“Only if you laugh.”
The woman wasn’t laughing. “What about you? You just like to hang out in dark places?”
“I like to destroy invaders.”
“I’ll let you know if I see one.”
Nick hit something soft.
Oh crap! He held up his fireball, then wished he hadn’t.
Yeah, this was the spider thing Kyrian had talked about. She had a wide black ball for her body and a little head with a million eyes on it.
And fangs. There were giant, icky fangs.
“Couldn’t get an appointment with your hairdresser?”
The giant arachnid backed up. “Pardon?”
“Another awful joke, sorry.” Nick let out a sigh. “Look, this is going to go one of two ways. I kill you or you kill me. How about we call a truce and both go our own ways?”
“Can’t do that.”
“Why?”
“My job is to make sure no one passes.”
“My job is to kill and maim everything that crosses my path.” Nick showed her his Malachai form. “You really want to do this?”
“You’re the Malachai.”
“So they tell me.”
The spider continued to eye him. Well, sort of. Some of the eyes were looking at him and some around him. It was really disconcerting. “I have a conundrum.”
“Can I help with that?”
“Since you were the one who placed me here, maybe. I should eat you for that alone.”
“Well, how about this? I set you free. Go build your web in a tree … or the throne room. Gross out the current occupants. How’s that sound?”
She crept toward him. “You will let me go?”
“As long as you don’t kill me, yes.”
She came even closer.
Nick steeled himself in case it was a trap. “You thinking about it?”
“Is this a trick?”
“No. Are you tricking me?”
“No. But how can I trust you? You’ve tricked me before.”
“Sorry. I wasn’t the Malachai who did that. As I said, I don’t pick on spider people. I respect y’all too much.”
She cocked her head. “You are a very strange Malachai.”
