17. Arachnophobia
Arachnophobia
Rumor Malefic
The vines dropped me roughly to the ground. Gripping a handful of graveyard dirt, I threw it at Riot’s perfectly white button-up shirt that matched his perfectly white hair. Dirt splattered over him yet didn’t dampen his air of superiority. “Well, that was rude. Come along, back to your cage, rat.”
“Rat is right,” Spade said lowly as his raven stretched its wings on his shoulder.
“I’m not going anywhere with you two.”
Spade glared. “Stay with Wander if you want. Our groundskeeper is due for a feeding in the moonlight.”
My blood chilled at the memory of the creature of legend. “You have a lycanthrope as a groundskeeper?”
“Nice fellow,” Riot replied, dusting off his shoulders. “Gets a bit twitchy around the full moon. Other than that, we like him. He’s better company than the bones, at least.”
“I’m assuming that’s the walking skeletons?”
“Aw,” Riot whined and kicked at a rock before nudging Spade. “I told you I wanted to be there when she saw the bones for the first time.”
Spade lifted a shoulder and smirked. “Sorry, couldn’t help myself. You should have seen her run and scream.”
“I hate both of you,” I spat.
Riot put a hand to his heart. “We have but the fondest of regards toward you… what’s your name again?”
“I didn’t give it, and I won’t give it.” Reluctantly, I followed them through the mess of graves and hills, back toward the pointed onyx castle.
What else was I going to do? There was no obvious escape.
They had me cornered, and either I went back inside with the bones, talking mice, and clocks—or I stayed out here with a lycanthrope.
Spade broke the silence, his raven watching my every move. “You say your sister was taken? Taken by whom?”
Anger burned in my chest, and the phantom absence of my dagger was hollow on my thigh.
How dare he ask such a stupid question. “You ask as if you’re not directly responsible.
” I sucked in a breath, realizing I’d come here to force them to help, by any means necessary—hexing included.
Though perhaps first, I should try the more agonizing route— honesty .
Giving the inside of my cheek a good bite to hold in what I really wanted to say, I continued.
“My sister was taken by a wither on the day of her wedding rite. Now, I’ve come to implore you two to do your duty, protect our town, and aid in getting her back.
And I’ll accomplish those things by any means necessary. ”
There was a small stretch of silence before Riot startled me with his deranged laugh.
I was really growing tired of his unstable, unserious mood.
Meanwhile, his brother regarded me with all the severity in the realms. Did he ever truly laugh and smile?
Spade treated me with the same annoyance as if I’d kicked his stupid bird and licked his toast.
“What’s so funny about that?” I replied through gritted teeth, stepping over a notched tree trunk and almost tripping over an ill-placed tombstone.
“Or can you not comprehend caring about anyone other than yourself? You and your magical warm water on demand.” I grumbled, realizing I actually wanted to go to my room and employ a bath of that magical ready-warm water right that moment.
“That’s not magic,” Spade said matter-of-factly. “It’s called plumbing . Flip the switches on the wall while you’re at it and be amazed at the on-demand light sources, too. Not magic— electricity .”
I shook my head, shaking off his nonsense. “I really don’t care about your stupid, pampered, creepy little castle. I care about getting my sister back.”
“I’m laughing,” Riot finally answered, spinning around and picking up a long, raven feather, twirling it between his fingers. “Because you’re a liar. Quite a bad one, too.”
“What?” My mouth dropped open. “I’m not a liar. Why else would I go through all of this?”
Spade tightened his jaw, as if holding in words because discussing my small life was the most irritating topic he’d ever encountered.
Riot swiped the feather along my cheek as we neared the castle steps.
I jerked away and swatted at his hand. The white-haired, pale-eyed brother recoiled before I made contact.
He smiled, giddy at the thought that I was playing some unknown game with him.
“A, what do you call it, wither? Sure, whatever. Those beasts don’t take women, well, not unless they want to be taken. Did your sister want it?”
Charging forward, fueled by hate, I grabbed his shirt and pushed him forward. “Don’t say that. Don’t you dare say that. Prism is the kindest, most gentle soul. She doesn’t deserve to be trapped within the hold of the most evil among us.”
Spade sauntered forward, running a lazy finger down the wing of his raven. “ Second most evil.”
His magic scraped down my spine, sucking the air from my lungs, coiling around my ribs like barbs from a branch of thorns.
I sucked in a sharp breath. “Watch your words, watch your steps, and watch your back. You may not be able to leave, but there’s nothing stopping your demise here.
Trust me, it would give me great pleasure to watch that smart mouth be silenced forever. ”
The pain tightening around my ribs pricked tears to my eyes. “You have to help,” I begged. Yes, I resorted to begging. “Please. Please, I’ll do anything.”
Riot grinned a menacing, hateful smile, relishing in the torture his brother wreaked upon me, making me squirm. He trailed the feather down my chest, between my cleavage. “Anything?”
Without thinking, I spat in his face again.
“I’m already done with her,” Spade said, stepping forward and tightening the magical chord.
A scream choked out from my throat and thunder rumbled above me.
“Let’s get one thing straight. You belong to us now.
Your old life, your coven, your attachment to Willowspire, are all gone.
All that remains is this, us, and whatever we choose to do with you.
Surely, we can find use for you—once we break you.
So, stop lying, stop playing games, and accept your fate, Rumor Malefic . ”
Horror shot through me.
He knew my name.
Spade’s scarred and hateful gaze glared down at me with more power than the lightning bolt that flashed behind his broad shoulders.
Riot joined his brother after drying his cheek with his sleeve. “Perhaps she needs a display of just how powerful we are, brother.”
In an instant, their subtle enchantments that had been scraping against me, taunting me, and pricking across my skin, mobilized into tangible agony. The invisible, magical thorns of ancient Blackthorne power dug into my skin deeper, and I screamed, a tear streaking my cheek just as rain fell.
“She knows,” Spade said lowly. “I can feel it. I can feel her weak, inadequate magic hiding like a child under a bed. Rumor Malefic, daughter of Spirit and Alchemy Malefic. Like them, she’s not worth the air she consumes.”
Riot looked at his brother and narrowed his gaze, about to say something, as I fought against my bindings with a loud, angry groan. “I will hex and kill you both. You will help me. I will invent ways to make your lives a living hell until then. Nothing will stop me. I’ll never quit.”
Spade huffed in mockery and waved his hand.
“Take her to her room, I’m sick of looking at her.
” Just then, two skeletons appeared at the top of the stairs.
They marched down and took hold of my arms. The magic released me then, and I coughed, gasping for air, still feeling the phantom thorns in my side.
The bones pulled me up the stairs then, my mind faint from the onslaught of dark magic that had just washed over me—and then, even worse and more frightening… my head began to hurt.
“No, no, no,” I whined, tears falling down my cheeks. “Not now. Not now, spider.”
My vision blurred as I was dragged up the rocky stairs, perhaps luckily, because I wouldn’t have been able to walk on my own. Riot’s blur of white appeared, though I couldn’t make out his features as the spider pressed painfully against my temples and the rain poured. “Are you alright?”
Pain gripped my jaw, and the sharp grip of bone fingers released me then. My body tumbled forward, but right before I hit the stone steps, two arms scooped me up. Riot carried me up the remaining stairs, kicked open the front door, and marched me inside.
“What are you doing?” Spade growled after him.
“Shut the fuck up,” he bit back. “You’ve done enough.”
Heaviness pulled my head to rest on Riot’s chest. I didn’t want to be in his arms. Clary sage and wood mixed with every short, painful breath I took. The invisible spider gripped harder, wrapping its legs around my head, and I moaned in agony, digging my nails into Riot’s bicep.
It was hard to be sure what was real and what was imagined as I felt us ascend a winding staircase. “I’ve got you,” I thought I heard him say softly. “I can help.”
“I don’t want your help,” I mumbled weakly.
“Maybe not, but you need it.”
Humming through my pain, I involuntarily rested into his warmth, pain inhabiting me, consuming me—burying me in a pit of oblivion once more.