The Hunter's Prey (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 5)

The Hunter's Prey (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 5) by Katherine Sparrow Read Free Book Online Page B

Book: The Hunter's Prey (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 5) by Katherine Sparrow Read Free Book Online
Authors: Katherine Sparrow
,” he murmured. The wand turned a flaming scarlet.
    While all my spells were activated by words in my mother-tongue, Merlin currently used the words of a modern and fictional wizard named Gandalf. Or so Lila and Adam had told me. Lila… No. I couldn’t think of her. Not here. Not now.
    Merlin circled around me, holding the flaming wand out in front of him.
    I looked away, at the quiet expanse of evergreens. At a yellow butterfly that flitted through the air. Merlin circled back around and placed the tip of that flaming wand at the center of the thing on my back.
    A hissing scream filled the air as the creature began to move again. Something bit down hard into the center of my back as dozens of legs scrambled to push and dig deeper into me. I growled and gritted my teeth. I locked my knees to keep from falling as Merlin cursed and used both of his hands to grab onto the thing and pull with all of his might.
    The high hissing grew louder and more frantic and the pain, a thousand knives stabbing and clawing into me, began to overwhelm me. I felt my consciousness begin to slip as the thing would not let go.
    Then a popping sound filled the air and I fell forward onto the soft ground. I turned to see Merlin had fallen backward as well. With both hands he held above him a thick and wriggling spider with a hundred legs and a snapping mouth that tried to bite him. A wave of nausea rolled through me as I searched my pocket. I found a small stone.
    “ Lladd. ” Kill, I said and threw the stone in the air. It flew straight and true to the hellish insect. It hit it and made a silver ball around the thing, trapping it inside before it fell to the ground.
    Merlin sat up and pushed himself away from the inert silver ball that lay on the grass. “That,” he said, “was disgusting. And it need hardly be said, Morgan, but stay away from spiders, will you? From even the tiniest ones, please. You know I would not be all right if anything ever happened to you. I need you in this world, whatever our relationship.”
    I swallowed as the pain upon my back began to fade. I wished with all my heart that the words he uttered were not true, but they simply were, and if all the terrible things I’d done to him hadn’t turned him off from me yet, then nothing would. And here we sat in a forest glen, while hundreds of murderous monsters searched for me. He had to know, as well as I, that today was not going to end well for me.
    “I thank you for your spider-slaying services, good wizard,” I said lightly, and for a moment the relief that it was gone was enough to chase away my melancholic thoughts.
    Then I felt something small wriggle deeper into me. It pushed wild and hard, a pebble pummeling into my center. Some detached part of the spider, still alive. I managed not to scream as I felt it bite into the thick muscle of my heart.
    Merlin’s sharp gaze watched me. “What's happening? What's wrong?”
    I shrugged and stood up on shaky legs. “Give a woman a moment to recover from such a thing,” I said. I carefully pulled the back of my dress up and over the oozing wound on my spine. There would be no getting the rest of the tracker out. Not here and now, for it would take a careful spell, and time was quickly running out. What a clever and wicked thing, I thought, and then put it out of my mind. There were more and pressing concerns.
    For the skies darkened overhead.
    A throaty rumble of thunder filled the air. Black clouds formed and billowed, doubling and then tripling as they erupted out of the clear blue sky. The air chilled as a gloomy twilight descended.
    “Tis ominous. Whither be the monsters?” Merlin whispered and came to stand beside me. He took my hand. It was shaking. He looked ready to scoop me up and run again. “The boots, then? Or we could go realm jumping, and hide within the multiverse.”
    “There were plenty of realm shifters in that palace,” I said quietly. “And this is a nice glen you’ve found. Well protected

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