“You don’t need to kill the girl,” Arturo said. “Look at her — she’s hardly a threat to you.”
“She’s as cunning and ruthless as I am, as we both well know. Besides, I don’t do anything without doing it thoroughly.”
The Luellen-like creature sauntered right up to Maria, its legs quivering with each step so that Maria could almost see the hundreds of spiders in its veins. Maria’s terrified face was reflected back at her eight times.
“Don’t worry, little one. This will only hurt for a second.”
She raised her arm across her chest as if she was going to backhand Maria. Maria saw the lights glittering off all six rings, one on each finger except her middle finger, which had two. Luellen’s fingers were long and sharp, like tiny daggers. There was no telling which of the rings produced that effect.
In the split second before the blow landed, Arturo disappeared with a pop and reappeared right before Maria. Luellen’s hand came down with a sickly slice. Just like that, Arturo was dead.
“No!” Maria shouted, her voice breaking like a wave. Her anguish seemed finally to pierce Derek’s armor. His eyes opened wide and he noticed the iron poker in his hand as if for the first time.
Luellen prodded Arturo’s body with her foot, then leaned over to remove the Mirror Ring as if she were picking out a diamond from a pile of trash. She slid the ring onto her middle finger so that it now bore three. As soon as it did, Luellen’s eyes glazed over with veils of red. Her transformation was nearly complete.
Luellen stared at her hand, then blinked all eight of her horrible red eyes at once. She turned her attention back to Maria.
“Symmetry, my dear, is everything in life. Balance, order, what-goes-around and all that jazz. There’s nothing quite like a perfect circle, except perhaps a perfect story, which exists always in a loop, the infinite present. When you are gone, I will be the story. When you are gone, the Order of Anansi will begin and end with me. I am sure you can see the beauty in that.”
Maria’s spiders screamed their protest in her mind. They didn’t think the Black Widow’s vision for the future was beautiful. They were as frightened and appalled as Maria was.
“The Order won’t end with you,” Maria said. “You don’t really control the spiders. They make the circle. You’re just a cog.”
For a moment, the Black Widow looked furious, her red eyes flashing dangerously. Then she threw back her head and laughed.
She removed the mirror ring, and her eyes became black once more. She removed another ring, and another, and her mandibles became cheeks and her eight eyes melded into two. At last, it was Luellen standing before her, not the Black Widow. She held the seven rings in her hand. In place of her right ear was a nub of flesh. And at her feet, an army of spiders stood ready to strike.
“Who is that pathetic little act for, Maria? Me? The spiders? My drudge of a nephew?”
Behind her and unnoticed, Derek blanched. Whatever spell the Black Widow had held over him was gone. A plan was quickly forming in Maria’s mind. She just needed to keep Luellen talking.
“It isn’t an act,” Maria said. “It’s the truth. My grandmother taught me never to harm a spider. How many have you killed to get those rings? How many more lives will you take when you have mine, too?”
“No more than you would have taken if I’d given you the chance. Oh, yes, Maria. My spies told me all about what happened at that little girl’s birthday party. You wanted to make her suffer, and you did. You wanted to have an expensive dress like hers, so you commanded your spiders to make you one. You expect me to believe you’re an innocent victim, but you’re not, Maria. You’re a wicked girl.”
“I didn’t mean to do that!” Maria shouted. “Or at least, I was sorry after I did it. That’s the important thing.” She hoped that was true. She had to believe it was.
“Oh, I’m sure the Brown Recluses before you were all very sorry when they eliminated their enemies, too. Did your grandmother happen to mention that of all the eight rings, the Brown Recluse has had the most violent history by far? No? Of course not. But so it goes. The venom of the brown recluse spider is far deadlier than the black widow’s. It is no coincidence that the ring you wear is the only poison ring in the collection. So you’ll forgive me for not believing your warmhearted display. I’ve already seen every trick in the book.”
At that exact moment, Derek swung the fire iron.
But Luellen heard it coming, and she turned and caught the iron as if it were made of paper.
“Idiot boy,” she snarled, snatching the poker from his hands and pushing him to the ground, where he was instantly overtaken by spiders.
Maria screamed, but she had no time to rescue her friend now — Luellen was jamming the rings back onto her fingers, and if Maria didn’t think of something fast, she and her family were history.
Ripping out of her bonds with a desperate burst of adrenaline, she ran, only daring a look back after she rounded a corner of antiques.
The Black Widow whipped out her hand as if she were throwing a dart, and Maria flinched. But the Black Widow hadn’t thrown anything at all; she had issued an order, and now her army was scrambling after Maria like desperate villagers fleeing a landslide. The glint of the mirror spiders newly under the Black Widow’s command shone through the masses.
Maria could feel the vibrations of the approaching swarm, and she could feel the desperate buzzing of her brown recluse friends as they hurried to surround and defend her. Maria could see that it wouldn’t be enough. She kept on running, crawling under a table and coming out in a crouch between two dressers. The floor was littered with shattered glass from where Arturo and Derek had battled not five minutes before. Her spiders surrounded her, awaiting her next instruction.
“Show yourself, girl. I grow tired of waiting.”
Quietly, carefully, Maria crawled over to a tall wooden wardrobe. She was so close to the stairs leading up and outside. If she made a dash for it, she might be able to escape and come back when she had more help.
Run, her spiders said. Run far and hide.
“If you don’t come out here right now, I’m going to start feeding your family and friend to my army. I think I’ll start with your mother.”
It was now or never. Fight or flee.
Flee, flee.
But she’d made her decision a long time ago. She’d promised her grandmother.
She got to her feet.
“You don’t scare us,” she called.
She stepped around the wardrobe. She could see the Black Widow in the center of the maze, waiting for Maria like the spider she was.
The swarm of enemy spiders scrambled up behind her. Her brown recluse spiders formed a circle at her feet, ready to defend, and her ring became hot with their wild energy.
The stage was set for a final performance.
“No, please,” Maria said to her spiders. “You’ve done so much to help me and my family already. I don’t want you risking your lives for me anymore. Thank you.”
And with that, Maria took off her ring.
“Is this what you want?” she said to the Black Widow. “Well, you can have it!” She threw the ring as hard and as far as she could.
“No!” the Black Widow screamed, darting after it.
Maria seized her chance, running to the corner where her family — and now Derek — were strung up in the web. Derek was still awake and aware, at least. His eyes darted frantically in every direction.