Scarlett Hayes's Arc

Chapter 6 of 9

The bridge waited past the parted falls, dark timber and iron chains lowered over a black gap. But Azumi did not move toward it. She floated backward, hugging her arms, blue hair dripping. The spider-woman's warning had lodged in her like a splinter. Running from what waits on the far side. Azumi could read minds, and Scarlett watched her friend read something in the dark that she did not like. "I'm not going," Azumi said. "Whatever's over there, she felt it. I felt her feel it." She jabbed a finger at Arachne, who crouched patient by her crack in the rock, eight legs folded neat. "You want us to walk into that." "I keep the crossings," Arachne said, cool. "I don't push anyone across. The boy went. You can turn back and drown in the flood behind you. Your choice." That was not helping. Scarlett flew to Azumi and took both her wet hands. "Look at me. Not at the dark. Me." Azumi's eyes were wide, her breath quick. "I hear it, Scar. Something big. Something old." "I know. And I'm scared too." Scarlett squeezed harder. "But he's over there. The boy I crossed a whole flood for. I paddled a board, I froze half to death, I read those stupid runes. I'm not stopping ten feet from him." Her voice cracked. "And I'm not going without you. You pushed my board across the water. You saved me in the cave. I need my best friend on that bridge, not behind me." Azumi's chin trembled. She glanced at the black gap, then back at Scarlett's face. Whatever she read there steadied her. "You really love this boy." "So much it's dumb." A short laugh broke through Azumi's fear. She wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist. "Fine. But I fly ahead. If it moves, I drop you and run." "Deal." Arachne uncoiled and stepped onto the bridge first. Her legs found the timber sure and quick. "Good. Fear passes. Grab what's under it." She nodded at the far end, where something leaned in shadow against the last post. A sword. Its blade held a faint purple glow, and green tentacles curled around the hilt like a carved fist. "The boy left that. He couldn't carry it and run. You'll want it before you meet what he ran from." Scarlett's stomach dropped. She had thought she was chasing a scared runaway. Now a strange guardian talked about weapons and things that waited, and her boy had dropped a glowing blade to flee faster. Azumi rose over the chains, steadier now, teeth set. "Come on, then. Before I change my mind." They started across. Scarlett kept her eyes on the glowing sword at the bridge's end. She had won her friend back to the pursuit. But the reward waiting for her wasn't the boy. It was whatever he'd been too afraid to hold.