Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 235

Chapter 236

IVORY

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The bioluminescent fungi flared brighter, as if responding to the approaching threat by providing better illumination for what was coming. And I saw them.

Spiders.

Dozens of them.

Each one easily two and a half feet tall-far larger than any natural spider should be-their chitinous bodies gleaming with moisture that I suspected was venom rather than water. Their multiple eyes reflected the fungal light, creating the impression of dozens of tiny stars in the darkness, beautiful and absolutely horrifying.

And they were moving fast. Their legs clicked against stone with rhythmic precision that sounded almost like a death march. Click-click-click-click. Coordinated. Purposeful. Coming directly toward us from the darkest tunnel-the one Aria hadn’t identified yet, the one whose symbol remained uninterpreted.

“Run!” I shouted, grabbing Aria’s arm and bolting toward the nearest tunnel that seemed like it might offer escape to us.

My brain was working faster than it ever had, processing the options that we had in milliseconds: standing and fighting was suicide against that many venomous creatures in an enclosed space. Trying to climb would just trap us against the ceiling. The only option was to run, to put distance between us and the swarm, to hope we could find defensible ground or lose them in the tunnel system.

I chose the tunnel Aria had identified as water hazards-calculated risk based on limited information. Water might slow the spiders. Or it might trap us with venomous arachnids in a confined space with no escape. But making a possibly wrong choice immediately was better than standing here debating while giant poisonous spiders closed in.

We plunged into the tunnel at full sprint, my enhanced wolf speed kicking in automatically. The tunnel was narrower than the main cavern, forcing us to run single-file with me in the lead and Aria keeping pace behind me. And she was actually keeping up with me.

She shouldn’t have been able to run this fast. Shouldn’t have been able to maintain this pace with a severe injury that had been life-threatening just hours ago,

But I could hear her footsteps behind me, matching my speed despite everything her body had been through.

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11:31 Fu, Jan 23 DD.

Chapter 235

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The tunnel twisted and turned, the bioluminescent fungi providing just enough light to avoid running face-first into walls but not enough to see more than a few feet ahead. The clicking of spider legs echoed behind us, growing louder, suggesting they were gaining ground.

I risked a glance back and immediately wished I hadn’t. The swarm filled the tunnel behind us, a writhing mass of legs and bodies and those gleaming eyes, moving with horrifying speed and coordination. And they were definitely gaining. Our human forms, even enhanced, couldn’t outrun creatures designed for this kind of terrain.

“We need to shift!” I shouted back to Aria. “Wolf form-we’ll be faster!”

“The tunnel’s too narrow!” Aria called back. “Our wolf forms won’t fit! We’ll get stuck and they’ll catch us!”

She was right. Damn it, she was right. The tunne was barely wide enough for our human forms to run through. Wolf forms would be too large, too bulky, would wedge us in place like cork in a bottle.

So we kept running in human form, kept pushing our bodies beyond what should have been possible, kept hoping the tunnel would widen or branch or offer some kind of escape before the spiders closed the distance completely.

The sound of water reached us before we saw it. Running water, fast-moving, echoing in ways that suggested a substantial underground river or stream. The tunnel floor began to slope downward, becoming wet and slippery, forcing us to slow slightly to avoid losing our footing.

The water hazards Aria had identified from the symbol. We were entering the first trial section. Which meant we’d successfully reached checkpoint-but also meant we were about to face whatever challenges the water section contained.

The tunnel opened into a larger chamber, and I saw it-an underground river cutting through the middle of the space, fast-moving water that looked black in the dim fungal light. The chamber had two obvious exits: one on the same side of the river we’d entered from. one on the opposite bank. To progress, we’d need to cross the water.

Simple. Except I could see shapes moving in that water. Large shapes. Scales gleaming briefly as something surfaced before submerging again Enhanced aquatic predators, probably. Because of course the Ghost Council wouldn’t give us a simple river crossing.

“We need to-“I started.

The tunnel floor gave way beneath my feet.

Not slowly. Just suddenly absent, solid stone becoming empty air, my forward momentum carrying me over the edge of a pit trap I hadn’t seen because I’d been too focused on the

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11:31 Fri, Jan 23 DD

Chapter 235

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river ahead.

I had a split-second to register what was happening-that we’d triggered a trap, that I was falling into darkness, that the drop might kill me before I even hit whatever was at the bottom.

Then Aria’s hand shot out, her fingers wrapping around my wrist in a grip that felt impossible from someone who was weakened from blood loss and injury.

She caught me. Actually caught me mid-fall, her body bracing against the tunnel wall, her enhanced strength, catching my descent before plummeted into whatever darkness waited below.

“I’ve got you!” she shouted, but I could hear the strain in her voice. Could feel her grip starting to slip despite her best efforts. She was strong but not strong enough to haul my full weight back up, not from this position, not with her still-healing injuries.

Above us, the spiders poured into the chamber, their clicking legs growing louder as they closed the distance. We had seconds. Maybe less. Before they reached us and the decision between falling and being eaten by giant venomous spiders would be made for us.

Below us, something splashed in water I couldn’t see, suggesting a drop that might kill us if we fell or might offer escape if we survived the landing. The sound echoed in ways that made distance impossible to judge-could be twenty feet, could be two hundred.

“Aria-” I started, trying to find words for the impossible situation we were in.

“I know!” she said, her eyes meeting mine in the darkness. And I saw her make a decision. Saw her calculate the odds and choose the option that gave us any chance at all.

She let go.

We fell together into the darkness, the spiders’ clicking reaching a crescendo above us, water rushing up to meet us, and I had just enough time to think *this is going to hurt* before we hit the underground river and everything became cold and black and I was being swept away by current I couldn’t fight and couldn’t escape.

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11:32 Fri, Jan 23 DD.