CHAPTER 73

"You're backup." She let out a sigh. "You're stuck here with me, and you'll hate it. Will be very boring. But if something goes sideways, I need to know that I can depend on you to bail us out."

Sofia nodded. "You can count on me."

"Good." Eulalie turned her eyes back to the monitor. Sulyvahn was in the backyard now, talking to Naia and Amymone. Soon she would have more drones and would be better able to monitor things from the sky. Even though the house was vulnerable, the web she was setting would catch anyone who tried to enter it.

Speaking of webs, it wouldn't be a bad idea to set some literal ones of her own. She didn't want someone breaking into the house and disrupting her surveillance. With a groan, she pushed away from the desk and rose to her full height. The nearby rats didn't shy away from her but raised their beady gazes in curiosity.

It was going to be a long night.

The forest below Abella was a sea of white and green, interspersed by rocky outcroppings and the occasional river. From her current altitude, she could actually see distortions in the land at the boundaries along the barrier. It was like looking through a haze of rippling hot air as the land attempted to fold and bend itself properly into shape before lining up with the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, it also meant that she wasn't sure how far away the barrier was. Sometimes it would look less than a mile, but would then distort and reappear dozens of miles out.

"Does it always do that?" she asked. Emery, who had chased her down and begged to tag along, was perched on her shoulder. He clung to her for dear life, his tiny hands wrapped up in her hair.

"I've never been this high, big sister," he replied. While her interactions with the imp had been few, he had come to the conclusion that because they were both made of stone, they must be related. She had been hard-pressed to correct him, and he really was adorable. "The winds are too strong for my wings."

"Ah." She was disappointed. When she had taken Mike's phone, she had flown in a random direction and was now wondering if she had picked the worst direction to go. Still, it was interesting to be over such a large swath of land without the immediate tug of guardianship pulling her back. For the first time in over a century, she really felt like she could stretch her wings. It occurred to her now that she could have probably accomplished such a thing in the greenhouse. She had always been too nervous to leave the house unprotected.

And yet, here she was, over a thousand miles away. It was no longer the house that she cared about, but the man who served it. She couldn't wrap her head around her own feelings about him right now. He was family, but also something more. Maybe there wasn't a word that existed for the relationship that they had.

She definitely didn't know where she stood with Velvet. The sensation of cold metal pressed against the nape of her neck had made a lasting impression as she simmered with her face buried deep in the snow. Velvet had been far stronger and faster than Abella expected. Even when the Arachne had finally gotten the upper hand, she chose to flee rather than take it.

Abella wasn't worried about the sword. She still had a trick up her sleeve that would have easily turned the tide on that particular fight. Instead, she was worried about why Velvet had been so quick to dismiss their fight, to flee into the woods.

No, worried was the wrong word for it. She had gone over the incident in her mind all night as she circled the cabin. Abella wanted to believe that this trip and Velvet's behavior was a ruse, an attempt to lure them all into a false sense of security. She had gone over a number of elaborate plots in her mind where the Arachne would inevitably find a way to kill and eat the others, and maybe even take over the house somehow.

Instead, her mental search for answers had revealed only one truth that she couldn't deny: Abella's hate for the Arachne had blinded her to other possibilities. When Velvet spoke about wanting to be seen as something more than a monster, it was the exact same desire Abella had held in her own heart for decades. The two of them were more alike than Abella cared to admit, and their fight had really been her own fault.

At some point, she assumed that Velvet would tell Mike what had happened. She wasn't sure she could handle the look of disappointment she would get from him. He was the single most important part of her world right now, and all she wanted was for him to be safe.

"Are you okay, big sister?" Emery's voice snapped her out of her funk.

"I'm fine." It was a lie, but what did the imp know?

"I think the boundary is coming up soon." He pointed ahead at what looked like a gap in the trees. The air rippled above it. "The Caretaker's phone should work soon."

"Great." She didn't bother conveying any enthusiasm. The main reason she had come out here was to build up some positive karma for the inevitable fallout to come over what had happened the previous night. She was sure that things were fine at home, and—

Just short of the edge of the boundary, the air suddenly vanished from beneath her wings and she dropped out of the sky. Bands of crimson light sprouted from the air behind her, wrapping around her ankles and yanking her back. Crying out in surprise, she tumbled over a hundred feet before the bands released her legs. Realizing she was on a collision course with the ground, she spread her wings wide and was able to generate enough lift that she pulled up at the last second, trimming off the tops of the pines below.