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The anger that had fueled me for so many years was now a knot in my chest that I could not untangle or direct at anyone in particular.
Clem had claimed me, they all had, in the metaphysical sense. It had been done without my permission, yet I could not bring myself to blame them. Clem had done what he had felt was necessary to survive and the others had been brought along for the ride despite themselves. Despite Clem being so incredibly foolish, I could understand. And that made me hate myself more than any of this had yet.
I was so angry but there was nowhere for the festering feelings to go. They pooled inside me like acid. I had never felt so poisonously furious before. I could feel it burning me from the inside.
It felt like I had nothing left, like the ground was falling out from under me.
Then I realized, too late, that it actually was.
I slid, a gasp leaving me as the earth fell away from beneath my feet and I fell into a pit of blackness.
The second one tonight alone.
Before I could so much as gasp, I landed, bouncing on whatever caught me.
Instinctively, I tried to sit up, scrambling to get back onto my feet, but I couldn’t.
Whatever I had landed on was sticky, it pulled my hair like honey, keeping my head back, my arms down, my legs trapped. I reached for my pocket to extract my newly sharpened weapons, but my arm couldn’t reach. It was stuck.
The familiar adrenaline of facing the unknown shot through me as I struggled, but the more I flailed, the more the stuff held me in place. I was almost like a fly caught in a trap.
My eyes widened and everything seemed to slow as I understood.
The noc king was finally among us.
I stilled, hearing only my own ragged breaths and the deep thumps of my heartbeat. It had been warmer today, but now, the chill of the night was making my breath rise in a pale fog, the only thing I could see.
All this time, I had been so preoccupied with Clem, Kiar and Bracken. I had pushed aside the coming reality of one more noc on my unfortunate team.
“Alhadya,” I whispered into the dark.
There came a clicking first but it was nothing like Clem’s. It was louder and more ominous, like bones clapping together.
A chill traveled down my spine as it came closer.
“Congratulations,” a familiar voice whispered. “You have drawn another noc from beyond the grave.”
A large shadow rose over me, blotting out the stars, the form more monstrous than any nocs I had seen before.
A massive spider’s body, standing taller than a wagon’s, a human’s torso and head–although I could not make out his face in the dark.
For so many years, I had known of the noc’s king; a giant spider who sat upon the throne but seeing him now standing before me was suddenly like being a child again and seeing a noc for the very first time.
It was unnatural, hideous, frightening…
My heart was pounding harder now as I stared up at his shadowy form.
I did not know how to react. This was the noc king–until recently, at least. He had been replaced by another, but having been in prison, I still did not know who. This creature standing over me was the very being I had fantasized about killing for most of my life, but according to Clem, he was a part of my tether. And he had helped me before, in Kovit’s chamber.
But he also had me trapped in his web.
I did not know what he thought of me, but I had a very bad feeling that it wasn’t anything good.
“Release me,” I whispered.
There was a sudden movement. The web bounced and Alhadya’s monstrous form was hidden in the shadows around me once more.
“Why would I release you, little human?” he hissed, his voice behind me now. “You are worth no more than a fly in my web.”
