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“It was an accident. I only cut it by accident. I had no choice.”
“Rules are rules. Without rules, we are beasts, chaotic creatures left to our own devices.” She sniffs once in derision, then places a package on the table. “I brought a supply of food for us. A book for you, as well.”
I don’t answer, watching as she leaves to go to her quarters. When the door is firmly shut, I fall to the tile; the tears stream down my face with abandon.
When I have nothing left to give, I drag myself off the floor and make my way to the kitchen cabinets. I find the burn salve, wincing as even the lightest touch stings.
My breath hitches as I take the roll of gauze from the shelf. Gently, I lift my injured hands, cradling them delicately. The sight of the raw, blistered skin is disheartening, but I push through, focusing on the task at hand. With trembling fingers, I dip it in the salve, then wrap the gauze around my wounds.
Each touch, however gentle, sends a jolt of pain through my fingertips. It’s as if every nerve ending is hypersensitive, reacting to even the slightest contact. I grit my teeth. The gauze is cool against my burned skin, providing a soothing contrast to the fiery sensation underneath. Slowly, I continue to wind the gauze around my hands, securing it in place with each careful twist.
Finally, I am finished, and have two wrapped hands. I slump down onto the floor for a minute, breathing through the pain.
Mother will not want food for a while, and I need the time to recover. How I’m going to handle a knife is beyond me. At least I can escape to my room now, while she is occupied.
I lie down on my bed and stare out my window, watching the clouds move through the sky. Despair blooms in my heart, until all that’s left inside me is a hollow emptiness. I place a hand on my heart, counting the beats, but feel nothing.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see movement. At first, just a small shadow on the wall. The shadows multiply, and I watch with a slight curiosity, but not enough to investigate. The clouds shift and sunlight streams into my window, and the shadows reveal what they really are. Spiders, hundreds and hundreds of spiders crawling on my wall, skittering to and fro. With a gasp of horror, I sit up and stare, my mouth open.
Chapter Thirty
I clutch my bed sheets in my hands, then abruptly let go with a cry of pain. The spiders move across the wall. Don’t be afraid.
“Who’s there?” I ask, frantically whipping my head around the room. The only vampire able to come into our tower is Raúl. That I know of. The voice I hear is higher, smaller, with a slight echo.
Us. The spiders skitter in front of me, and one crawls down the wall, heading toward me. I snap my hands to my chest, not wanting to get bit.
We’re here because you called. The spider crawls across my sheets until it is on my lap. It turns around in a circle, then stops moving. You called, and we came.
“I… called you?”
It wavers up and down, looking so much like a human nodding their head. I can’t help but smile. Hesitating, I put my hand down on the blanket in front of the spider. It crawls onto my hand, so light I can’t even feel it on my burned skin. The spider stops on my wrist, and I lift it closer to inspect. It is small, with a purple marking on its back, but I can’t make out what it is.
“What is your name?”
I am called many names. Nava is what I will answer to.
“My name is Penny,” I say. For some reason, I am able to take this new turn of events in stride. With a sigh, I figure I simply have nothing left in me to care right now. Not after Mother’s attack today. Maybe tomorrow I will panic about it. “What are you here for? You said I called, but why would you come?”
The spider spins in a circle. The magic called us from deep in the forest, from the tops of the trees, and buried beneath the dirt. We wanted to answer, so we did.
I nod. Gently, I lower myself back down in bed, placing my wrist on my pillow. “What can you do?”
It crawls off of me, while the others on the wall congregate, then spread, a beating heart of pulsing spiders. We are shadows. We find secrets, spread secrets, bury secrets. We are one and we are many.
An eyebrow quirks up. My life, a boring mess for years, has taken quite the nosedive into chaos. My mind explodes with ideas of the things I could learn. “Can you find my real mother?”
If you show us a picture, we can find any person, anything, any being.
“Okay, Nava. I’ll have work for you soon enough.” I pause and shift onto my back. My heart pangs with loneliness, knowing I cannot reach Raúl until dark. “Will you stay?”
I will always stay. We are bonded, you and I. The others will come when I call. Do not fret. We want to help you.
Strangely comforted, I settle in my bed and close my eyes, intent on resting before Mother needs me.
The echoes of spider legs traveling across the stone wake me, and I sit up abruptly. The spiders disperse, hiding in the cracks and corners of the room.
“Rapunzel, what are you doing?”
