Even if that would be the best course of action.
Her anxiety had Arachne even more on edge than normal.
The moment the nurse shut the door behind her, Arachne dropped off the ceiling. She reverted to her humanoid form before her feet clicked against the ground.
“We can’t stay here,” Arachne said. She paced back and forth in front of the bed. “I can sense that pillar. Almost smell him. He is too close to relax.”
“I’m being released tomorrow morning unless she finds some reason to keep me here. We can go back to the prison, if you want.”
“Yes. And we’ll stay there. You don’t need school. You got along just fine without it.”
“No. We’ll be coming back. Maybe we could spend evenings and weekends away.” She did not look excited about the prospect. Before Arachne could protest, Eva said, “everything I learn is a new weapon for me. Thaumaturgy is great. Or will be one day. I can cast it without any focus or bloodstone. Or anything at all except my own body. It is a weapon that cannot be taken from me.”
“By that logic, we should be training up your body. That can’t be taken either.”
Eva’s face took on a look of horror before she vehemently shook her head. “I think I’m getting enough of that in Franklin Kines’ combat club.”
Arachne frowned. “You don’t need that club. I’ll train you. You don’t need school either. I promise not to complain when I read you books.”
“Is this pillar really that bad?”
“He’s strong. Very strong. Maybe one of the top twenty of the seventy-two. I don’t want to do anything that might lead to fighting him.” Arachne sat down on Eva’s bed and looked the girl right where her eyes should be. “That includes staying here. He may take offense at my presence.”
“He can sense you?”
“Undoubtedly.” Arachne paused and tilted her head to one side. “Though, there is another demon wandering around town that wasn’t here in November.”
“Another pillar?”
Arachne laughed. “Oh no. No, no, no. This one is weak enough that I could decimate it with my limbs blown off.”
Eva let out a small huff. “You were possessed,” she mumbled under her breath.
Waving her master off, Arachne continued. “If I had to guess, this demon is of the succubi family. It smells of lust. Very low on the succubi totem pole, though.”
“Working together with the pillar?”
“Can’t tell. If so, likely beaten into submission. Also not a fate I desire for either of us.”
“No,” Eva said with a shake of her head. “I don’t envy that.”
“See? We should leave. I’ll grab your things so we can go without delay.” Arachne jumped to her feet and started towards the door.
A claw gripped tight around Arachne’s wrist. It tugged hard enough that Arachne
“We’re not running away. Even if we were going to, I can’t just leave Juliana and Zoe.”
“Oh, I’d be happy to tie up loose ends for you. While we’re at it, why don’t we add the rest of those humans you associate with to the list?”
“Arachne,” Eva said in
It sent all the right shivers up her exoskeleton.
“I know,” Arachne said with all the obvious reluctance she could muster. “You are getting too attached to all these humans who are going to be dead in a century or so. They’re not worth concerning yourself over.”
“Maybe I’ll feel like that someday,” Eva said after a moment. “It isn’t a subject that I have not thought about on occasion. But I guess it is hard to wrap my head around at the moment.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Yeah, okay,” Eva said with a shrug of her shoulders.
Arachne opened her mouth to continue to extol the merits of not sticking around in a town with one of the seventy-two pillars of Hell.
Eva stopped Arachne with a motion. She carefully avoided agitating her shoulder as she worked her way over on the bed until she sat on only one side of it. With a light pat to the now vacant space, she said, “come on. Nurse Naranga gave me a sleeping potion. I don’t know that it was effective as I was tired beforehand, but I’m not getting any less tired by talking.”
Arachne did not need any further encouragement. She slipped under the covers before Eva finished speaking. “That nurse is going to see me.”
“She said she wouldn’t come in again until morning with the promise of ‘unimaginable pain’ if I disappeared again.”
Arachne let out a low growl as she nuzzled up against her Eva. “I’ll kill her.”
“Thanks, but maybe just turn into a spider and hide after a few hours.” Eva let out a yawn inches from Arachne’s face. “Wake me if anything important happens.”
“Of course,” Arachne said. She’d be keeping an eye out. Just one, the rest could watch Eva.
If she sensed that pillar getting the slightest bit closer, they’d be gone regardless of Eva’s desires. Maybe by waking her after Arachne carried her to the prison.
Irene’s Lunch
No Eva, no Shalise, no Juliana.
Irene didn’t like it.
