Page 104 of When Ashes Fall

“I don’t know,” I said.

And I was beginning to fear I wouldn’t figure it out before it was too late.

“Are you okay?” Zephyr asked. “You look tired.”

“We all do.”

“Yeah, we do.”

Zephyr’s wings continued to beat the air while I stared at the tree. There had to be answers somewhere.

“If you need any help, I’m here,” he said as he rested a hand on my shoulder.

“Thank you.”

He squeezed my shoulder as Gizzi turned to study us. When Zephyr flew away, Gizzi resumed staring at the tree. I rubbed my temples and then my neck to ease the tension there, but nothing helped.

A dull throb was starting behind my eyes, and I swore it pulsed in rhythm with my heart. Swishing sounds came from behind me, and I turned to discover Zephyr sweeping up the sand.

Time had started moving again, but the noise didn’t help the pounding in my head. With nothing else to do, I flipped the book open again and scanned the pages.

“Ah… Briar.” I was so focused on reading a passage on pruning roses that Zephyr’s words didn’t infiltrate at first. “Briar!”

I jumped and spun toward him when he yelled; the pounding in my head intensified. “What?” I demanded.

Zephyr didn’t notice the harsh tone of my voice. He had Knox’s boot in one hand as he stared at the floor with his brow furrowed.

“Are they… do they… are those spiders supposed to do this?” he asked.

I set the book down and rose. “Do what?”

Zephyr didn’t answer me as he gazed at the floor. Confusion and horror marred his face.

“Is it because I killed it? Did I unleash bad luck on us?” he muttered.

“I already told you that’s not possible,” I assured him as I approached.

“But… but…” Zephyr stammered, yet no other words came out.

The distress on his face caused the hair on my nape to rise. I’d accidentally killed a silkfang before; I hadn’t seen it and stepped on it in Nightshade.

The resulting crunch was stomach-churning, but I certainly hadn’t gazed at it with the abject revulsion on Zephyr’s face. I had to scrape it off the bottom of my boot, which made things worse, but Zephyr didn’t look revolted; he looked like someone had walked over his grave… or as if he could hear the dead.

I doubted the dead were talking to him, but anything could be possible. Everything had become topsy-turvy since coming here.

When I stopped beside Zephyr, I understood his confusion when I spotted the charred hole in the floor. It was the perfect shape of a silkfang’s body with its legs sprawled out. When Zephyr crushed the spider, some of those legs folded awkwardly beneath it.

The spider’s remnants had sunk a good inch into the wooden floor. The surrounding space looked like something had set it ablaze, leaving the surface charred. When Zephyr turned the boot over in his hand, my mouth parted when he revealed the spider-shaped hole in the sole.

“What in the name of the gods,” I breathed.

“Is this normal?” Zephyr asked.

“This is as far from normal as it gets,” I whispered.

Tilting my head back, I studied the rafters as an unsettling feeling grew in my stomach. “Have you seen any more of them around?” I whispered. “And keep your voice low.”

I wasn’t sure that mattered; if they were watching, they already knew of Zephyr’s discovery and that one of their brethren was dead. Had they all skittered away into hiding when one of them fell?