Black Howl (20 page)

“Do not let him hurt her,” she said, and there was a pleading in her voice that I had never heard before.

The snake-thing snapped its fangs at Samiel and he punched it in the jaw. I heard something break, and the snake let out a hideous cry.

“Don’t let him hurt her!” Amarantha screamed. “She’s all I have left.”

“Who is it?” I asked, although I had a strong suspicion already.

“Violet,” the Queen said, and a tear burned down her misshapen cheek. “She would not leave me.”

I dropped my sword to the ground. She seemed so broken, so pathetic, but we still needed information.

“I want to know where Wade is,” I said. “And what you’re doing with the souls.”

“Why should I tell you?” Amarantha said.

“If you don’t, you can stand there and watch Samiel beat Violet to death,” I said, and held the tip of the sword near her face. “And then I’ll see if I can improve upon Lucifer’s handiwork.”

J.B. and Gabriel didn’t speak behind me. I hoped that they knew I’d never follow through on the threat. It made me feel a little sick just to say it aloud. I did not have the stomach or the will for torture, but it’s the kind of thing that Amarantha would have done. Monsters are always willing to believe in the monstrosity of others.

Amarantha narrowed her eyes at me, like she was taking my measure. I raised my eyebrow at her, and nodded at Samiel, hoping it wouldn’t be necessary to do too much to convince her.

He seemed to understand what I wanted. He grabbed one of Violet’s hands and broke two of her fingers. I winced, but Amarantha didn’t see it. She had taken a step toward Samiel and Violet, eyes wide. The snake screamed and thrashed, and Amarantha fell to her knees, held her hands up in front of her.

“Stop,” she pleaded. “Please, stop.”

It gave me no pleasure to see such a once-proud creature submit in humiliation. It didn’t matter that Amarantha had tried to destroy Lucifer’s kingdom, that she had cast a spell to have me raped by Nathaniel, that she’d sent me into the Maze with every intention of me coming out in a body bag. I was sorry to be the one who had to lay her lower than she already was, and that I’d had to act like a monster to do it.

“Where is Wade?” I asked.

“The wolf is hidden in the castle,” she said in a whisper.

“Where?” I nudged her with my boot.

“In the south tower,” she said, looking at J.B.

“J.B., you and Samiel go,” I said. “You’ll be able to get there fastest.”

“Umm, I don’t think splitting up is a good idea,” Beezle said. “That usually leads to certain death.”

“You watch too many horror movies,” I said. “Besides, someone needs to watch these two, and I’m not leading a parade to the tower.”

“What’s guarding it?” J.B. asked.

Amarantha looked annoyed that we’d asked. “Charcarion demons.”

“How many?” I said.

“Why should I tell you?” Amarantha snapped.

I looked at Samiel and he broke another one of Violet’s fingers. She screamed in pain and Amarantha cried out, stepping toward them. I held the sword to her throat to stop
her, and tried to remember that there was a greater good here, and I was supposed to be a part of it.

“Fifty,” Amarantha said through gritted teeth.

“Fine. The two of you can easily handle fifty demons,” I said to Samiel. “Gabriel, you take over the watch on Lady Violet.”

Gabriel walked forward and put his hand on Samiel’s shoulder, and his half brother rose. Gabriel offered a hand to Violet and she accepted, her face confused. When she stood Gabriel nodded to her respectfully and then conjured another ball of nightfire. It hovered over his palm, the threat clear. Violet looked at the nightfire, then at Gabriel’s face, her expression resigned.

I backed up a little from Amarantha, confident that she wouldn’t risk Violet’s life by doing anything stupid. I pulled J.B. close to me so I could whisper to him.

“Do you think she’s lying?” I asked.

“There are probably twice that number of demons up there, but I think we can manage them,” he replied.

“Don’t worry about killing all of them,” I said. “The priority is to get Wade and get out of here. Do it as quickly and as safely as you can, and don’t bring him back into the throne room. Go right out to the portal.”

“Yeah, before something else horrible happens,” Beezle muttered. “I still think this is a bad idea.”

“Duly noted,” I said.

“How will we let you know we have Wade?” J.B. said.

“I’m going to move Amarantha and Violet into the courtyard,” I said. “We’ll see you when you come out.”

“And then we’ll all run like hell,” Beezle said.

“Some of us will. Others will allow themselves to be carried,” I replied.

“Hey, you’re the one who wants to lose thirty pounds. I’m helping you out by adding extra resistance,” he said.

“Okay, going to get Wade now,” J.B. said loudly.

“Be careful,” I said.

“I’m well aware of my mother’s ability to set traps and spring them,” he said. “I will be.”

I waved Samiel over and signed to him.
Watch out for a sneak attack. We don’t know if any other faeries loyal to Amarantha are still in the castle.

He nodded.
Beezle told me about the secret passages.

The two of them left the room. I hoped that there was nothing between here and the south tower except the charcarion demons. Samiel had managed to hold off hundreds of them in the cave where we’d found the cubs, so I was confident that he could take care of them. If that was all there was.

“All right,” I said to Amarantha. “We’re taking this outside.”

She smiled, and I did not like the look of that smile.

“And why should I obey you, Lucifer’s child?”

I dropped my shoulders in annoyance. “Do I really have to repeat this again? I am not Lucifer’s…”

That was when the spider landed on top of me.

I FELL TO THE GROUND, LANDED ON MY FACE, FELT THE horrible weight of its furred body above me. Beezle cried out as he was squashed by both the spider’s weight and mine. I rolled to my side, saw its fangs descending toward me, and plunged my sword into its abdomen.

A gush of dark fluid poured from the wound, and I scrambled out from beneath the giant arachnid as it collapsed to the ground.

I pushed to my feet, wiping goo from my eyes, and saw Gabriel holding off two larger spiders with nightfire. There was no sign of Amarantha or Violet.

“That was
disgusting
,” Beezle said from inside my jacket. “We are not doing that again.”

I knew from experience that nightfire was useless against spiders, so I shot the one on the left with electricity. It screeched and reared up as little arcs danced over its
body. Gabriel got the message pretty quickly and conjured up the white nephilim fire to take out the other one. The air was filled with the smell of cinnamon and sulfur and rotting blood.

Gabriel flew over the twitching, burning corpses of the other two spiders to my side.

“You are unhurt?” he asked, taking my hand.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’d kiss you, but I have spider goo in my hair.”

“Again,” Beezle said.

“Did you see where Amarantha and Violet went?” I asked.

He shook his head. “They disappeared into the wall passages. They are likely far from here by now.”

“I told you we shouldn’t split up,” Beezle said. “They were just waiting for us to divide our forces before they let the spiders attack.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “You can have a doughnut if we get out of this alive.”

“We must locate Samiel and J.B. Have you any notion of where the south tower is?”

I thought of how often I’d gotten lost in the couple of days I’d stayed in Amarantha’s castle the month before. I shook my head.

Beezle sighed. “Can’t either of you tell which way is north?”

“I know Lake Michigan is to the east,” I said.

“That doesn’t help you if you’re nowhere near Chicago,” Beezle said. “You’re not on the grid system here.”

“Well, do you know which way is north, smarty-pants?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact,” he said. “It’s that way.”

He pointed toward the doors we’d entered.

“Are you sure about that?”

“I’m sure about everything,” Beezle said.

“Confidence does not necessarily equal accuracy.”

“It does for me.”

Gabriel shared a look with me. “Do we have a better option?”

“No,” I said. “If you’re wrong, you’re out that doughnut.”

“I’m not wrong,” Beezle said.

We crept quietly into the hall. I was in front and Gabriel walked behind me with his back pressed against mine. We weren’t sure if more spiders were lurking on the ceiling or if Amarantha and Violet might leap from the walls and try to take us out from behind.

The hallway was still eerily silent. We walked slowly, listening for threats, all three of us strung tight with tension.

I hoped that I hadn’t sent J.B. and Samiel to their doom because I’d foolishly trusted Amarantha’s word. Over and over again Gabriel and Beezle had warned me against taking immortals at face value. It seemed that I had trouble learning that lesson.

We turned south according to Beezle’s directions and entered a hallway that was filled with spun silk. The bodies of dead faeries hung in the webbing.

“There had better not be any more spiders down here,” I said. “Because I just can’t take another one.”

It was difficult to get through the hall without disturbing the webs. We had to stop and untangle from the sticky stuff more than once. I was hyperventilating by the time we got to the end—without encountering any more spiders, thank goodness.

There was a wide set of stone steps at the end of the hall and we followed them up. At the top of the stairs was another long hallway. Both sides had large arched window openings cut out. The left side windows were covered in multicolored glass and looked out over the forest that bordered
Amarantha’s castle. The right side windows were free of glass. I stepped forward to peek around the arch, and my heart stopped.

The windows looked over a large, long room that might have been a dining hall once. It was still a dining hall—of a different sort.

The room seethed with spiders of all sizes. They fed on faeries and charcarion demons—obviously Amarantha was willing to use whomever she had on hand to keep her pets satisfied. Everywhere I looked there were clutches of eggs hanging in the webs.

“An average-sized spider will lay about a hundred eggs in one of those sacs,” Beezle said quietly.

“Those aren’t average-sized spiders,” I replied. “There are probably thousands of them in there.”

“What shall we do?” Gabriel asked. “We cannot leave them here to breed further. If Amarantha releases these upon a large population of humans…”

“They could wipe out half a city in a day,” I said. “Normal people aren’t prepared to deal with monsters like this.”

“Are you going to set everything on fire again?” Beezle asked.

I looked at Gabriel. “Probably. It’s the most effective way to take out a bunch of them at once. But if I do that, we have to make sure that Wade and J.B. and Samiel are clear of the building first. And then we have to make sure that the spiders can’t escape from this room.”

“Well, I don’t think they can open doors,” Beezle said.

“But they can break them down if they’re in a room filled with smoke and flame,” I replied. “And the smaller spiders can easily escape up the walls and out these windows. Every creature has a self-preservation instinct.”

“I know. Mine is kicking in right now,” Beezle said.

“Let us find the others, then return for this,” Gabriel said. “We do not want to attract the creatures’ attention.”

I crouched to the ground and duckwalked below the bottom sill of the arches until we reached the end. I was terrified the whole time that I’d see the hairy leg of a spider creeping through a window, but we managed to make it through safely without being attacked.

We climbed another set of steps, came to another hallway.

“They all look the same,” I said desperately.

“We’re heading in the right direction,” Beezle insisted.

“But are we choosing the correct passages?” Gabriel asked. “One wrong turning and we will miss them.”

Then we heard it—the clatter of footsteps, angry cries, and the howl of a wolf.

“This way,” I said, turning to the right and running down the hall to another junction.

I was knocked from my feet by a large furred body, and when I stopped seeing stars I looked up to see a panting black-and-gray wolf standing on my chest. He licked my face.

“Wade,” I said, putting my arms around his neck. “Wade, thank goodness.”

J.B. and Samiel pounded up behind him.

“No time for happy reunions,” J.B. panted. “There are about a hundred demons behind us.”

“And we’re running for our lives again,” Beezle said grumpily.

Wade leapt off me, and Gabriel helped me to my feet.

“We don’t have time to fight off all those demons,” I said. “We still have to destroy all those spiders.”

Wade whined, nudging my leg.

“I know—walk and talk,” I said, and we ran into the hallway. “J.B., do you think we could collapse the passageway behind us?”

“This castle is bound by more than brick and mortar. There’s magic in every crevice. You’d never be able to knock even a part of it down,” J.B. said. “Besides, it wouldn’t really help. There are multiple ways in and out of every part of the castle. If you collapse the passage, they’ll just go through the walls.”

“Right, too easy,” I grumbled. I could hear the demons shrieking behind us now, getting closer.

We pounded down the steps, Wade leaping ahead of us, and stopped at the bottom.

“Why are we stopping?” Beezle asked, alarmed.

“If we run across that passageway, we’ll attract the spiders,” I said.

“If we stand here, a whole bunch of demons are going to fall on our heads,” Beezle said.

Everyone looked at me.

“Why do I have to be the one who decides?” I muttered.

“Because you’re our leader, Morningstar help us,” Beezle said. “So lead.”

“Okay, everyone get low and get through the hall as quietly as you can. I’ll hold the demons off here until you’re through.”