“Give me—”

Teo was already passing her the explosives and a match before she finished the sentence. He squeezed her other hand as he did so. “I can do it if you want.”

“No, I’ve got this,” she said with a small shake of her head, hoping she sounded braver than she felt.

A moment later, she climbed the handholds into the darkness. Reaching the grate, she tied the explosives in place with a length of rope, then climbed back down to light the match. As soon as the flame hit the string, she and Teo ran for cover around the corner at the end of the hall.

The explosion went off, shattering the grate to pieces. But a different sound came with it now, like nails scraping on a sheet of metal. But it faded away just as quickly, most likely a noise from the construction site.

Aina led the way to the handholds in the wall and moved first, with the flare gripped between the smallest fingers of one hand. It provided a reddish glow of light as they made their way up the shaft.

But then, the same scratching sound she’d heard before came again from above them. Little scraping noises followed it, growing closer with each passing second. Hair rose on the back of her neck as a suspicion struck her.

Her breath caught in her throat when she looked up. Yellow pinpricks stared down at her.

Eyes.

39

Claws as sharp as her blade and the length of her forearm appeared in the red light of the flare.

Then a leg appeared, twice as long as the claw and covered with thick brown hair. More legs and then the massive body of the cave spider appeared. The beast threatened to take up the entire width of the ventilation shaft with its body. Teo swore loudly below her.

The image of the dead cat wrapped in a cave spider’s webbing slipped through her thoughts and made her hands turn clammy with fear. Her first instinct was to leap off the ladder and hope she landed without breaking her legs, but there was no time for that.

Instead of fleeing, she squared her shoulders, tucked the flare under her arm, and withdrew a dagger.

“Let’s see how this spider fares without its eyes,” she whispered.

She slashed at the spider, scraping one of its legs with her blade and drawing dark blood that dripped on her.

It crouched back into the shadows, then jumped.

With a sharp intake of breath, she slammed the hilt of her weapon into its head. Horrible clicking and sliding sounds echoed around her as the beast struggled to regain its tread on the walls.

One of its claws swept underneath her, piercing Teo in the shoulder. She risked a quick glance down to make sure he was still on the ladder. As the claw moved away, Teo took out a gun and fired at the spider.

The bullet pinged off the wall and ricocheted toward a spot a few inches from her fingers. She dug her fingers into the handhold. The dynamite in her pack weighed her down, making her clench her jaw with the effort to hold herself on the ladder.