Aveline jerked her hand back at once.
The creature in the cage let out a low, warning growl, its eyes fixing on her with unsettling focus.
"You're not supposed to be here," Kael said as he stepped closer.
His voice made her stiffen.
There was something wrong about it, something colder than the last time she had spoken to him, that day at her childhood home. Back then, he had seemed merely strange. Now he sounded like someone she would rather meet in the dark from a very safe distance.
Aveline turned slowly.
At that moment, the monster behind her seemed less frightening than the man she had come to think of as the Shadow Spider.
"I'm not?" she asked, lifting her chin despite the fear prickling along her skin.
She did not feel like offering civility to hostility.
