I began swinging at the mist the minute Elena let her magic loose. Great spurts of black blood erupted from my strikes, and the hidden creatures shrieked at each hit.

“We have to run.” Elena’s voice was steady as she shot bolt after bolt of lightning and magical energy into the woods. So many wails ricocheted along the trees—too many. Our attackers had to number in the hundreds. But what were they?

I spit the black blood that spurted against my mouth. “Do you know what they are?”

“Yes.”

A hairy black leg dropped into my vision. It was impossibly large, as long as a human leg. I looked up to see the maw of a giant spider bearing down on us. Its teeth were sharp needles that lined the entirety of its mouth, and its many eyes were black and unblinking. I drove my sword up into the beast. Black blood cascaded down, and it shrieked before shriveling onto the ground next to me.

“Now!” Elena cried, and we took off at a run. Elena blasted the mist ahead of us, destroying the misty water droplets and revealing a mass of black hairy bodies and a multitude of hungry eyes.

“Spiders. Fuck.” I attacked the mist at our backs.

“Not just any spiders. Here.” Still casting with one hand, Elena grabbed a magic bomb from her pack and handed it to me. I threw it behind us. The deafening blast sent bits of spider flying past us. They thunked into the trees and leaves above, the pitter-patter like a hard rain on the murky ground.

Elena stumbled, her foot caught in the shriveled legs of a felled spider. Another dropped down onto her back, its legs scrabbling at her. I smelled her blood on the air, the barbs on the creature’s legs ripping gashes in her skin as she screamed and fought. I pulled her from its grasp and swung out with my sword just in time. I caught it in mid-pounce and sent its head rolling away into the gloom.

“Another!” Elena handed me a magic bomb.

Despite her injuries, she hurled spell after spell into the mist as we kept moving. The chatter in the woods didn’t stop. Hundreds of legs still followed us, their owners readying to attack. They seemed endless, an infestation of horrors. I hurled the second bomb behind us, the explosion once again echoing through the dark trees before it was swallowed up by the all-encroaching mist.

A spiny severed leg shot through the mist, its barbs embedding into me. I ripped it out, ignoring the blood running from the burning wound. Poison? Elena’s back must have been on fire.

So many spiders had already fallen, littering the ground as we ran farther into Darkwood. I didn’t know if we were running straight to the spiders’ lair or to salvation. I very much doubted the latter.

As Elena hurled an even larger burst of magical energy ahead of us, her powers never flagging, an ear-splitting screech cut through the sounds of battle. The pursuit stopped, the spiders retreating and chattering quietly. Elena inhaled deep gulps of air as we stood back to back once again. Her blood was warm, wetting my shirt as we pressed against each other. Though her powers never waned, her use of them took a toll on her.

I’d seen it before, long ago, her face pale and her body trembling after helping the Trojan army hold off Menelaus’s horde in the first battle.

“Why have you come to this wood?” The strange voice could have been called lovely, the higher tones melodic. But it was mixed with a hissing noise, as if there were two speakers in unison.

“We seek passage to the Bloodkeep.” Elena’s voice rang true and strong, despite her fatigue and pain.

“Why seek death there when you can have it here instead, warrior?” A cacophony of hisses rose around them, seemingly in agreement with the speaker.

“Because I seek more than death. I seek blood. I seek vengeance. And I shall have it all if you will only let us pass.” Elena’s palms lit with fire, a threat of greater magnitude. If they were to die here, better to set the forest ablaze and take these dark creatures with them. She combined her palms into one large orb of flame.

“I once sought more than I should have.” The voice clucked. “I paid for it. You looked upon me, fair maiden. Just for a moment. Did you not know me?”

I was unsure of the creature’s game, but Elena was likely already two steps ahead of me. Just like old times.

“I do know you. What befell you is wrong and always will be so.” Elena’s words were genuine, but she continued to bobble the fire orb between her hands.

Movement caught the corner of my eye. Huge spider legs, far larger than any of the ones I’d seen during the battle, slid out of the mist toward Elena. She tensed but did not stop toying with the fire, a show of strength. I wanted to turn, to strike the creature down, but I couldn’t leave Elena’s back unprotected. Instead of attacking, I turned my head to watch, keeping one eye on the dense fog.

I cursed under my breath as the creature appeared fully, an immense black spider body with the nude torso of a maiden where the head would have been. Long, stringy hair hung to the ground, and her eyes were a glassy black, unblinking. Her mouth was full of the same needle fangs as the smaller spiders, causing the hiss with each word. It was a terrible visage that would have struck a mortal dead from pure fear.

“You did not deserve this fate, Arachne.” Elena’s tone was consoling?

I kept my thoughts to myself.

“This fate,” the creature spat, “was due me for my arrogance. For my folly in thinking I was greater than the gods. The gods showed me, didn’t they? Now I’m left to rot in this decaying, blighted wood.” The bitter laugh that left Arachne’s body made my hackles rise.

Arachne’s story was legend. She had once been a fair maiden who excelled at weaving. She was so skilled at the art, she challenged Athena to a contest. Athena accepted the challenge, sure she would best the maiden at the loom. Instead, Arachne wove the most beautiful tapestry earth or Olympus had ever seen, stinging Athena’s pride. In retaliation, the goddess doomed Arachne to a life of weaving by turning her into a monstrous spider. Now she was here in the Darkwood, a nightmare come to life.

More legs poked through the mist, a host of spiders massing around Arachne.

Her dark gaze swept over the remaining spiders. She pouted, if such a creature was capable of doing so. “Look how you’ve thinned my babies. My adopted darlings and I have made this our home, dark and diseased as it is, our one refuge from the gods and the immortals.” Her voice rose, the hissing growing louder. “You’ve killed them.”

Elena nodded. “We did. Now that I know for certain it is you, I am sorry for it.”

Was she apologizing for defending our very lives?

Arachne ran a hand through a lock of her dirty hair. “You speak well, warrior, I’ll give you that. But I see Artemis has marked you. You’re in service to the gods I hate with every wisp of soul left in this cursed body. What stops me from ripping you to pieces and sending the runes on your skin back to your mistress?”

“Well, for one thing, there’s this.” Elena threw the ball of fire into the air, the flames reflecting in Arachne’s black eyes before Elena caught it smoothly in her hands again. “For another, if you grant us safe passage, I swear to you that when I take the Bloodkeep, I will make you mistress of the Darkwood. You will have charge of it and will answer only to Paris, the true king of the Bloodkeep. But with one caveat. You and your spiders must not attack or kill those who venture herein. The new king will need a protector, someone to oversee the wood’s rebirth.”

I tensed for the hissing laughter and the spider attack. Reaching into my pack, I palmed a magic bomb. When there was only silence, I stilled. Was the nightmare actually considering Elena’s offer?

I knew Elena was skilled in battle, in strategy. But the way she calculated and came upon a way to move ahead without losing our lives to the spider queen was something altogether greater. Even if it didn’t work, I was still in awe.

Arachne clicked her many teeth. “What’s your name, warrior?”

“Elena de Artemis.”

“Well, Elena de Artemis, I do not believe for a moment you will ever make it to the Bloodkeep. My darlings and I aren’t the only evil things in these woods, and what lurks within the keep puts us all to shame. Still.” She clicked her needle teeth together again, considering. “I don’t want to lose any more of them.”

She watched the fire as Elena allowed it to play back and forth in her palms, a mesmerizing show of ability. But her wounds and the many spells had taken their toll. She was trembling, only enough that I could feel it against me. She gave no other sign, nothing that would hint of weakness to the spiders or their mistress.

Arachne looked around at her spiders, which waited patiently for her command. “I will agree to your proposal if you will also agree that, should you fall in the woods by some other creature’s hand, my babies will get the pleasure of feasting on you and your companion.”

Elena tilted her head. “What do you mean by fall?”

Arachne tsked. “Smart little warrior, aren’t we. I mean if you die. Though I don’t see why you wouldn’t let them have a little nibble if you were mortally wounded. And, of course, my wager is only on your life, but if you die and he lives, then I still get both of you. Live meat is so much more fun for my babies to eat.” The spiders tittered, their maws wet and dripping with anticipation.

“I think I can handle that.” Elena tossed the fireball up into the air one final time and let it dissipate in front of Arachne’s face. “You have my word.”

At the wave of Arachne’s hand, the spiders skittered back into the mist. Arachne backed away too and tipped her head slightly, a bow to the bargain struck with Elena. As she disappeared from view, her voice, still that mix of beauty and horror, floated on the damp air. “Sleep here tonight, little warrior. None dare venture into Arachne’s realm in the Darkwood. You will be safe…for now.”

Once the sounds of the spiders had vanished, Elena sank to her knees, weariness and pain destroying her facade of control. I scooped her into my arms and walked a bit deeper into the wood, away from the carnage of battle.

“I’m okay.” Her voice was weak, and her eyes were unfocused. She had been so strong, dueling with Arachne and bringing us through the ordeal alive. I leaned her forward to check the wounds on her back.

“I need to rinse these. The poison is keeping you from healing.” I reached into my pack for a skin of water. Pulling her face against my chest to stifle her cry, I poured it down her back. I hated her agony, but this was the only way. Once satisfied I’d removed as much poison as possible, I then laid her into the nook of the tree. She was so pale—ghostly white like the mist.

I quickly set up the little tent I’d found in Daphne’s pack. It was just large enough for two. Though a dusky gray color, compared to the Darkwood, it may as well have been glowing white. I grabbed some dirt and muck from the ground and smeared it along the outside, camouflaging it. Once I set it all up, I lifted Elena and placed her inside. I gently removed her torn shirt as she laid her head on my shoulder. The wounds on her back were still red and raw, but she was healing. Good. The water had done the trick, and her skin was sewing itself back together. She sighed as I held her away from me and slipped a clean T-shirt over her head.

After laying her on her side, I moved to leave and stand guard, but her hands fastened around my neck.

“Stay,” she breathed. Her eyes were closed, color gradually returning to her face.

“I need to watch for trouble.” I ran my thumb over her soft cheek.

She pulled me to her, and I let her. Her eyes fluttered open for only seconds. “We made a deal. We’re safe for tonight. Stay.”

I had never been able to deny those sparkling green eyes, and I wasn’t going to start now.

When I bedded down next to her, and she snuggled up against me. Only then could I let myself relax a little. She was alive, healing. I wrapped my arms around her, careful not to touch the wounds on her back, and nestled into her hair. She was already asleep, her soft breaths against my chest comforting me.

I lay awake for a while, listening for any spider legs clattering or the sound of other intruders, but heard nothing. Her slumber made my eyes heavy, and her warmth soothed me. I fell asleep with her safe against me.