Chapter 8: Liam
You know, watching two beautiful women trying to kill each other is sort of romantic in a way, if I’m being nice. Leave it to me to flirt with a woman who wants to devour me. And not in a good way. I suppose that’s what I get for flirting at a funeral. But man, she was gorgeous. That long, straight brown hair, the way her curves filled out that green dress. The cool, icy energy she gave off sent chills down my spine. Athena wasn’t bad herself. She had long, red hair and silver eyes that made her stand out. They were grown women. I’m sure, under different circumstances, I could have gotten a date.
But here we are. Arachne had one huge spider tear into Athena’s shoulder, blood oozing from the wound. I should be grossed out, I know, but they were so hot. I couldn’t help but watch Arachne stalk Athena. I couldn’t do anything, bound by webs with my friends. Worse, the webs covered our mouths, preventing us—and anyone else—from screaming. I hoped that Arachne was joking about devouring Athena and then us. But deep down, I knew better. She was serious.
Athena wasn’t moving. I mean, at all. I had a funny feeling that the spider bite had probably numbed her. Arachne pressed her foot into Athena’s throat even harder. She didn’t even wince. The large spider cowered beside Arachne like a loyal dog. I know I should be more scared, more worried about my life and my friends, but this was fascinating in a way. I’m what most people would call strange. I prefer eccentricity. After all, I’m talking to you. The supernatural stuff didn’t bother me. But Athena is probably about to be killed? Yeah, that bothered me. I’m not inhuman, and I can put my desires aside to focus on helping. I could barely move, though, thanks to the strength of the web keeping us together. It felt like steel—cold, immovable steel. And don’t even get me started on the stickiness. I could only compare it to raw dough.
If I lived through this, I was going to make sure I baked more. I looked over and saw Paige and Waldo getting angrier. Emaj and Grant seemed calm. Gertrude and Salem looked as if they were praying silently. None of this was going to help, though, unless we worked together. Looking closer at Athena, I saw she could still move her face. One eye was closed as Arachne taunted her.
“On second thought, I’ll save you for my main meal. One of these seven mortals will do for now,” she said, looking at us. “You all look confused. Scared. I get it. You don’t know what’s happening, and it’s building anticipation. I smell your fear—all of yours. It’s delicious. It makes my nose twitch and my stomach dance.”
She loosened the webs around our mouths. I bet it was so she could hear us actually say we were scared. She wasn’t wrong. I was scared, but I was still seduced by her beauty.
“What did you do to Athena?” Paige asked.
“The same thing I’m going to do to you.” Arachne stalked around each of us. I had a few things I wanted to say, but I could hear Paige slapping me somehow. I looked back over at Athena. Her eyes were closed, but she was concentrating on something. A purple owl’s head appeared on her forehead, glowing like a tattoo. The mark left her forehead and split into seven floating symbols that moved toward us. One of them shot into my hands, and I felt a burning sensation. Was she attacking us?
“If you want to live, you will need my power,” I heard her voice in my head. Was she doing this to all of us? Paige answered my question when she backed up.
“What happened to my hand?” she exclaimed.
Arachne looked back at Athena. Her eyes narrowed, and her smile turned into a scowl. “You,” she paused. “You would break another vow to save these mortals?” I could feel energy surging through me. I couldn’t explain it. It felt like someone pressed cold steel into my core. I felt as if Athena herself was inside me—not just in my head, but in my very being.
“This feels amazing,” Emaj said.
“Are you all feeling this?” I said, excitement in my voice. I noticed that the webs were getting weaker. I turned to see Emaj’s eyes glowing green and a slight green energy surrounding him. My own vision became tinted with magenta—not pink, way darker than pink, but lighter than purple. I faintly heard another voice in my head.
I turned to look at the others. Everyone seemed to be experiencing the same thing. Salem had a blue tint. “What’s happening?” she asked.
“The spiders are retreating,” Gertrude said, glowing orange.
The webs around us disappeared. We all looked up to see that Arachne was never floating. She was standing on a single thread of her web. In fact, now we could see the whole cemetery was covered in webs. We had been in her web from the very beginning. That’s why she said we didn’t know when we were trapped. We—and the others—hadn’t been captured by living webs. We’d already been stuck, like flies in a spider’s web, able to move but unable to escape.
Arachne looked down at us and at Athena. Her starving eyes now burned with anger. Her tone went from cold to icy. “This isn’t over, Athena. You may have gained some of your power back through these mortals, but you—” she paused, “—no, they will pay the price when they understand what you’ve done.”
With that, she swung into nothingness. The web vanished, and the dark sky and rain returned. The rain had slowed, softening the eerie atmosphere. The other people at the cemetery were still paralyzed, as if in comas.
“That lady is sexy,” I blurted out, my heart fluttering.
“What is wrong with you?” Waldo’s words hit me like a slap. I realized I’d said it out loud. That was supposed to stay in my head, but I had a bad habit of letting my thoughts slip.
Gertrude went to Athena and extended a hand. “Are you alright?”
“I will be. The numbness will be completely gone in an hour,” Athena said, rising. Now that the lady—I mean Arachne—was gone, I could see how badly Athena was hurt. She looked like she’d been through war—beaten, bruised. But I could also see she was healing as we spoke. That was cool. I noticed I felt different, and I was sure it had to do with those flying marks Athena had sent into us. I looked back to where Arachne had stood. Was she gone? I hoped so, but for some reason, I still felt her cold eyes watching me.