Page 86 of Guarded By the Nightmare

“And what about the ink? To connect us to you?”

I let myself drop into the tangled morass of fate below, taking my hourglass with me. “Conserve it as you have been. The theory will be the same—I will take on all of your bad fates, commingling themwith mine—but you will not ever have any more ink to create with, because this pit will be locked. From the inside. Irrevocably.”

I lay down on top the bright and twining strands, feeling them welcome me, even as what was left of me that was real felt old bones grinding beneath me below.

I opened my arms wide, grabbed hold of the edges of the pit’s covering, then hauled it closed above myself, hearing stone grind over stone, as I fell into my fate.

65

MINA

Not long after that,we were all settled into some sort of battle-van, which the Arachnaea only barely fit into the back of, while Sirena and I—now wearing bulletproof vests—were squished into tiny jump-seats, and Royce and Omara were up front.

I took out Ella’s pot of Perfect Blue Pigment from my purse, and drew aggressive streaks of it beneath both my eyes.

“Can you give us any more details on what we’re going up against?” Royce asked.

“They’re all dudes. I haven’t seen them use weapons so far, and”—I preemptively winced—“they’re all going to be really lucky.”

“They cannot bethatlucky, if we are going to attack them,” the spider-monster pointed out.

“You have a point. I’m Mina,” I said, sticking out a hand.

“Nine,” he said, taking it.

“I, uh, saw your documentary.”

The Arachnaea didn’t say anything to that—he just let out a long-suffering sigh.

“And the layout of the grounds?” Royce pressed.

I thought back to the night when I’d seen the cabin last, beneath an almost full moon. My heart swam into my throat at the memories, and when Sirena caught my hand to squeeze it, I realized she was probably able to see everything that’d happened to me in my mind.

“I’m sorry,” I said, ducking my head down in shame.

“Don’t be,” she said, letting go of my hand with a pat, and then tucking both of her thumbs into the armpits of her vest, looking incredibly official, though her long blonde hair, now braided up in a ponytail, made her look like Commando Barbie. “This is what we’re here for.”

I gave a stiff nod, then continued. “It’s an old two-story cabin, with a pretty wide fire break all around it—but the whole thing’s deep in the woods. Heavy forests, with old trails. And they’ve got magical tripwires and probably some plain cameras, so they’ll know we’re coming.”

Royce grumbled, then hit some buttons on his center console.

“What’re you doing?” Omara asked.

“Summoning reinforcements. Just in case.”

“You don’t think I can take on a contingent of human men?” she teased, and he picked up her hand to kiss it.

“I don’t want you to break a nail, handling the bodies,” he said.

Omara gave him an indulgent smile and Sirena snickered.

The roadwe were on started being flanked by parked cars—BMWs, Mercedes, and Teslas—until we reached a gate that was blocking the road.

“Nine?” Royce asked, and the massive spider let himself out instantly—making the back of the van spring up several inches without his weight. He walked up to the gate slowly, probably investigating it with his spider’s senses—and then someone took a pot shot at him.

After that he leapt into the trees, leaving a row of shaking green branches behind him.

“Boy, did they just come at the wrong guy,” Royce muttered. Then the spider reappeared, bounding from the sky down to the road in front of us, holding up a middle-aged man, fully trussed.

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