Page 138 of Sigils & Spells

Pippa’s eyes flew open to see several chameleons hovering around Tempest.

“Knock it off,” one of them said, shoving a second chameleon to the side. “I saw her first.”

“Hey, both of you knock it off,” a third chameleon snapped, shoving his way between the two and capturing Tempest’s hand in this. “Sorry about that, love.” He lifted her hand and brushed a kiss across its surface, which was when thunder rolled through the room

Pippa glanced toward the windows just in time to see lightning streak across the sky and dark clouds begin to form.

“Tempest,” Pippa exclaimed. “You’re not helping!”

“Pippa, do you see any spiders?” Amari asked. “Or a mouse? Morana, where are the mice now?”

“Why are you worried about spiders and mice, Amari?” Lassiter asked, but his words were drowned out by Blade, who let out a horrified shriek and leapt to his feet, brushing his hair and shirt and shaking his entire body as if he were being attacked by an army of insects.

Which, now that Pippa looked closer, might actually be what was happening.

Only it was an army of arachnids rather than insects.

She wasn’t sure when they’d appeared or how she’d missed them until now, but there was an entire trail of spiders marching from the front door of the diner to their table, and they were all of them—every single one—making a beeline for the vampire.

It was as if they were on a mission.

In other words, he’ddefinitelymade Morana nervous.

“Oneortwospiders?” Pippa demanded.

“Oops,” Morana said.

“Oops?” Blade shrieked. “Get them off me! Get them off!”

“There’s something weird about those spiders,” Lassiter observed.

“That’s because they’re dead,” Jo called cheerfully from her table across the room.

“Dead?” Blade’s voice hit a decibel Pippa wasn’t sure even hers could reach. He whirled on Morana. “You raised the dead?”

She shrugged. “Well, I am a necromancer, you know.”

Pippa chuckled. If that didn’t scare him away, literally nothing would.

“It could be worse,” Morana said.

“And often has been,” Natalie observed. “Remember that Civil War battlefield?”

Pippa shuddered. She preferrednotto remember that particular event.

Blade glared at Morana. “No wonder my powers of persuasion aren’t working on them.”

Morana looked intrigued. “You can actually control creatures as tiny as they are?”

He shrugged. “It’s a gift, but not when they’redead.”

*.*.*.*.*

“Holy hell,”Corwin said as Jared pulled his car into the diner’s parking lot. “That’s a lot of spiders.”

“Are you sure they’re spiders? Because spiders don’t typically act like that. Maybe they’re ants.” Jared parked and the two of them stared through the windshield at the long line of creatures that were slowly marching down the sidewalk toward the diner.

“Those would be outrageously large ants,” Corwin said.

---