The click-clack of the needles stopped.

“You’re falling asleep,” Sophie said. Something as soft as the underside of a cloud drifted across Claire and settled over her. It was warm and silky, conforming to her shape. Was Sophie tucking her in with the blanket she’d just knitted?

Her eyelids drooped lower, but she could see Sophie standing over her. For some reason, her head was so heavy now, she could barely lift it.

The transparent veil on Sophie’s hat dipped and floated down, covering Claire’s face. It was hard to breathe under it. She thought about tugging it off her face, but her arms felt heavy, as though they’d been filled with warm water. She was scared, but her fear was fuzzy like the edges of dreams. Or nightmares. This was not normal. Sophie was not normal.

And then the strangest thought: the person in front of her was not Sophie at all.

As soon as Claire thought it, she saw a dark shadow cross over Sophie’s face. And as she watched, it grew … and grew …

The shadow wasn’t crossing—it was splitting Sophie’s face.

Two long and hairy spider legs burst from Sophie’s head, the conical hat falling on either side of her neck like a banana peel.

Claire screamed—or tried to, but her throat wasn’t working!

With a horrible rip, Sophie’s black gown burst open, revealing more legs wrapped around rows upon rows of glittering eyes. The legs hit the floor, and the newly appeared spider lurched forward, pulling itself out of Sophie’s black gown.

But Sophie wasn’t Sophie.

And the blanket wrapped around Claire was no blanket at all.

It was a web woven just for her.

Chapter Five

CHAPTER

5

The giant spider’s legs click-clacked like knitting needles as they scuttled toward Claire. She tried to scream, but the seaweed seemed to have strangled her vocal cords. Like a black wave, the spider loomed above her, a wall of fur and eyes and legs—then plunged.

For the second time that day, Claire felt the world around her sway. This time, though, it wasn’t the rocking of the sea’s waves; it was the spider wrapping her up the same way Mom wrapped up lunchtime sandwiches.

She told her legs to kick! But the blanket stuck, keeping her stiff and still.

“Stay calm, Claire,” the spider said, no longer speaking in Sophie’s voice but in a voice that rasped and clicked. “You don’t want the silk to be too loose, or else you won’t be fresh for later. Stay still, and all will be well.” There was a pause, and then the spider added, “Maybe not well for you but definitely for me. I haven’t had Gemmer in ages.”