Page 68 of Wolf Queen Ruin
“It’s about to strike.”
I could see the calculations running behind her eyes.If she moved to deal with the spider, she risked dropping me onto the stakes below.If she continued holding me, the spider would likely bite her.Either way, the outcome wouldn’t be pretty.
“Drop the whip,” I said with quiet finality.
Her eyes snapped to mine, fierce and indignant.“Excuseme?”
“Let me go.Get the spider off.Save yourself.”
“Not happening,” she gritted out.“I have anti-venom anyway.”
I did a quick inventory of everything still attached to my body.
When I looked below me again, my stomach dropped, nearly taking the rest of me with it.“You mean the anti-venom in your pack?The pack no longer attached to my back and now hanging from a wooden stake down here?”
Luna’s eyes widened.“Fuck me withallthe razors yet again.You and your ‘I’ll carry the heavy stuff’ chivalrybullshit, Damien.”
The spider inched closer to her neck, its movements becoming more agitated as the pillar continued to shift and rain down dust all over Luna.I was still too far below to reach her, the wooden stakes waiting patiently beneath me, the whip holding me immobile.
“Release me and brush it off,” I insisted.“You might not get bitten.My death is preferable to yours.”
Her jaw set stubbornly.“Says who?”
“Your daughter needs you.Jade needs you.”I met her gaze.“I’ve lived centuries.You’ve barely begun your life.”
“And Elliot needsyou,“ she countered, strain evident in every line of her body.“So shut up and just climb the whip really fast.”
The spider’s body tensed.The pillar groaned ominously.
“If I shift my weight any, that pillar won’t last,” I said, my voice raw.I rarely begged, but for her life, I would.“Please, Luna.Drop me.I won’t let you die because of me.”
For a heartbeat, our eyes locked in a moment of naked honesty.The intensity in her gaze made my chest tighten.
“Neither of us is dying today.”Her eyes narrowed with determination.“Not on my watch.”
In a burst of strength, Luna jerked the whip sideways, sending me swinging in an arc toward the wall of the cavern.Then she dropped the whip.
My momentum still carried me toward the wall, but I’d never make it.I was still too far out.Time turned to syrup as I seemed to hover in midair, reaching, stretching toward salvation.
Freed from bearing my weight, Luna slapped her shoulder hard enough to dislodge the spider.In the same motion, she brought her other hand behind her and grabbed one of the foot-long poles from her foldable cot strapped to her back.
Then she threw it down toward me.
Shaken loose, the spider sailed toward me as well.
I began falling yet again.
The pole, the spider, and me raced toward the stakes below, but if I could grab that pole, wedge it into the wall, and say a prayer that it would hold my weight…
“Grab it!”Luna shouted.
I extended my arm as far as I could over my head.My finger grazed it, just barely.
But that was enough.
With a curl of my knuckle, I had it in my grip, then I flung it toward the wall.It caught between two narrow outcroppings, and I held on.I jerked to a stop, the momentum nearly dislocating my shoulders, my body dangling only inches above the stakes.
“Yes!”Luna shouted.
