CHAPTER 184

Her ears were ringing, and she groaned. Where was she? Her whole body ached, and she lifted her head to look around. There was a tiny sliver of light that illuminated the rock above her. She was in the mouth of a cave.

Cave. Velvet. Leeds. She had tried to rescue Velvet, swooping down to grab her before the cave could collapse. But then what?

There was a sharp pain in her left wing, and her eyes popped open the rest of the way. A rock had fallen and hit her in the wing, and they had crashed. As the ground rumbled around them, she had faded in and out of consciousness from the pain. Was her wing even still there, or had it been shattered? She flexed it and felt tremendous pain along its length. She bit back a groan, but was grateful to feel anything at all.

"No man left behind," she muttered. It was something that Velvet had muttered, over and over again. Where was the Arachne?

Abella tried to move forward, but her feet and tail were pinned down by heavy rocks. She had a moment of panic, but reassured herself that she could probably get free. The sliver of light above was expanding, and would eventually illuminate the rubble and allow her to figure out how to best extricate her feet.

The ringing in her ears faded over the long minutes until it was finally gone. The cave was silent, save for the occasional drip of water and the breeze that flowed over the entrance.

"Velvet? Are you there?" She turned her head painfully and was able to make out a pair of legs sticking out from beneath an overhang in the corner of the cave.

"I am," Velvet replied, her voice weak and airy.

Sighing with relief, Abella laid back down and relaxed. "You saved me, didn't you?"

"I did."

Abella sighed. If not for Velvet, she would have been crushed beneath the ground. Or worse, trapped for all eternity in the Earth Mother's Embrace. A chill ran up her spine at the thought of it.

When Mike had first discovered her, it was after the Mandragora had leached away her life force, putting her in a similar state. Her mind had come and gone, but in those waking moments, she had experienced a dull pain throughout her entire body. Maybe it was analogous to hunger in humans, or not having enough air to breathe. Either way, it was something she hoped to never experience again.

"Thank you." She tapped on the cold stone of the ground, feeling the grit beneath her fingertips. All sorts of emotions rolled through her, but the biggest one was regret.

"And also...I am sorry." Abella paused, half expecting Velvet to say something.

The Arachne remained silent.

"I am sorry that we fought. I didn't give you the benefit of the doubt. You are the first of your kind to embrace their humanity, and I refused to believe it possible. And so I tried to kill you, and am ashamed.

"I came for you because I love him." Abella squeezed her eyes shut, the warmth in her chest threatening to overwhelm her. "I wanted to protect you for his sake, but I know now that I should have come for your own. You could have left me behind, I am aware of this. And maybe you saved me for the same reason I tried to save you. For Mike."

"No man left behind," Velvet whispered.

Abella chuckled. "No man or monster, maybe. I doubted you, and I shouldn't have. We are different, but maybe we have more in common than I was willing to acknowledge. If nothing else, we have him in common, and that should have been enough."

The ground behind her rumbled as distant stones settled. Abella waited for the cave to become quiet before continuing.

"And maybe that is my way of saying I see things your way. You shared an experience with him that resulted in something beautiful and lasting. I can't understand what it means to be a mother, to hold a child or egg of my own. It isn't even something I want. But if I were to find myself in your shoes, or legs as it were, I think I would have made the same choice. I wouldn't have considered anyone else's feelings in the matter."

The light was brighter now, and Abella looked back at her feet. Her legs and tail were pinched between two rocks. She shifted her tail around, which caused the troublesome boulders to shift.

With a groan, she pulled herself forward and collapsed on her belly.

"I'm sorry about your egg," she continued. "When we return, I will help you look through the ashes until we find it."

Velvet sighed.

"If you say that this child is different, then I trust you," Abella continued. "Because I know that he will trust you. And if any of the others try to give you problems, they will have to go through me first."

She moved toward a nearby wall and used it to stand. Her knees hurt, but once she was upright, it was easy to stand. The mouth of the cave was nearby, and she limped her way toward it in a crouch to avoid smashing her head on the ceiling.

The sun was coming up and she squinted into its light.

"We need to get back," she said. "The others are waiting for us. He is waiting for you."

The breeze stopped, allowing silence to descend on the cave. Abella half expected to hear the rustle of hairy legs, or even Velvet snoring. She hadn't exactly held up her end of the conversation.

However, the silence that ensued was absolute. Other than the occasional drip of water, nothing could be heard.

"Velvet?" She turned around, the light shining in over her shoulders. The beam was just low enough to illuminate the top of the huddled form in the back of the cave.

Abella crouched down and moved to where Velvet sat. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she let out a gasp of surprise.