“Giselle?” she said, wrinkling her nose. “You alright?”
“No,” came a stuffy-nosed, unalarmed voice from the corner, and Hailey hesitantly stepped over her broken, but still vibrating crystals, ducking and checking the ceiling corners as she crossed the threshold.
“Wha…ummm…” Hailey breathed heavy, her heart racing as she looked around the room. “Is there a giant spider in here?”
“No!” she answered loudly, and Hailey heaved a great sigh of relief as Giselle wriggled inside the cocoon.
“Do you need help getting out of that?”
“No!” Giselle yelled, becoming more agitated as Hailey lobbed questions.
“What did this to you?” Hailey asked, half-expecting her to say “Asher,” and Giselle thrashed angrily inside her silky shroud until it ripped open. Coming loose from the ceiling, she floated gracefully down and sat, shoulders hunched on her bed.
“Nothingdid this to me,” said Giselle irritably with her back to Hailey. Then she sniffled.
“Are you crying?” Hailey moved to Giselle’s bed. Tentatively, she reached her hand out, only hesitating for a moment before she softly patted her shoulder.
Giselle angrily shook her off and jerked her head up. “Don’t touch me,” she barked, and Hailey gasped.
“Are you crying cobwebs?” she said with a mix of shock and horror.
Giselle pulled a long string of silk from her eye, balled it up, and threw it on the floor.
“Oh, Giselle,” Hailey breathed, stepping back. “You’re crying cobwebs.”
“Duh!”
“Sorry,” Hailey said quickly. “I’ve never seen anyone cry cobwebs before,” she told her roommate apologetically, and then she plopped on the bed beside her and threw her arm around Giselle’s shoulder. “You want me to find you a hanky? …or one of those cobweb dusters? We’ll need a big one,” she said lifting her eyes to the ceiling, and she could have sworn Giselle let out a single giggle.
“Get away from me,” she said, but not in her angriest voice, and Hailey slouched back to her own bed.
“I was afraid that I got you in trouble,” she told Giselle.
“You did worse than that.”
Hailey’s heart sank. “What happened? Where did you guys go?”
“To punish Jaycen—he made me hold her soul down while he tied it, so I could feel her pain and her fear—he thinks it keeps me in line,” she told Hailey, pulling another string from her eye. “He makes me help him with all his punishments—that’s why everyone’s afraid of me.”
“How do you hold down a soul?” Hailey asked, mortified. “How do youtiea soul?” she said, with her hand to her heart.
Giselle didn’t answer.
“I’m really sorry, Giselle,” Hailey told her. “Is Jaycen alright?”
“Jaycen?” Giselle spat. “Who cares? She deserved it—she almost killed you, Hailey.” Giselle wiped a ribbon of web from her chin and then threw her hand out. “She’s been here for years, and she doesn’t even try to rehabilitate herself,” Giselle put her nose in the air and sniffed.
“She didn’t try to kill me,” Hailey said. “I jumped into that in-between, and she actually helped me get rid of a tunneling earworm.”
“She lured you, dumbass. She used a barrier breaker—"
“What’s a barrier breaker?”
“It’s a bomb, you idiot. It tears a layer of the veil a little—it creates a temporary in-between. She opened a lethal one, knowing you’d come in after her. She only pulled out your earworm because she’s dead scared of Asher.”
“How could she know I’d jump in after her?”
“Because look at you… You scream goody-two-shoes.”
