All the spiders that had swarmed to do his bidding stopped moving, their furry legs closing in on their mummifying bodies. Ian tried to run but couldn’t.
“Your punishment, Ian Spinner of the Arachnae Nation, to balance the scales of justice—you will return to your nest and seed the next generation of your kind with the strength of your skin, organs, flesh and blood.”
“No, I won’t.” He bared his fangs. “You have no power! It’s
your
fault Galatea—”
Meg didn’t let him finish. With a flick of her wrist, the window flew open. Ian was dragged toward it by an unseen force.
“A token mercy,” Megaera said, and the flames behind her crawled up the wall and slithered over to Ian, wrapping around him just as his webs had cocooned her. Then a fiery rush of power erupted from Megaera and propelled Ian through the open casement, hurling his body to the street below.
Marcus took cover from the flames but found they didn’t burn him. He rushed to the window as the fire flickered out and saw Clothos, bent over the ragged remains of her son…
Spinning.
Her webs wrapped him over and over and over again. When she looked up and saw Marcus, there was no sadness on her face. Only hunger.
“Pleasure doing business with you, Lycanos.” She hauled the cocoon of her dead and mangled son over her shoulder as if he weighed nothing, and Marcus noticed two spidery legs sticking out from her back, holding Ian in place. Then she blew him a kiss.
Marcus backed away from the window and turned his attention to Meg.
The flames had cooled and her face was ashen.
“Meg?” Marcus hauled her up against him. “Oh Goddess, Meg! I thought I’d lost you.”
She clung to him like a child, all the power he’d witnessed moments ago gone. But she was Meg again, body whole and healed. “I thought you had, too.”
“Swear you’ll never leave me. That there’s no guilt, no truth, no punishment more important to you than me.”
“Swear to me that there’s no truth, no noble deed, no question of honor more important to
you
than me,” she countered.
“I swear. I love you, Meg.”
“Forever, Marcus.”
Forever was a long time for supes, but with Megaera, Marcus knew it still wouldn’t be long enough.
“Take me back to bed, Lycanos.”
And being the noble beast he was, Marcus could do nothing but comply.
Epilogue
Megaera Eumenides watched the flex of her husband’s biceps as he carried the large box into the second bedroom. She never got tired of watching his golden skin, the play of muscles when he moved.
She especially liked the new tattoo on his arm that she’d just finished the week before. It was a great horned owl. It covered his arm from shoulder to elbow. She’d spent days on the detailing of the feathers and the expression on the owl’s face—especially its eyes. It was her best work. And when Marcus moved his arm at a certain angle, it looked as if the owl was winking at her. Almost like Athena reminding her, “This is what I had planned for you all along, my girl.”
Meg was okay with that. She was
more
than okay. Life was good.
She looked down at her own tattoo. It was a copy of the one on Marcus’ other biceps, the German woodcut of a werewolf with a woman in its mouth. But in the tatt on Megaera’s forearm, the woman in the wolf’s mouth was Megaera herself. Instead of an iron cross, she wore the badge of Athena—a great horned owl with its talons clenched around a spider.
The symbols meant so much to both of them.
As Marcus assembled the bookcase, Megaera wondered if it was time to tell him it wouldn’t be used for his collection of true crime books, but books for a much younger reader. So young, in fact, Meg and Marcus would have to read them to her.
Marcus seemed to notice her scrutiny and he flashed a smile.
Her fingers drifted to her still-flat belly as she thought to herself again…
life is good
.
About the Author
Saranna De Wylde has always been fascinated by things better left in the dark. She wrote her first story after watching
The Exorcist
at a slumber party. Since then, she’s published horror, romance and narrative nonfiction. Like all writers, Saranna has held a variety of jobs, from operations supervisor for an airline, to an assistant for a call girl, to a corrections officer. But like Hemingway said, “Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure, only death can stop it.” So she traded in her cuffs for a full-time keyboard. She loves to hear from her readers.
Saranna welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her
author bio page
at
www.ellorascave.com
.
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.
Also by
Saranna DeWylde
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
Furyous Ink
ISBN 9781419941108
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Furyous Ink Copyright © 2012 Saranna DeWylde
Edited by Kelli Collins
Cover design by Syneca
Photos: Fotolia.com
Electronic book publication July 2012
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