Horror crawled down my throat and pinched in my stomach.
“They’re testing how far they can push him. Poison, draining his blood, suffocation. Hell, even decapitation. He dies, but every time, his body renews or rejoins...and he just comes back. It’s fucking awful,” he said, looking noticeably disturbed.
His words made me crumble. The thought of Tomb being subjected to something so horrible because of me was devastating. But even more than sorrow, I felt an anger like nothing I’d ever experienced in my life. I wanted to burn this place to the ground for hurting what was mine.
Mine? Oh fuck.
Inwardly, I gaped at my spider, and my fingers brushed over the red hourglass on my throat—the same one Tomb now had on him. Is that why we’d marked him? Had my spider demon...chosen him as a mate?
This just became a whole lot more complicated. And my spider was really pissed.
I could feel her vengeance burning me up like hellfire. She was livid to hear what Spector was doing to him. She wanted to make them pay. We wanted to make them pay. I just didn’t know how. This place was incredibly guarded, and I was fairly certain we were underground. They pumped us with chemicals and threatened us constantly. We were in a guarded maze with no way out.
But I’d find a fucking way.
When I glanced back at the trainers, I noticed they were finishing up their discussion with the scientist. We didn’t have much longer to stall. My energy was slowly depleting, but I had faith that I could take care of myself. Within me, my spider seemed to preen at the possibility of a challenge. I was starting to realize that she was a prideful, cocky motherfucker who was always up for a fight. Always looking to show someone up. We were similar in that aspect, I suppose: determined to prove ourselves and ambitious to a fault.
“Do you know what demon I am?” Crow asked softly, and the tenderness in his voice made me pause.
“Some kind of crow whisperer?” I quipped lamely.
“I have a malphas demon,” he replied ominously. “I attended Thibault too, you know. You probably don’t even remember me, but I graduated two years ago, a scholarship student.”
I peered up at him, trying to place the bright blue hair and mischievous smile. I didn’t recognize him, but then again I was always so stuck in my own world that I didn’t pay much attention to anyone else.
“The exact same thing happened. They offered me an exclusive opportunity I couldn’t refuse. Brought me to the ritual room. And then bam, I became this. Tomb was my first friend in this place.”
I wanted to ask him how he went from being one of Spector’s playthings to attempting to rescue us from a ritual, but refrained. I wasn’t sure if he would actually answer me or if we could be heard from the other side of that glass.
“Look, they think they can control us—our powers—through fear and anger. So they make us fight, test us, make us hurt one another. It’s par for the course in this place,” he said bitterly. “I used to never feel in control of my crows. They weren’t an extension of me. They were just this wild, angry entity pecking everything in their path.”
I shook my head while glancing around at the crows where they were hopping around the floor or flying around in lazy swoops above our heads. It was strange to see them so...docile. Especially when I’d seen firsthand what they were capable of. They were so in sync with Crow’s movements, too.
“So what changed?”
He brushed his long blue hair out of his face. “I came to accept that my birds were a part of me. And that they wanted one thing.”
“And what’s that?”
“To protect me. That’s what all of our demons are doing,” he said, holding my gaze. “So I want you to think about that, okay?”
It was a simple explanation, but he was right. My demon had always protected us, from the very beginning, even though she was forced to possess me. That realization, along with Tomb’s advice about accepting her as a part of me, clicked into place. She wasn’t my enemy. This was done to her as much as it was done to me, but now we had each other, and together, we could either be at odds or accept one another. Then, we might actually have a chance of surviving this and taking the fuckers down.
Holding Crow’s eyes, I nodded, my inward epiphany shining in my eyes. “You’re right.”
As I uttered the words, it was like the turmoil of fighting my spider finally subsided. Like a tumultuous sea, the storm passed over and we were finally in calmer waters.
“Get fucking started right now,” Oz shouted over at us, shocking us both out of the intense conversation we were having.
Crow’s jaw tightened, but he nodded over at my trainer before he began to walk backwards, giving us both some room to fight. “I’m going to order my birds to attack—even though they really don’t like the idea of attacking you. But I know you and your spider can handle yourself. Protect. Okay?” he said quietly as before grabbing my hands.
I nodded. “Protect.”
Closing my eyes, I drew out that instinct—the need to protect me, her, us. As soon as I did that, I felt her shadows coalesce inside of me. Her head dipped, her legs unfurled, and her presence came forward in my head like I’d woken her up.
“It’s working,” I murmured, a small smile spreading across my face. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. Now that I wasn’t at odds with her, her powers were right at my fingertips to use without the need to first feel threatened. Not just the webs, but her core strength seemed to bolster me. My vampiric senses were even sharper, my energy boosted. It was like we were finally mixing ourselves together rather than holding them in separate containers within a shared
