Heart of the Fae (The Otherworld #1)(67)

Sorcha’s fingers began to shake.

“Sorcha,” the voice called out to her again. This time it wasn’t through the portal, but echoing from above. “Look at me.”

“I wish not to.”

“Look at me!” The voice boomed so loud that Sorcha flattened herself against the floor in fear.

Cold seeped through the front of her dress. She blew out a breath and wondered what Macha would do. Would she draw her sword and threaten the Unseelie’s life?

Probably, but Sorcha was not Macha. She couldn’t condemn anyone when she hadn’t spoken to them, judged their character, heard their story. There was no reason for her to be frightened of this creature who commanded her gaze. She placed her hand flat against the floor and pushed herself onto her back.

A monster anchored herself to the ceiling above Sorcha. At first, she couldn’t make out the shape hovering in the air. It was too large, too much of a blob made of shadow.

Then she made out the bulbous stomach, bloated and larger than three horses combined. Eight legs stuck out from the wide belly. They shifted as she watched, smoothing across the stone ceiling, and creating the sound she had heard.

Attached to the body was the torso of a woman. Heavily muscled, so pale she was almost blue, with long lanky hair that hung down towards Sorcha. The smile spread across the creature’s face split from ear to ear.

“Hello, Sorcha of Ui Neill,” the monster murmured. “Welcome to Caisleán dorcha.”

Not just Unseelie then, Sorcha realized. This was their castle, the home to the royal family of Unseelie beasts. The family who were kings and queens of monsters.

She swallowed the scream rising in her throat, and instead stared in horror at the woman trapped in a white blanket of webbing. “Lovely to meet you.”

“Is it?” The woman cocked her head to the side. “You look positively terrified.”

“I am.”

“Then why don’t you scream?”

“I do not wish to offend.”

“A scream is a gift.” Thin legs scraped the ceiling as she untangled herself. Muffled thumps echoed, one leg striking the ground near Sorcha’s legs. More followed, thumping again and again until the creature was looming over her. “It is an agreement that I am a terrifying creature whom you respect and fear.”

Sorcha swallowed hard.

The woman leaned down, until she nearly touched Sorcha’s face with her own. A hairy leg balanced her right next to Sorcha’s ear. “I wish to hear you scream.”

She couldn’t contain it. Sorcha squeezed her eyes shut and screamed out her fear and terror. This beast wasn’t just going to scare her, she would devour her whole.

No stories whispered this creature’s name. Nothing had hinted to the little midwife from Ui Neill that something like this ever existed. Faeries were strange, yes, but they were never so deformed as this.

A leg stroked her stomach. She pushed backwards but knocked her head against a thick leg. The tiny fibers of hairs brushed the back of her neck. Trapped, she was trapped. There was nothing she could do but scream and scream.

“Enough!” The booming shout splintered through her skull in tiny points of pain. “You have done me a great honor with such terror.”

She traversed over Sorcha, heavy belly brushing against her side. Sorcha swallowed the gorge that rose in her throat. The stomach was smooth, not hairy like her legs. A red splotch of color resembled an hourglass on her belly, but Sorcha had never seen the arachnids in Ui Neill.

The creature pressed her hands against Sorcha’s chest, forcing her to stare up at the ceiling. Shock tied her tongue in knots. The creature only wanted to hear her scream? What other purpose did she have for dragging Sorcha here?

Of course, there might not be a purpose at all. The Unseelie might have found herself bored and merely wanted a plaything. But how had she known where Sorcha was?

The cobwebs on the ceiling moved.

“Please, don’t let there be another,” she whispered.

“There isn’t.” The creature’s voice lifted in amusement. “It’s my dinner.”

Sorcha narrowed her eyes and cried out. There was a man tangled in the webs. At least, she thought it was a man. The spider woman had wrapped him up so tight, she could only see the outlines of pectoral muscles and the bulging thigh muscles that strained against his ties.

“He’ll quiet down eventually.”

The webs covered his face, preventing him from breathing. “He’s going to suffocate.”

“Yes, he will. That is the point.”

“What a cruel way to die.”

“It is better than poison that travels slowly through the blood. At least now he will calm down then drift off into sleep.”

“Why not just snap his neck and be done with it?”

The movement of the woman paused, and Sorcha felt the weight of her gaze like a physical touch. “Would that be your preference?”

“If you plan to eat me, I would like not to be alive at all.”

“I don’t plan on eating you. Little girls like you make terrible meals. Not enough meat on your bones. Besides, humans are always so bitter.”

Sorcha lifted a hand and pointed. “That’s not human?”

“No, that’s Seelie. I prefer a lighter diet while I’m watching my figure.”