A small babbling brook cut across the path. My heels tapped over the arched bridge that guided me forward. I didn’t slow until the tension in my chest began to ease, and I no longer felt like I was suffocating on my own sobs. My brain fogged, a cloud of dissociation muddled my thoughts.
The path opened up to a circular area within the garden. A beautiful, long stone bench sat tucked between thick rhododendron shrubs at its side. The flowers were deep red, the same hue as my dress. It was as if I was one of their buds, finally blooming.
I exhaled a long, steadying breath. Wiping my face, I resigned to slumping down on the seat. Cool stone seeped through the layers of my gown. It sent a shiver up my spine, all warmth in my body stolen away.
But the chill kept going, creeping up, spreading to the back of my neck and into the corners of my mind.
Something felt wrong.
Well, no shit.Everything was wrong. They’d played autopsy with an alive cadaver—me. Carving out my fucking heart for sport.
My insides stabbed as my inkling went alight, somethingelsetriggering it.
“Whatever it is—fuck off!” I yelled into the empty void of the gardens.
My nerves. Focusing on my alarmed senses was a welcome distraction. I glanced around. The moonlit greenery looked peaceful. Elaborate fountains trickled nearby and the air wassweetly scented with floral aromas. Not a soul in sight. The hum of the party had faded behind the castle walls.
That’s when I felt it. The disgusting pressure of something crawling.
I jerked my head down. A black spider skittered up my arm. Shrieking, I launched upright, slapping it off with a mortified swat.
I absolutelyloathedspiders. Just the thought of one touching my skin made me want to?—
“Ah!” Panic struck me. An excruciating pain radiated in my lower leg. I yanked my skirt up. Another spider, larger, had sunk its dripping fangs into my calf.
I smacked it off in a frenzy, then stomped around in horror. Hoping to squish any lingering ones.
My body went deathly still.
Several feet ahead,hundredsof black dots began encircling me. Skittering out from the bushes to my sides and closing in from the open path afront.
Then, they froze. As still as death, halted in place.Waiting.
55
CARWYNN
I had never wantedto be lit on fire more in my life. Or better yet, have a blowtorch on hand.
My leg throbbed as my blood boiled beneath the bite mark. My body internally screamed. It was spreading, whatever venom those little fangs had punctured me with. The hellfire was migrating up my leg.
No, no, no . . .
Purple and black veins branched out of the wound, crawling up my thigh like demonic roots, implanting.
Leg numbing, I staggered back.
This wasn’t normal. I’d never heard of any spiders like this in Luckland.
“Don’t worry,” a voice crooned from farther down the path. The tone was sickeningly sweet, infused with rot. “It won’t kill you—only paralyze. Though I can’t promise it won’t hurt like a bitch the entire time.”
My head snapped up.
A woman stepped into view, long waves glowed under the moonlight. She was stunning. Her black silk dress wrappedaround her like a second skin. One wrong move and her boobs would be on full display.
“What did you do to me?” I snarled, my voice as dry as gravel. I scanned the arachnids, praying they’d retreat to whichever portal of hell they came out of. They remained eerily still.
Her smile widened into a wicked curve of lipstick on her face.
