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I bend to place a kiss on his forehead, inhaling the sweet scents of his moisturizer and shampoo.

Then I strip off my boxers and slide onto my side of the bed, pulling up the duvet and snuggling into the sheets. Maybe I’ll sleep now, is my last thought.

I wake to cool air and faint light. Yawning, I glance out the window to see a sky shot through with red streaks. The wind is howling around the cottage but Levi is snoring softly. It’s a peaceful sound.

My eyes drift closed, but I startle awake again. There’s something small and dark moving by the bed. I peer down cautiously and see that it’s a spider making its way from the floor to the duvet. “What are you doing down there?” I whisper. “Little adventurer.”

It continues to move, its long legs skittering over the covers as it crests the edge of the mattress. I sit up and frown. Odd that it doesn’t seem to care someone much larger is present. “You’re very brave. I admire that in something with eight legs.”

I reach down, intending to move it somewhere that will make both of us much happier. I inhale sharply when it jumps from the duvet to my bare foot. It tickles, and I kick out involuntarily. It clings to my skin, and the feel of its legs makes me shiver. I don’t mind a spider if it’s in a corner of the room. But when it marches over me like a tiny one-arachnid army…

It moves again, coming close to my knee, and I’m no longer amused. I swallow hard, repulsed by its presence now. “Shoo,” I say sharply and flick it gently off my leg.

It lands between me and Levi, the black of its legs stark against the white sheets. Then it seems to gather itself and skitters back at me. Before I can move, it’s on my leg again and moving up.

I cry out—a sharp, fearful sound. And, yes, I am frightened. In fact, I’m terrified. What the hell? Spiders don’t behave like this. This one obviously hasn’t had the memo about avoiding humans.

Time to get rid of it. I go to gather the sheet around it, thinking I’ll capture the bloody thing and haul the whole thing outside. But then I see them. On the floor, the side of the bed, heading upward to me and Levi. A surge of black—hundreds of spiders, maybe thousands. The movement of their tiny legs and bodies crackles like the rustling of a paper bag, and I gulp a breath filled with panic and nausea.

I can’t move. I try to wriggle my hands, but they’re pinned to the mattress.

The spiders are on me, swarming my body. The scream in my throat can’t escape as I watch even more climb the bedposts, like a grim army laying siege to the bed. I can feel them on my arms, my legs and my chest, and I groan in disgust as they crawl over my face. I close my eyes and mouth, holding my breath as hundreds of tiny legs stream over my skin. Oh god, I need air. I can’t keep holding on… I take a huge gulping breath, and suddenly, they’re inside my mouth and nostrils and ears. Panic surges, a dark, frothy wave taking me under.

Stop, I call in my head. Stop!

And it does. With a suddenness that’s almost as eerie as the attack, the spiders disappear. I don’t feel them anywhere, and when I crack my eyes open, I don’t see any little black bodies.

My body’s no longer frozen, and I drag myself onto my knees, frantically scrubbing my hands over my skin. I rip the sheet back, my gaze darting across the bed and around the room. No sign of spiders. Nothing. Just me, Levi, and a big bed.

The breath sawing in and out of my mouth is harsh, sobbing. There isn’t enough air in the world to fill my lungs. I reach out for Levi and then pause, watching my fingers tremble in the cool air. I want to tell him what’s happened. To have him give me a cuddle to tell me everything is okay, but I just realised something.

This was a warning. The man on the beach had told me I’d face consequences, and I have.

I’ll do anything to make sure Levi doesn’t suffer. The song I played for our first dance hovers in my head, and I feel what the words were saying rather than just appreciating the way they sound. I would happily die first, because I don’t want to live in a world without Levi. He has to be safe.

I’ll speak to Branok about this. He’ll know what to do.

I let my hand fall and pull the covers up and over my head. I’m still breathing irregularly and covered in sweat, but I snuggle into Levi, pressing my face against the silky skin of his back for comfort and waiting for the dawn to come.

Levi

It seems to take ages for me to gain full consciousness. I’m aware I need to get up, but it’s like there’s a fog around me pulling at me and keeping me under. My head’s full of taffy and my body’s been stapled to the bed. I’ve been sleeping so heavily over the last few nights. Usually, I wake easily and quickly, which is useful when you live with a psychic who has a quirky habit of wandering around confronting ghosts in the witching hours. Finally, I manage to force my eyes open, wincing at the stickiness on my eyelids.

The room is bathed in cold sunshine that makes the whitewashed walls seem to glow. Blue is fast asleep on his front, his head turned away from me. His blond hair is tousled, and the sun lays stripes over his broad shoulders that are dusted in freckles like specks of chocolate on a cappuccino. I lay my hand on his back, but he doesn’t rouse, so I just lie there for a few seconds, enjoying the feel of his skin, which is warm from the covers.

“Shit,” I say softly. Scrubbing my hands down my face, I force myself up into a sitting position. “I feel like I’m eighty years old,” I mutter and shake my head. This is my fucking honeymoon. I need to be alive and alert and not lying in bed like a corpse.

I swing my legs over the bed, wincing at the coolness of the wooden floorboards. I need a run. That always sets me up.

I grab my running clothes and disappear into the bathroom. When I come out, I smile. Blue has kicked off the covers and his arse is on full display. It’s full and round like the peaches he always smells of. My hands itch to touch the silky skin and feel those long legs wrap around me, but he’s had a disturbed couple of nights, and he needs the sleep. Instead of climbing back into bed, I draw the sheets over him. I pause when I see flecks of black on the fitted sheet near his feet. I step closer and peer down. They’re dead spiders.

“Where the fuck did they come from?” I say out loud, but no one answers me. I flick them gently off the bed and then pull the covers over my sleeping husband. After pressing a gentle kiss into his messy waves of hair, I head down the stairs and out into the garden.

The air is fresh and cold and dusted lightly with rain. It’s going to be tough running against the buffeting wind, and I smile. I like that. Taking a few gulps of air, I set my watch and start off.

My breaths are even and my muscles feel warm and limber already as I jog up the steep incline away from the beach. I reach the edge of the village, exchange waves with a lady standing by her mailbox, and keep running. This was totally the right thing to do.

As I jog, I consider stopping somewhere for a coffee and food but then decide I’ll just go back to the cottage. I’ll shower and make breakfast for me and Blue. The hours stretch ahead of us, luxurious in their emptiness, and we can plan the day together.