Page 101 of The Spider & the Storm

“He didn't give me much of a choice.”

That smile was a full-on grin now. “I like him already.”

The table between the two chairs held my sketch pad and marker, and it caught Stormy's eye, like a brand-new shiny penny to a magpie. She hurried over from the desk and ran her fingers over the drawing I'd done of the trio of blackbirds that had perched themselves on my roof just a little over a week ago. Their presence had left an impression on my mind, and I'd sketched them down onto the page when I couldn't take their black-eyed stare any longer.

Stormy stared at their feathered forms, her lips parting with her hushed gasp before she shook her head and uttered, “Damn.”

She could've had any other reaction, she could've used any other word, and it wouldn't have fazed me. But it wasthatone—damn—that sent me back in time like a slingshot, and I could see Luke staring at the back of my bedroom door. At the spider trapped inside his storm. Shaking his head and muttering that one little word.

“Damn.”

“Your brother was right,” she said, as if she could see the scene in my head. “You are one talented motherfucker, Charlie.”

“He never said it quite like that,” I replied with a melancholy chuckle.

Her fingertips brushed gingerly over the spider at the bottom of the page, looking up from beneath the perched birds. “This is you?”

I narrowed my eyes with startled intrigue and tipped my head to watch as she grabbed the pad and flipped the page. “How did you figure that out?”

“Doesn't take a genius to figure out how you view yourself, Spider,” she muttered absentmindedly before looking up at me and raising a brow. “You wear it, literally, on your sleeves.”

“Maybe I just love spiders.”

“Hmm …” She puckered her lips and flipped another page. “I'm sure you do. But they're also your spirit animal.”

She presented the book to me, flashing a sketch of a black widow, surrounded by towering headstones. Ghouls swept from the graves, clouding the sky and shielding the spider from the world outside.

“These aren't just drawings,” Stormy assessed with enchantment twinkling in her eyes. “This is your diary.”

It had never been described that way before, but she wasn't wrong. She had me figured out, more than I could've ever expected. My chin lifted in a fake display of confidence as the little boy in my heart prayed she wouldn't turn the page.But she did, and her eyes widened before softening with the simultaneous parting of her lips.

I knew what she was seeing—the long-legged spider, curled inside the storm cloud, in deep, peaceful slumber, like a baby in a womb. The page beyond that cloud was blacked out, but that darkness couldn't breach the shield of lightning, illuminating the clouds’ edges. The spider wore a smile as he slept. He was finally comfortable, and even as the world outside was drenched in chaos and tragedy, he'd somehow found comfort in the most unlikely place. As if all those years of being trapped outside, all he'd needed was for one of those clouds overhead to invite him in.

Stormy raised her eyes from the page to pin me with her gaze. “Is this me?”

I swallowed, struggling to not allow my embarrassment and anxiety to take hold. Still, I dropped my chin in a single nod and replied with a quiet, “Yes.”

“Oh,” she whispered, looking back to the page, too stunned to do anything but stare.

She hates it.

My palms started to sweat as her eyes continued to dance across the page.

God, she thinks I'm insane.

I turned my head, diverted my gaze. All too aware of the uptick in my pulse and the raging in my heart.

Probably for the better, but … shit, why didn’t I put that fucking thing away?

I swallowed relentlessly at the prickly ball in my throat, certain I was about to choke on nothing but my shame and panic.

I don't want her to le—

“Hey, Charlie?”

A harsh whoosh of breath escaped my lungs as I replied, “Y-yeah?”

I looked in time for her to lower the sketch pad back to the table. She still stared at the open page, tracing her fingers over that cloud and the spider held within its shelter as she cleared her throat.

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