and erratic, sharp legs blurring against the floor.

I’m screaming, running, even though I know it’s useless.

I sprint for the door. Ten feet, and I’ll break through.

If it’s locked… No . It won’t be locked.

It’ll be open. I’ll reach it in eight feet.

Seven.

Six.

One of the creature’s legs catches my hip.

I’m thrown again, farther this time, crashing against the window.

I don’t know if it’s the one where Cora and the others are watching.

There’s no time to look. By the time I’ve hit the floor, I’m moving again.

The creature shoves me to the center of the room, as if I’m weightless.

I come to a stop on my stomach. Everything hurts, and I’m pretty sure my ankle is broken. I’ve never broken a bone. I’ve never even had a bruise that lasted longer than a few days. Now, I feel like I’ve shattered. There’s nothing left in me to stand up.

The most I can manage is to crawl for the door, nails scraping against the floor as I drag myself.

It’s useless. The creature is too fast, too powerful. Its leg shoves my hip, forcing me to my back as it towers over me. I’m facing its soft underbelly. If I had a sword—or any fight in me at all—that’s where I’d attack.

Instead, I only lay there, tears streaming to my ears.

“Stop!” I scream. It’s more of a sob than anything else. My mouth tastes of blood, but I have no idea whether it’s from a swollen lip or something internal.

The creature stabs, a sharp, punching motion, aimed for my gut. I roll onto my side, moving just far enough to dodge the strike. It’s going to kill me, I realize. There’s no way…

Focus , Cora had told me. You have to focus.

So I try. I hold my hands toward the creature’s underbelly and dig for whatever magic supposedly lives within me. I scream, fingers extended, arms trembling.

“Come on!” I shout. “Do something!”

I ignore the creature as it shifts, focusing only on my hands, only on my buried magic. Sure that if I can just find it, I’ll be able to?—

Its leg stabs through my stomach. It’s as quick as a bee sting. One moment, its leg is lodged in my body. The next, the creature has vanished entirely. I’m left alone, staring up at the dusty, arched ceiling.

A strange groan fills the air, and it takes me a moment to realize it’s me . I grasp my stomach with both hands, but it does nothing to stop the bleeding. There’s too much blood, pooling across my waist and onto the floor. If the creature doesn’t come back for me, a vampire undoubtedly will.

I blink against a haze of darkness. I’m going to pass out, I think, and maybe that’s for the best. If I’m going to die a horrible death, it’d be better not to feel it.

I loll my head to the side, scanning the room for the creature. My magic must have worked. Somehow, I must have killed it.

I finally find it in a lump of discolored flesh near the windows.

I stare for a long moment, before realizing it’s the creature’s shriveled legs and nothing else.

A trail of blood leads from the lower body to its upper half across the room.

The torso is almost to the wall, strewn across the floor with organs exposed and those blank black eyes frozen in death.

The creature isn’t just dead. It’s been brutally ripped in two.

“Did I do that?” I whisper. I’m not sure who I’m asking, and I’m not sure why . It’s obvious?—

“Afraid not, little witch,” Sebastian says.

I twist toward his voice, grunting at the sharp spike of pain.

Sebastian strolls toward me, coming from the direction of the door.

He pockets a key, staring down at me with an unreadable expression.

He’s covered in blood. It’s the same inky black that spills from the creature’s body, and I realize he killed it, not me.

“It seems you were going to let that thing kill you,” he says. The blood stains his chin and chest, coating both hands. Despite his taunting words, Sebastian doesn’t look relaxed. His face is strained, jaw tight as he looks over me.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure someone will finish the job,” I say. I look down at my stomach, at the blood pooling between my shaking fingers. I’m surprised there isn’t already a horde of vampires eating me alive.

“The door is locked. No one can get in.”

“Why? So you can eat me yourself?”

“Hells, Grace. You should be thanking me,” he says, voice clipped. “If I hadn’t?—”

I don’t plan to move. I don’t consciously decide to do anything. All I know is I want him gone. I want him so far from me, I never have to look at his stupid face again.

He flies across the room, and my hand moves, powered by magic I don’t understand. I bend my fingers, slamming Sebastian against the wall, holding him there. Though I’m not physically touching him, I swear, I can feel his breaths against my palm. I can almost feel his cold, dead heart beating.

“Fuck you,” I say.

My words are barely a whisper, so quiet I’m not sure he hears me. Still, they’re the last I hear as I lose consciousness, and I close my eyes with a smile.