The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 542

I started tugging on my left arm. The silk didn’t give at all, sticky and holding fast, but it was enough to make the web wobble. I watched as a ripple worked its way toward the table, but it wasn’t enough to reach it.

I held my breath, gathered my strength, and yanked harder.

Pain barked up my arm as the web tugged at it, but this time, the table moved. Just an inch, but enough to make the candle flame jump

“Come on,” I whispered. “Come on, come on.”

I braced my back against the web, threw my weight, and the table groaned across the floor, tilting toward me. The candle slid to the edge, the flame wavering in the air.

I took another breath, gritted my teeth, and threw my weight one more time.

The candle wobbled on the edge of the table for an eternal moment before it finally tipped.

It rolled off the edge of the table and dropped to the floor. For a sickening second, I thought the flame had snuffed out in the fall. But then the web began to smoke.

The fire raced up the web faster than I expected. Far faster. A flame leapt up the wall toward me, the silk shriveling and curling and vanishing into smoke. The flames licked up the strands at my legs, singing my skin as they melted the silk. I felt my whole body drop a few inches, then a few more. The fire bit into my calves. I held back a scream and began throwing my weight again, using the softening from the heat to pull at the silk until one leg came free, then another. Then my wrists.

Finally, just as the flames were licking closer toward my face, I freed one wrist, then the other, and fell to the floor.

Clutching my arm where it had gotten burned, I found a small paring knife on the table and dragged a chair over to Melissa. Taking care not to cut her, I started sawing through the silk at the top of the cocoon.

It was tougher than it looked, my hands shaking so badly I nicked my own palm twice. But it slowly cut away, strand by strand, until I could peel it back from her face, then her shoulders, then her chest, cutting and tearing until the whole wrapping split open and she sagged free into my arms.

I sank down to my knees, gasping for breath, burned and exhausted. Melissa was so light. So cold. But she was breathing.

“I’ve got you,” I rasped, clutching her tight. “I’ve got you, Melissa. I’m going to get us both out of here.”

I just needed to find a way.