“It does for me.”
Gabriel shared a look with me. “Do we have a better option?”
“No,” I said. “If you’re wrong, you’re out that doughnut.”
“I’m not wrong,” Beezle said.
We crept quietly into the hall. I was in front and Gabriel walked behind me with his back pressed against mine. We weren’t sure if more spiders were lurking on the ceiling or if Amarantha and Violet might leap from the walls and try to take us out from behind.
The hallway was still eerily silent. We walked slowly, listening for threats, all three of us strung tight with tension.
I hoped that I hadn’t sent J.B. and Samiel to their doom because I’d foolishly trusted Amarantha’s word. Over and over again Gabriel and Beezle had warned me against taking immortals at face value. It seemed that I had trouble learning that lesson.
We turned south according to Beezle’s directions and entered a hallway that was filled with spun silk. The bodies of dead faeries hung in the webbing.
“There had better not be any more spiders down here,” I said. “Because I just can’t take another one.”
It was difficult to get through the hall without disturbing the webs. We had to stop and untangle from the sticky stuff more than once. I was hyperventilating by the time we got to the end—without encountering any more spiders, thank goodness.
There was a wide set of stone steps at the end of the hall and we followed them up. At the top of the stairs was another long hallway. Both sides had large arched window openings cut out. The left side windows were covered in multicolored glass and looked out over the forest that bordered Amarantha’s castle. The right side windows were free of glass. I stepped forward to peek around the arch, and my heart stopped.
The windows looked over a large, long room that might have been a dining hall once. It was still a dining hall—of a different sort.
The room seethed with spiders of all sizes. They fed on faeries and charcarion demons—obviously Amarantha was willing to use whomever she had on hand to keep her pets satisfied. Everywhere I looked there were clutches of eggs hanging in the webs.
“An average-sized spider will lay about a hundred eggs in one of those sacs,” Beezle said quietly.
“Those aren’t average-sized spiders,” I replied. “There are probably thousands of them in there.”
“What shall we do?” Gabriel asked. “We cannot leave them here to breed further. If Amarantha releases these upon a large population of humans…”
“They could wipe out half a city in a day,” I said. “Normal people aren’t prepared to deal with monsters like this.”
“Are you going to set everything on fire again?” Beezle asked.
I looked at Gabriel. “Probably. It’s the most effective way to take out a bunch of them at once. But if I do that, we have to make sure that Wade and J.B. and Samiel are clear of the building first. And then we have to make sure that the spiders can’t escape from this room.”
“Well, I don’t think they can open doors,” Beezle said.
“But they can break them down if they’re in a room filled with smoke and flame,” I replied. “And the smaller spiders can easily escape up the walls and out these windows. Every creature has a self-preservation instinct.”
“I know. Mine is kicking in right now,” Beezle said.
“Let us find the others, then return for this,” Gabriel said. “We do not want to attract the creatures’ attention.”
I crouched to the ground and duckwalked below the bottom sill of the arches until we reached the end. I was terrified the whole time that I’d see the hairy leg of a spider creeping through a window, but we managed to make it through safely without being attacked.
We climbed another set of steps, came to another hallway.
“They all look the same,” I said desperately.
“We’re heading in the right direction,” Beezle insisted.
“But are we choosing the correct passages?” Gabriel asked. “One wrong turning and we will miss them.”
Then we heard it—the clatter of footsteps, angry cries, and the howl of a wolf.
“This way,” I said, turning to the right and running down the hall to another junction.
I was knocked from my feet by a large furred body, and when I stopped seeing stars I looked up to see a panting black-and-gray wolf standing on my chest. He licked my face.
“Wade,” I said, putting my arms around his neck. “Wade, thank goodness.”
J.B. and Samiel pounded up behind him.
“No time for happy reunions,” J.B. panted. “There are about a hundred demons behind us.”
“And we’re running for our lives again,” Beezle said grumpily.
Wade leapt off me, and Gabriel helped me to my feet.
“We don’t have time to fight off all those demons,” I said. “We still have to destroy all those spiders.”
Wade whined, nudging my leg.
“I know—walk and talk,” I said, and we ran into the hallway. “J.B., do you think we could collapse the passageway behind us?”
“This castle is bound by more than brick and mortar. There’s magic in every crevice. You’d never be able to knock even a part of it down,” J.B. said. “Besides, it wouldn’t really help. There are multiple ways in and out of every part of the castle. If you collapse the passage, they’ll just go through the walls.”