The Spider Queen

by Emma Slate

  “I thought I was being respectful.”

  I smiled slowly.

  He sat back and laughed. “You’re evil.”

  “I took a play from your book,” I stated in wry humor.

  “Nicely done.”

  “Thank you.” I gave a little bow. “I stayed up until two in the morning trying to figure out what kind of spider is in the cube.”

  “Any luck?”

  “Not yet. I’m going to email some people today who either know, or have the means of finding out.”

  “Cool. Will that take all day, you think?”

  I cocked my head to the side. “Nope.”

  “You wanna hang out?”

  “I thought that’s what we were doing.”

  He smiled.

  “I need a shower. And more coffee.” I looked longingly at the coffee maker.

  “I’ll make more.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah,” he said with a nod.

  “I’ll be quick, promise.”

  “No rush,” he assured me.

  Chapter 6

  By the time I had finished showering and changed, Hunter was no longer alone in the living room. Jonah sat on the couch, his elbows resting on his knees.

  “Uh, hey,” I said, approaching them.

  Jonah stood. “Hey. I’m Jonah. We didn’t get a chance to meet last night.”

  “Hi,” I said with a wave. “Poppy.”

  “We just stopped by so Anita could change.”

  “I’m ready,” Anita chirped, coming out of her bedroom. Her long, blond hair was down and wavy, and she wore a pair of comfortable jeans and a man’s blue button-down.

  Jonah smiled. “Thought you were changing.”

  She smiled back at him. “I like your shirt.”

  “It looks good on you,” he gushed.

  Hunter and I exchanged a look. It seemed Anita and Jonah had hit it off really well and now they were in that phase of making everyone around them nauseous.

  I cleared my throat, dragging Anita’s attention back to me. She looked momentarily startled like she’d forgotten I was there. “Hey.”

  “Hi,” I said with a wry smile. “Late night last night?”

  Anita’s cheeks went a lovely, dusky rose. “I stayed with Jonah. When did you get home?”

  “I walked her home around midnight,” Hunter answered.

  “Oh, did you?” Anita asked, her lips cracking into a grin.

  “He did,” I voiced.

  “You stayed at the party for longer than an hour?” Anita tied her hair up into a messy top bun.

  I laughed. “Nope. We left.”

  “And did what?” She glanced at Hunter and put her hands on her hips.

  “He took me to—”

  “A secret place,” Hunter said with a wink.

  “Where are you guys off to?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.

  “My friend’s beach house,” Jonah said. “Out on Folly.”

  “It’s too cold for the beach,” I stated.

  “We’re not going to swim,” Anita said with an eye roll. “We’re just gonna hang out. Maybe cook some lobster.”

  Jonah was going all out to impress my cousin. Then again, he was already staring at her with worshipful eyes so she clearly had done something to him. I didn’t want to know.

  “You guys wanna come?” Jonah asked.

  Hunter looked at me and raised his eyebrows. “Your call. I’m down for whatever.”

  “Thanks for the offer,” I said with a shake of my head, “but I’ve got stuff to take care of.”

  “Not school work,” Anita stated. “Please no school work.”

  “I’ll make sure she doesn’t work too hard,” Hunter promised.

  Anita hugged me goodbye and whispered in my ear, “You and me, tonight. Catch up.”

  With a final wave, Jonah and Anita were out the door. As soon as they left, I went back into my room to grab the spider in the cube. I set it on the coffee table and pulled out my phone, wanting to get a few good pictures.

  Hunter sat down on the couch, letting me do my thing. He kept shooting strange glances at the spider.

  “Is this freaking you out?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah. It’s just…”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Wasn’t it more translucent last night?”

  My head whipped up to stare at him. “I had the same thought, but just assumed I needed coffee to clear my head.”

  “The spider looks, I don’t know. More solid? Is that right?” A flash of pain crossed his face.

  I immediately went to his side. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” he breathed, speaking through a gritted jaw. “Headache.”

  “I have some Advil—”

  “I’ll be okay.” He rubbed the space between his eyebrows.

  “You sure?”

  He nodded. “Do your thing, Poppy. Will it bother you if I watch some TV?”

  “No, go ahead.”

  He picked up the remote, and the screen flashed on.

  An hour later, I had sent the pictures to seven different researchers at multiple arachnological institutes across the world. Hopefully, I’d get a response from at least one of them and soon.

  “I better take her back into my room,” I said, picking up the cube. “Don’t want Anita coming home and freaking out.”

  “Her?” Hunter asked in amusement. “You sure it’s a female?”

  “No.”

  I took the cube back to my room and a lightning bolt of awareness flashed through my mind.

  Male.

  I looked at the spider, my hand dropping slowly to set the spider down on the dresser. Shaken, I left my room and shut the door behind me.

  “Poppy? You okay?” Hunter asked, worry clouding his blue eyes.

  “Fine.”

  “I don’t believe you. You’re pale.”

  “I’m always pale,” I said, aiming for light and deflective.

  Hunter’s eyes remained on my face, and then he patted the seat on the couch next to him. I walked over and plopped down.

  “I think I need a nap,” I muttered.

  Grasping my legs, Hunter pulled them up onto his lap. “Take one. I’ll stay.”

  Chapter 7

  Someone was calling my name and shaking my legs. My eyes flipped open and my heart jumped into my throat.

  Hunter’s gaze caught mine, worry evident in his face. “You were dreaming.”

  I struggled to sit up. I felt feverish, sick, and hot. Lifting my hair off the back of my neck, I inhaled a breath of air.

  “Let me get you some water,” he said, moving my legs off his lap so he could stand. “What were you dreaming about?”

  “I don’t know,” I lied.

  I dreamed of him. Again.

  The dark-haired, dark-eyed man whose erotic carnality blasted through my subconscious like a wrecking ball. In my dream, we’d been together again. Only this time, he’d been driving into me from behind. His hands had linked with mine as he’d brought me to the heights of pleasure.

  Hunter returned with a glass of cool water, and I drank it in three long gulps. I set the empty cup on the coffee table. “I think I’m coming down with something.”

  “Maybe I should go. Let you rest.” He headed for the door and I followed him. “Rain check?”

  I nodded. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” he said with a light smile. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah. I think I’m gonna go back to bed. I’m not used to being up late. I think it’s messing with me.”

  Hunter pulled me into his arms, and my head met the center of his chest. “Hope you feel better, Spider Girl.”

  “Thanks, Pre-Med.”

  I breathed him in. His cologne was earthy, masculine. I eased away, waved at him, and then closed the door. It was just past three o’clock, but I hadn’t lied when I told Hunter I was going back to bed. Grabbing
my computer and cell phone, I trekked back to my bedroom.

  Awareness rippled up my spine. I didn’t feel like I was alone. I looked at the spider. It was still in its cube, still on its back, legs wrapped around the ebony stone, still…still.

  Of course it’s still.

  I let out a relieved chuckle. Feeling like an idiot, I sat on my bed and opened my laptop. I had an email reply from Dr. Beaumont, a researcher at one of the world’s leading research institutes in Frankfurt. He expressed his keen interest in the spider, but had failed to identify it down to a species level and could say only that he hoped I would stay in touch when I found out exactly what it was.

  I pouted in frustration.

  I texted Anita, wondering when she would be home. She didn’t reply right away which meant she was absorbed in Jonah. He seemed cool and he obviously liked my cousin. Then again, they’d known each other for a minute and a half. And everything and everyone looked different late at night. In the morning things were different—I wondered if her infatuation with him would wear off soon.

  Usually she dated a guy for a few weeks and then broke up with him. She grew bored easily. I expected that she’d grow bored with Jonah, too. I didn’t fault her for how she went about dating, but I wasn’t sure I understood it.

  It took a lot for me to even notice a guy, let alone give him a chance. I envied how open she was, how she put herself out there. I’d seen her hurt a few times by guys that stuck around longer than a few weeks. But she always bounced back, and she was always willing to give it another shot.

  But her parents were still together. And happy.

  My phone vibrated. Anita. She promised she’d be home by nine, ten at the latest.

  I didn’t want to be in the apartment, so I headed to the school library. I spent the rest of the afternoon looking through encyclopedias and books on arachnology, sifting through the zoology and biology sections, but there was no information hinting at the type of spider I had in the glass cube. It was like it didn’t exist, or hadn’t yet been discovered.

  Hunter had noticed the change in the spider’s color, too. Maybe the spider had been preserved with a specific chemical that reacted strangely to sunlight. It was the best theory I had to offer at the moment, so I went with it.

  As the sun set, I left the library, discouraged and hungry. Plodding home, I thought about what was in the fridge that I could scrounge together for a meal. I unlocked the front door and yelped in surprise. “You’re here!”

  Anita looked up at me from her spot on the couch and grinned. “I live here.”

  “Yeah, but you said you’d be home at nine. And it’s—” I looked at the clock, “—seven. I thought for sure I wouldn’t see you until—”

  “Tomorrow morning?” she finished for me and winked. “Had to leave him wanting more.”

  I laughed.

  “Besides, I’m dying to gush. And I want to hear about you and Hunter.”

  “Let’s order food,” I suggested.

  “Yes,” she agreed. “What are we drinking?”

  “What do we have?”

  “Shitty beer.”

  “Shitty beer it is.”

  Once we ordered Chinese, I took a load off and sipped from my bottle of beer. Facing my cousin, I commanded, “Start at the beginning.”

  She laughed. “You were there at the beginning!”

  “Okay, then two minutes after the beginning.”

  “So I fell into him.”

  “Right. Saw that. He was talking to someone else, wasn’t he?”

  “Just a friend,” she assured me. “And when Jonah went to get me a drink, his friend asked me how I’d made my stumble look so real.”

  We laughed.

  “She’s pretty cool. And I’m glad he wasn’t with her—I wouldn’t feel right about stealing another woman’s man. Gotta stick to the code.”

  I smiled. “The code. Yes. You’re adamant about the code. How is he in bed?”

  “He was better this morning than he was last night.” She laughed. “So I have high hopes it will get even awesomer.”

  “Awesomer isn’t a word.”

  “I’m making it a word. Now you,” she said, eyes bright with interest. “Tell me everything there is to know about Hunter.”

  “I think he’s legit,” I intoned. “We met at the library, he annoyed me into talking to him, and then he wanted to see my sketch—my spider sketch.”

  “And he didn’t freak.”

  “He didn’t freak,” I repeated with a nod.

  “Impressive.”

  I shrugged.

  “He’s so into you,” she said.

  “Maybe.”

  “Poppy, he brought you a breakfast sandwich—”

  “How did—”

  “Jonah.”

  “Ah.”

  “What happened when you guys left the party?”

  “He took me to this bar that has a junk store in the back.”

  “What’s it called?”

  “No idea. It didn’t have a sign from what I could tell.”

  “You have to take me there.”

  “I will.”

  Our food arrived. Anita handed over the money while I got us plates and cutlery. We spread everything out onto the coffee table and dove in.

  “So Hunter,” she began.

  “What about Hunter?”

  “Are you going to give him a chance?”

  I took a moment to chew a bite of beef and broccoli. “I don’t know. I like him. He’s easy to be around.”

  “Then start there,” she suggested. “No pressure.”

  “There’s always pressure.”

  “Because you make it that way.” She smiled to take the sting out of her assessment. “Doesn’t have to be anything more than what it is—whatever that is.”

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  “Have you kissed him yet?”

  “Sorta.”

  She snorted in humor. “How do you ‘sorta’ kiss someone?”

  “I mean he kissed me, but it was quick and then over.”

  “You sound disappointed.”

  I reached for the last egg roll. “You know what? I think I am.”

  “What the fuck!” Anita yelled.

  I bolted up in bed, terrified and looking instinctively for something to defend myself. As the fog of sleep cleared and I realized it was just Anita, I glared at her.

  “What are you doing? It’s ten o’clock in the morning. On a Sunday.”

  Sunday was my day. I usually spent it vegging because I pushed myself hard during the week. Anita knew this.

  “You better have a damn good reason for screaming like a maniac and waking me up,” I grumbled, falling back over and tugging the covers up to my chin.

  She pointed to the glass cube and the spider inside. “This has gone too far.”

  Sighing, I realized there was no hope for it. There would be no going back to sleep. It would be impossible with Anita screeching like a banshee on steroids.

  Not bothering to answer her, I threw off the covers and reached for my glasses. “Will you give me some time to ingest caffeine before we do this?” There was no way I could face the day—and Anita—without coffee and a ton of sugar.

  She dogged my heels all the way into the kitchen. “Seriously, Poppy. It’s gross.”

  “So don’t look at it,” I snapped. “It was in my room. It wasn’t like I put it on the mantle and then threw a party for all to see.”

  She shuddered. “It scared the living shit out of me. You know what it looks like? One of those Facehuggers from Aliens.”

  “It does not.”

  “It does! Your spider is so fucking creepy. Where the hell did you find it?”

  “I found it at the junk store with Hunter.”

  Not it, HIM.

  It resonated like a murmur inside my mind.

  My head whipped around toward the direction of my room.

  “Poppy? Poppy! Are you even listening to me?” Anita demanded. “This i
s an intervention. Stick that spider in the closet—or better yet, throw it in the trash.”

  I set down the coffee pot and ignored Anita, racing back to my bedroom.

  “Where are you going? We’re not done talking! Poppy—I’m calling your mother!”

  Not even that threat stopped me from shutting the door in her face, her sputtering protests dying on her lips. I leaned against the door, closed my eyes, and willed myself to breathe.

  Opening one eye, I peered at the spider in the cube. Its color didn’t look any different today.

  When Anita realized I wasn’t going to come out any time soon, she left me alone. I bit my lip, wondering if she would actually call my mother. But I had other things to worry about.

  I forced myself to walk to the cube. Crouching down so I was eye level with the spider, I felt stupid for what I was about to say.

  “Are you talking to me?” I whispered.

  There was no response from the spider.

  I didn’t know if I was disappointed or relieved.

  Chapter 8

  I took a sip from my to-go coffee, polishing off the rest of the triple caramel macchiato. My eyelids drooped, and not even the last blast of sugar perked me up. The past few nights had been sleepless. When I was awake, I’d lie in bed and stare at the spider in the glass cube. When I was asleep, I’d dream of the dark-haired man.

  I felt haunted.

  “Hey, Spider Girl, mind if I sit down?” Hunter asked, jarring me out of my reverie.

  I looked up from my computer screen and smiled. “Of all the tables in the library, you had to sit at mine.”

  Taking that as an invitation, Hunter set down his navy blue backpack and pulled out a chair next to me. “What are you working on?”

  “Just finishing up a paper I have due at the end of the week.” I found a grammatical error, fixed it, and then pressed save. The program loved to freeze and lose work. I did some of my best cursing at it.

  Once Hunter got settled, he remarked, “Haven’t heard from you for a few days.”

  “I was sick.”

  “Hmm.”

  I frowned. “What?”

  “Were you really sick?” His blue eyes didn’t waver, and he didn’t mince words. “Or were you avoiding me?”

  “Why would I be avoiding you?” I evaded.