City of Fae Read Online Free PDF Page B

leave. I rammed the papers into my pocket. A chittering, like the sound of marbles tumbling to the floor, sounded from above. Fear dumped ice water in my veins. I jerked my head up and recoiled from the sight of a dozen inky rivulets pooling toward the center of the ceiling.
What the hell?
Shadows gathered in the corner of the room. They warped and rippled, spilling broods of
bugs
.
    The reasonable part of my mind told me this wasn’t possible. Bugs didn’t behave this way. My skin crawled, and instinct urged me to bolt for the door, but the bugs got there first. A waterfall of tiny glistening bodies tumbled from the lintel. Was that deliberate?
No. Not possible
. It had to be a bizarre freak of nature, like a plague of locusts.
    I backed up, breath racing and heart jumping in my chest. Something gristly crunched underfoot. Stumbling, I reeled from the river of …
spiders
? Their numbers bloomed above, sagging under their own weight, until they tumbled to the floor. The twitching pool at my feet grew, and then rose up; spiders clambering, climbing over their own in their haste to reach me.
    I bumped back against the window. Tiny curls of green vapor writhed among their countless bodies, as though weaving a thread of light through them.
Illegal fae magic
. The column of spiders rippled and swayed, and I watched, transfixed in horror.
    “You will come with us …” The words hissed from the rustling of their bodies; they didn’t speak so much as create sounds from their numbers churning as one. My stomach heaved. I pressed myself into the glass. The door was entirely too far away, the street outside too far down to jump.
    “Aliiinnnaaa …” they churned.

Chapter Five
    I worked my fingers at the edges of the Northcliff House windows while holding my body perfectly still. The column of spiders undulated and swelled forward. I couldn’t run without crossing the tributaries of spiders. The windows behind me weren’t going to be much help. Even if I could get them open, I was four floors up. The back street behind Northcliff House had never looked so damn far away.
    “We are of the queen … Sssent for you … You must return.”
    “The queen?” The fae had a queen? Since when?
    The door was my only chance, but to get to it, I had to pass within grabbing distance of that … twitching column of spiders.
Okay, after three, I bolt for the door. One, two …
I made it two steps when the spiders rippled forward, sloshing across the floor and spilling over my shoes. With a shriek, I staggered back, but it was too late. Five, no six, scuttled up my shin, around my knee. I swept them off, but more came, flooding across the floor, rushing as one, surging over my shoes, around my ankles and dashing up my legs. There were dozens. I knocked them off as quickly as they scurried over my clothes.
No, God, no! Get them off, get them off!
The cool press of the windows behind, only reminded me I had nowhere to go.
    Glass exploded from behind. I ducked and moved away from the window, but a grip as hard as steel hooked around my waist and tugged me backward, hauling me out of the building. For a few brittle moments, my feet dangled uselessly in the air. Spiders tumbled from my shoes to the street several stories below. Any second now I’d follow them, and I would die, never having gotten my answers. Then the arms of steel pulled me around into a bone-jarring embrace so damn tight I couldn’t lift my head to see what or who had me.
    “Afraid of spiders, Alina?” Reign purred.
    I clung to him, sinking my nails in and hooking my legs around his waist. “Holy shit—Reign—what are you doing?—did you see?—there’s spiders … Don’t let me go.” I made the mistake of looking down. “Oh God.” I squeezed my eyes closed. “This is insane. We’re gonna die!”
    He grunted, “If you squeeze any tighter, I might.”
    With a monumental effort I lifted my head. One of those know-it-all smiles adorned his lips while he clung to a