One-two-three-four.
“I say you’re a liar!” Annalise lunged at the small mirror.
The blade struck. The glass wavered and a new image—a true image—appeared: the devil alone in the dungeon, chained to the ground, asleep.
Annalise and the others grinned. It hadn’t been real. Annalise couldn’t tell if the Fate Spinner saw what they’d seen or not. But before she could find out, the arena shuddered.
The shackled wraiths cried out in surprise, then hushed. The creature behind the door screamed like a demon. Annalise’s great hand was shocked with pain when the forty-foot-tall iron door began to rise.
Esh-Baal lowered one wing. “Everyone, get on.” Nightingale and Bowie glanced at each other and scrambled up Esh-Baal’s black wing behind Mister Edwards. Annalise went last and sat in front.
“Her name is Esh-Baal,” Annalise told the Tristles. “Hold on tight.”
As they rose, someone in the crowd caught Annalise’s eye. In the first row nearest the ground, a white cat in a top hat and monocle tipped his hat to her as they passed.
Muse!
“Good luck,” he shouted as Esh-Baal soared by. “May the magic of dreams be yours!” Muse vanished from sight as quickly as he’d appeared.
But that’s okay, Annalise thought. For in her heart of hearts, she knew he was here somewhere. And soon, she’d see her Muse again.
Annalise gripped her dagger and flew.
Chapter 31
The Demon Within
A monster emerged from the dark cave behind the iron door, more terrifying than the cockatrice and chimera combined. The audience of wraiths jumped up and cheered, rattling their chains. The Fate Spinner watched closely from her throne as a living nightmare emerged into the crimson moon’s light.
The demon, as tall as the bars doming the arena, had long bruise-dark tentacles that lashed out in a frenzy of slippery whips. Four giant tarantula heads atop the creature hissed in unison. Spiders. Annalise couldn’t seem to get away from them. Red mirrored eyes with slit pupils capped each tentacle, all aimed and staring at her—and she could not look away.
Horror, bright as a million flares, lit inside Annalise.
Panic wasn’t far behind.
At the sight of the towering demon, Annalise’s throat closed and her heart swelled. An army of anxious black thoughts scuttled over her brain. Behind her back, Nightingale, Bowie, and Mister Edwards screamed—maybe in fear, maybe fighting to hang on as Esh-Baal darted in and out of lashing tentacles, and dived.
Hot wind raging past her ears, Annalise forced her gaze from the demon and focused on her dream:
I wish to rule my own destiny and rid myself of this curse!
She repeated her mantra until it sank into the dark soil of her mind—until it seeded and bloomed. And as the armored fire unicorn borne from her curse reared before the demon, Annalise stared the fiend down and shouted into the dusty red wind, “Now, dreamers, we fight!”
The audience cheered. Esh-Baal charged.
And the demon lunged.
Tentacles lashed out around them—staring, reaching, grabbing, brushing past Annalise’s skin. Esh-Baal dodged, soared, and dove. Mister Edwards clung tighter to Annalise as Annalise ducked and slashed with her blade, but the tentacles were too fast—they grabbed and pulled at her while her friends screamed and fought. The demon was everywhere, and they couldn’t escape.
“Give up,” the demon hissed from the dark corners of her mind. “Let go, little weakling, little freak, little helpless, foolish girl. You know you always fall, so fall!” Annalise’s breath came hot. Her heart sped. Every eye on its writhing body was staring her down.
Suddenly, Annalise wanted to run—to curl into a ball in the corner and hide from this demon, from her dreams, and fear, and her fate, and the whole world. She counted to four, and four, and four, and four, struggling to hang on to her darting unicorn as worry-thoughts tunneled into her mind deeper and faster and uglier than ever before.
Behind her, Nightingale and Bowie shouted her name and grabbed at her back. Mister Edwards called to her over the roar of the crowd. But when Esh-Baal took a sharp turn, Annalise slipped and couldn’t hang on. Before she knew what was happening, the air whooshed out from under her, and she fell.
The crowd broke into nervous cheers and staggered applause as Annalise plummeted. Hair and cloak and four black ribbons rippling upward, tears of defeat in her eyes, Annalise dropped the dagger. Before it hit the ground, the demon caught it in one of its mouths.
The Fate Spinner’s surprised laughter chimed through the arena.
Annalise landed in a soft copse of shadowshine roots. Esh-Baal skidded to a halt beside her, gold lightning blazing from her horn. “Annalise, get back on!” Esh-Baal lowered her wing. But Annalise wasn’t fast enough.
The tentacle demon wrapped its many-eyed limbs around Annalise’s body and lowered its tarantula heads so close that she could see down their throats.
Mister Edwards, fangs bared and growling, scurried down her unicorn’s wing, ready to bite anything that moved. Nightingale and Bowie followed right after, but the demon shoved them away.
“Annalise, you are determined, I will give you that.” The Fate Spinner’s voice rang out from the mirror. “But determined isn’t a pretty look on a girl like you. Are you finally ready to give yourself and the unicorn to me? Or shall I have my tentufear break you and your friends in the most violent and painful of ways?”
Nightingale and Bowie screamed as the tentufear wrapped them up in its arms. Mister Edwards darted in and out of the demon’s limbs, trying to grab Annalise’s dagger, until the tentufear snapped him up, too.
Annalise forced herself to calm as the demon turned all of its eyes on her.
The closer she looked at the tentufear, the more she saw. Its limbs were not solid at all but consisted of millions of tiny bruise-colored spiders, crawling over its body, transferring worry-thoughts onto her. No, it’s an illusion. Don’t look, she told herself and forced her eyes away. Focus on getting your dagger and freeing yourself from its arms.
Esh-Baal reared and charged at the Fate Spinner’s mirror, smashing it with her horn. Sparks flew, but the glass remained intact. The Fate Spinner glared at the dark unicorn, and Esh-Baal glared back.
“You cannot get to me nor I to you, as you well know,” the Fate Spinner said to Esh-Baal. “But I will get you and the girl, one way or another. And when I do, neither of you will live or dream much longer.”
The unicorn of fire and dark-hearted armor shook with rage. “You don’t deserve to stand in the presence of Annalise Meriwether,” Esh-Baal said. “And despite what you think of us dreamers, we will always be stronger than you made us out to be.”
The Fate Spinner leveled her cold gaze at Annalise.
Annalise did not break the Fate Spinner’s stare—she would not look away first, even if her eyes froze until the end of time. The locket the Spinner Queen had given her gleamed in the red moonlight. And even as the tentufear squeezed its tentacles tighter around her, a powerful strength buzzed beneath her skin. She let it fill her and steady her breath—one-two-three-four. Her body buzzed with the fire of determination.
Annalise gave the Fate Spinner a confident grin.
“That’s right,” Mister Edwards said, trying to wriggle his way free alongside her. “We’ll fight you together, and together, we will win. Then,” he shouted loudly for the anxious crowd, “WE WILL HAVE OUR DREAMS!”
The arena remained silent. None of the spectators made a sound. The tentufear stood by, all eyes on the Fate Spinner, as if holding back was the hardest thing to do.
Annalise eyed her dagger determinedly, lodged in one of the tentufear’s fanged jaws.
The Fate Spinner raised her staff and stood. “Have it your way. Battle my demon. I shall enjoy watching you fall.”
The tentufear released all the dreamers at once.
Dark winds rose. White crows by the hundreds poured into the sky above the bars—
caw, caw-caw, caw! The poets of hope soared overhead, singing their bard songs. Annalise glanced up at them with a smile, and a new impenetrable hope.
Right before she rose to her feet, Annalise lifted the Spinner Queen’s locket outside of her ragged plum cloak and spun it four times.
The silver flashed gold only once, but the wraiths saw. They snapped their heads from the white crows and enchanted butterflies to Annalise. And when Annalise, Mister Edwards, Nightingale, and Bowie stood and brushed themselves off, the wraiths in the stands sprang to their feet—bleary-eyed and blinking as if waking up.
Then they cheered a new name. A name Annalise never thought she’d hear cheered for, rather than against. “Annalise, Annalise, Annalise, ANNALISE!”
The crowd applauded and pumped their shimmering fists.
For her.
Her tattered cloak whipping fiercely in the icy wind, Annalise shouted at the Fate Spinner over the rising storm, tears of triumph in her eyes. “We did not come to your labyrinth to give in to your threats, Fate Spinner. We are all dreamers here—those in the stands and in the labyrinth—even you. Each of us has come for our dreams. And I, for one, will not give up UNTIL I CLAIM THEM!”
The wraiths went wild. Nightingale cheered. Bowie pumped his fist high in the air and said, “Annalise, you are the coolest girl I know!”
Annalise didn’t know it was possible for her whole body to blush.
Golden butterflies swooped in and fluttered madly around her as Nightingale scowled at her brother. “What am I, moldy headcheese?”
Bowie didn’t have a chance to reply.
The tentufear rose to its full height and snapped its tentacles forward in a burst, grabbing both siblings at once. It laughed low and wild, then launched them high and far over the labyrinth walls.
The wraiths stopped cheering. Nightingale and Bowie screamed as they flew. Lightning struck from all points in the heavens, and the cries of Annalise’s new friends died.
Night wolves howled in the distance.
But Annalise howled loudest of all.
“NO!” A familiar power crawled under her skin and burst. Pulsed. Raged. Black fire licked behind her eyes, emboldening the fire inside her.
Mister Edwards slipped his paw into her great hand and squeezed four times. “They’ll be fine,” the fox said. “Look.” He turned his gaze to the sky. Several of the poets of Hope fluttered quickly after their friends. “The poets will take care of the Tristles, I’m sure of it. Maybe they’ll even find their way to Dreamland before us?”
Annalise hoped with all her heart that Mister Edwards was right. Then she forced herself to focus on her dream.
I wish to rule my own destiny and rid myself of this curse.
I wish to rule my own destiny and rid myself of this curse.
I wish to rule my own destiny and rid myself of this curse.
I wish to rule my own destiny and rid myself of this curse.
Breathing hard through her nose, chin tucked to her chest, Annalise narrowed her gaze at the dagger gripped in the tentufear’s maw as it moved slowly toward her.
She needed that dagger.
And she would have it.
Suddenly, the tiny black thorns on the shadowshine trees sprouted long and sharp as sabers. Shadowshine thorns create an unseen barrier protecting dreamers from harm.
Annalise grinned. “Yes, Mister Edwards. A dreamer must always have hope.” She ripped a thorn free and handed it to the fox. “Take this and use it as a weapon. It’ll help protect you.”
The Fate Spinner banged her staff. Red lightning flashed across the black sky. “Dreamers,” she bellowed, “prepare to die!”
“Get on!” Esh-Baal called, lowering a wing. Mister Edwards took the foot-long shadowshine thorn with a grin. He scrambled onto Esh-Baal’s back and wrapped her long fiery mane around his body, securing him safely so he had his paw free to fight. The moment the fox wielded the thorn, his body shone with a bright golden light.
Esh-Baal galloped from ground to sky. The Fate Spinner gripped her staff so tightly a few of its mirrored eyes shattered. Black blood leaking between her fingers, she leveled her staff at the glass as Esh-Baal swooped past.
“May the best Spinner win,” the enchantress said.
The crowd cheered Annalise’s name.
Chapter 32
The Final Battle
The wraiths in the stands went wild when the dreamers soared over the arena and the tentufear lunged after them. Esh-Baal rounded the far wall. The demon whipped its spider-coated arms at Esh-Baal, but the fire unicorn wove in and out of its reach.
Annalise set her sights on the tarantula head clutching her dagger in its fangs, and cried over the crowd cheering them on, “Esh-Baal, take me to my dagger!”
The black heart of Annalise’s great hand zinged with sudden gold flames. A new power had sparked within it—her great hand wanted to fight.
She leveled her black-hearted palm at the tentufear and blasted it with firebolts of gold. The spider-heads hissed and screamed and thrashed. Several arms severed and fell. Esh-Baal cheered and took a quick turn. She galloped higher, hooves blazing, shooting her own golden flames. When her head was turned, the tentufear swiped a large tentacle from the right. Annalise slipped. Mister Edwards clamped his shadowshine thorn between his teeth and pulled her up before she fell. “Thank you, Mister Edwards!”
Mister Edwards slashed tentacles left and right with his poisonous shadowshine thorn. Each of the demon’s arms that he hit thrashed and pulled away. “Anytime!”
Esh-Baal rose amid whipping tentacles. She aimed her horn and dived at the tentufear. Before Annalise had a chance to strike, Esh-Baal pierced the tarantula head holding Annalise’s dagger. Its ugly face lit on fire. The tentufear bellowed and screeched.
And the dagger slipped from its maw.
Annalise caught the dagger midair and laughed. “Hello, old friend,” Annalise said under her breath.
Mister Edwards cheered, “Yes!”
The tentufear came at them harder—lashing out, it wrapped Esh-Baal’s legs in its arms. “Oh, no you don’t,” Annalise said as Esh-Baal dropped from the sky.
Without missing a beat, Annalise slashed at the tentacles binding Esh-Baal’s legs with her blade. The creature shrieked and let go, arms smoking. The crowd broke into applause. And the dreamers went back for more.
The tentufear reappeared, avoiding Annalise’s dagger. Mister Edwards hit its arms again and again, until he jabbed the tentufear so hard his thorn snapped. “Oh dear,” he shouted over the moans of the crowd. “I lost my weapon!”
The golden aura surrounding him vanished.
“Take these.” Annalise pushed her hair from her eyes and checked her left pocket. She still had the sharp rocks he’d given her from the Spinner King’s court. “You blinded the cockatrice. I believe you can get this demon, too.”
Mister Edwards beamed. “Good idea, Miss Meriwether!”
Fate’s demon of eyes and arms, venom and fangs, attacked from behind, thrashing and shrieking, trying desperately to bite. Esh-Baal took hit after hit, and Mister Edwards kept slipping. They wouldn’t be able to keep this pace up much longer. “Esh-Baal,” Annalise said, “if we blast the tentufear’s heads at the same time, maybe we can destroy it.” Esh-Baal shifted direction. “Mister Edwards, ready your weapons!”
Esh-Baal flew to the tops of the arches, ten feet from the demon’s heads. She swooped around, blasting flames with her horn. Arms lashed, slashed, and fell. Finally, one of the tarantula heads lunged at Annalise, jaws open to bite.
Mister Edwards roared like a lion and pitched a jagged stone straight into one of its mirrored eyes. The eyes shattered, and the entire tarantula head shattered with it.
The spectators jumped up and cheered. Shards of tarantula-glass skittered across the floor. Annalise screamed, “You did it!”
The tentufear shuddered and froze. The Fate Spinner, who’d been enjoying the show, shrieked at the beast, “DON’T JUST STAND TH
ERE, STUPID! DO SOMETHING!”
Esh-Baal skirted the walls and tops of the trees, away from the demon. “Look,” the unicorn said, hovering a safe distance away. A large crack had formed in the stone floor and across the Fate Spinner’s mirror.
The Fate Spinner stumbled back, staff tight in her fist, and gaped at her mirror in shock. Maybe the secret to defeating the tentufear, and maybe even winning the labyrinth, was shattering its eyes?
“Miss Meriwether., look.” Mister Edwards pointed at the ground.
“Mercy.”
A child’s spirit rose from the broken glass. He had long copper hair, smiling eyes, and carried a sword. “Thank you for freeing me,” the boy said. “Long live the dreamers and the Spinner of Dreams!” The boy’s spirit spun into the sky and merged with the faraway stars. He must have been one of the dreamers who’d lost against the Fate Spinner—a soul she’d trapped in her labyrinth.
Maybe the other tentufear heads were trapped souls, too?
“Everyone, aim for its eyes!” Annalise yelled.
The demon shook off its pain and laughed, pointing its remaining eyes at Annalise. “You’re mine.”
Annalise raised her darkly marked palm at the beast and answered, “Not if you’re mine first.”
Annalise and her unicorn countered the demon’s attacks—Annalise with her great hand, Esh-Baal with her horn, both with all the golden fire they possessed. They’d dipped low, so Annalise could rip another shadowshine thorn from a tree, when a tarantula bit Esh-Baal’s leg.
The unicorn screamed, high and terrible. Annalise leveled her dark mark at one of the tentufear’s heads and blasted a bolt of energy so powerful, its head exploded into shards of broken red light.
“Good job,” Esh-Baal said, flying higher, weaker than before.
A crack, larger than the last, slashed through the Fate Spinner’s mirror. The Fate Spinner screamed in a rage, but all Annalise could see in her eyes was fear.
Their plan was working.
The Spinner of Dreams Page 21