Page 25 of Cinder's Trial
“Guess I should head back,” Hannah stated after feeding the mice some licorice she pulled from her pocket.
“I’ll see you at the hotel sometime in the morning. I’m going to check in at the bureau first.”
“Sounds good. Night, Cinder.”
Hannah left, and I was alone but restless. Godmother, AKA call me Agatha, had dropped some interesting hints. As if she knew more about the curse than we did. Her comment about putting the stories back especially intrigued. It brought to mind the stories that had suddenly stopped reenacting. We’d assumed the curse tired of them, but the idea that they’d somehow been solved or, at best, re-enacted in a way so far from the original that it broke them, made a strange sense.
Could it be so simple? It seemed unlikely. After all, my simple solution of avoiding my prince hadn’t solved the issue.
“What do you think, Izzy? How can I stop being a Cinderella?” I’d thought of changing my name but already knew most of the Little Ash heroines bore a different appellation. Killing didn’t seem to solve anything. Nor did the prince marrying the wrong Cinderella. What did that leave?
I didn’t know.
Since I’d eaten already, I simply had to prepare meals for my friends, hand feeding them while I told them about my day. When I readied for bed, I made sure all my doors and windows were locked, Levi’s paranoia having rubbed off.
As I lay in bed, staring at my ceiling, I wondered what Levi did, an odd thought to have. We’d barely spoken all day, although I’d caught him looking in my direction more than once, usually frowning. It should be noted, I glanced over quite often too.
I couldn’t deny being attracted to the man, even as I didn’t like him. Bossy handsome jerk.
My tummy rumbled, and since I couldn’t sleep, I got up and made myself a bowl of cottage cheese and berries. I’d sat on the couch to munch my snack when Izzy hissed and scuttled to her cabinet, which had a special hole to climb in. The mice who’d been hoping to lick my bowl scurried off with squeaks of spider.
“Guys, you shouldn’t be like that. You’ll hurt Charlotte’s feelings.”
Granted, I had issues the first time I met my eight-legged friend. Since that initial fright, I’d come to appreciate how she kept my place free of flies.
I scrolled my phone as I ate, intent on the screen, so when the couch cushion dipped, it took me by surprise.
But I didn’t scream until I glanced and saw the spider sitting down beside me!
8
Remember the movie Arachnophobia? Remember the size of those spiders? Now imagine one in your apartment, spindly-legged, hairy, with a gaping maw big enough to swallow me.
I shrieked and saw my wide-open mouth replicated in its multi-faceted eyes. But worse? The mandibles that clacked as they tried to grab me!
I threw my bowl at its face and scrambled away. Not far because my small place didn’t have anywhere to really go except the bedroom. But hiding in there would leave my other friends at risk. My phone sat across the room on the charger, meaning I couldn’t even call anyone.
The eight-legged freak stalked me slowly, enjoying my fear, or so it seemed. It spat a gob of something gooey, which I barely managed to dodge. Before I could figure out a game plan, my door got kicked open, and in stormed Levi.
Looking more thunderous than a dark cloud and wielding a gun, he took one look at the threat and ditched the firearm for a sword he pulled from a sheath down his back. I’d not even known he carried one.
With blade in hand, Levi partially crouched and kept his gaze on the spider, which moved more cautiously with a real threat to face.
He didn’t look at me as he muttered, “Before I slice it to pieces, can I assume this isn’t one of your friends?”
Had the curse giganticized my sweet Charlotte? “Um…” I glanced to the ceiling with its little web and saw Charlotte quivering in a corner of it. “Definitely a foe.”
“Permission to kill?”
Since when did he ask? “Squash it!” And my friends thought I didn’t have a single cutthroat gene. This was one time I fully advocated for the killing of a living thing.
The one thing I didn’t take into account?
The mess.
As legs were severed, each spewing nasty glowing green ichor, my place got goobered. Slime spewed from each stump, and the spider retaliated by shooting balls of slimy thread. Splat. Ick. Gross.
Despite standing out of the way, I couldn’t avoid getting covered in the gore from the fight, and by the time it finished, with Levi victorious over the corpse of the massive spider, my place had been ruined.