Mira slithered through the jungle, carrying her catch. The two-minded human remained quiet except when she spoke to them. She learned their name, or rather names, Duval and Debora. Their responses were more sluggish than most humans she’d hypnotized; an effect of the venom, she assumed. She’d have to ask Maestra if the venom worked its way out of a prey’s system—she preferred her thralls to seem alert, if alert of nothing but her.

Carrying a full-grown human in her coils was easy, but she moved slow, especially carrying one as burly as this. She stayed off common paths to avoid unwanted inquiries but traveled as directly to Maestra’s mansion as she could. Still, the sky was dusky when she reached the webbed foliage leading to Maestra’s neck of the woods.

Given her late arrival, Mira expected Ainsley had already left. What she didn’t expect was Enna shouting her name and rushing to her before she reached the thicker webbed jungle of Maestra’s area.

“I thought you would be waiting at the mansion,” Mira said. Her face fell when she realized Enna breathed hard and shaky. She’d been moving in an actual hurry, far beyond the relaxed brisk pace she normally moved.

“Well,” Enna said as she gasped, “right now, that would be the worst place for me to wait. As far as I know, Ainsley’s still stuck there.”

Mira’s eyebrows rose. She’d learned to keep a calm composure from her years of hunting, but she still felt the ice in her veins from the lead-in to disaster.

“What happened? Are Ainsley and Maestra okay?”

“Oh, I’m sure Maestra is fine.” Enna shrugged and rolled her eyes. “She seems to think it’s a game.” She inhaled. “We had more company. One of Maestra’s daughters showed up, and she’s more chaotic than me and my sister fighting over someone.”

“Is Ainsley okay?” Mira narrowed her eyes. Enna hadn’t answered that part of her question.

“I don’t know.” Enna sighed. “She entered her shell, but I dunno if that keeps her safe. That shocking spider looked like she was searching for a way to crack into her.”

“Shocking spider?”

“I don’t know, her hands were sparking.” Enna waved her arms. “Like, static electricity, but a lot of it. I didn’t stick around to find out what that was about—Ainsley told me to run, and I tried to find you.”

“What can I do?” Mira asked. “Why didn’t you find Veda?”

“Who?”

Mira ran a hand through her hair.

“Right, you didn’t find Maestra through her.”

She looked at the human in her coils. Enna followed her gaze.

“What’cha thinking?”

“Nothing clever, if that’s what you’re implying,” Mira said. She sighed. “I can’t fight one of Maestra’s daughters, I need to bring her request.”

“You’re just going to leave Ainsley stuck with that crazy spider?” Enna leaned against a tree. She smiled then frowned. “Wow, that’s cold, even for you.”

Mira groaned. She didn’t like having friends. She was a loner. She didn’t need anyone else. Most people she interacted with were just a means to an end or a pest with no end.

She clenched her fists and seethed, her tail swaying between two options. With a spin of her tail she threw the human onto Enna, who yelped and fell to the ground under the bigger bulk.

“Keep them safe, keep them under wraps, and don’t let them wake up, or I’ll feed you to one of Maestra’s children myself.”

Enna scrambled up from under the human and crossed a hand over her chest. “Hey, I know the lamia laws.”

Mira narrowed her eyes.

“Do you?”

“Well, no.” Enna smiled and shrugged. She whispered loud enough for the treetop birds to hear. “But I can pretend I do better than you.” She waved her hand. “Anyway, yeah, I’ll keep them bound.”

“Good.” Mira held her bow and tested the tautness. It was in perfect condition.

“If Ainsley doesn’t leave that building, I’ll see to it that Maestra’s daughter doesn’t either.”

Mira could only see flickering lights behind the mansion’s shuttered windows. All she could assume was that the front room was occupied. An alternate entrance to sneak in would be preferable. She circled the mansion and saw a balcony on a higher floor. Easy to reach by slithering up the nearby trees, though so much old webbing clung to her that she felt like an attic.

A set of glass doors led into a hallway darker than any jungle night. Mira had no experience with locks, and she jiggled the doorknob as she wondered how to enter.

The knob turned and the door opened as if inviting her in.

Well, Mira thought, it’s not like she keeps the door to her cabin locked when she stays there. Like her, Maestra probably knows she’s more dangerous than anything which might try to sneak in.

Mira slithered through the carpeted mansion. The air was warm and clear as the main entrance had been, and just as much webbing darkened the hall. The cramped size tensed Mira, and she clenched her teeth, her senses warped as she felt the walls closing in. How anyone lived in a thick enclosure all day she’d never understand and never wanted to.

She jumped at a taunting laugh sharp as a thunderclap. Muffled though it was through the walls, Mira felt discovered. She had to tell herself the house was not watching her, but she didn’t feel convinced. She hurried in the direction of the laugh and opened a door to the expansive front room. With a calmer breath she crept into the wider open space.

“No, seriously, it’s impressive how long you’ve holed up in there. I mean, I once sat over sixteen hours for a speedrun. My final time didn’t make world record, but I hacked the guy who did hold the record and killed him, so, you know, living world record holder is good, too.”

Unlike Maestra’s rich voice, her daughter had a higher pitch that cracked and popped, almost like the radios Mira had seen in a few villages. She only understood one word in that mess, and killed was the last word she wanted to hear. Maestra’s kids really were insane, talking nonsense like that. She was certainly unable to be reasoned with.

Crawling along the floor to the edge of the balcony, Mira peered over the room below to assess the situation. Maestra watched her rambling daughter sit atop a pile of webbing and scatter more about. Mira assumed Ainsley was hiding in her shell under the webbing.

Seeing Maestra’s daughter threw Mira off. Her face bore a resemblance to Maestra’s, but she hardly appeared the same species.

She stood shorter and thinner than Maestra; her white, black-spotted jacket would have made her look broader, but she wore it open showing her thinner frame underneath. She had two legs, sturdy like Maestra’s but jointed like a human’s, with thick shoes, not unlike the soft ones Mira had seen on humans from far-off lands. She had six arms like Maestra’s, which glowed azure and crimson; most of her body had a slight luminosity. Rather than the ballooning abdomen of her mother, her sleeker abdomen looked like a scorpion tail with several bulbous segments, each plated with metal and covered in blinking lights. Several metallic spindly arms bordered each segment, tapping away on the abdomen.

Mira wondered if she was as mechanical as Veda’s butler, but she appeared to be a mish-mash of flesh and metal.

Maestra’s daughter stomped her shoe on the webbing pile, and purple lights blinked on the shoe.

“And I can smell that roast chicken you’ve been eating in there!” she shouted. “Very rude to not share!”

She seemed distracted, yammering on with meaningless words as she wildly gestured all six hands. Mira stood and aimed her bow. As long as Maestra’s daughter didn’t look her way she’d go unnoticed, and that seemed likely as she sighed and continued to ramble.

“Your obstinance reminds me of a player I once had on my campaign. One of those silly rangers, who lied in wait for hours for the perfect shot.” Her abdomen beeped and glowed as one segment shone a hazy image. The mechanical arms tapped the segment. “Oh—but maybe they’d already expired, and that’s why?”

Mira shouted as sticky darkness swamped her. The webbing behind her grabbed and pinned her to the wall like a slime choked with algae. Her arrow flailed off the bow to a corner.

With a gooey crack that made Mira’s bones flinch, Maestra’s daughter’s head twisted to look up at her. She grinned with fangs smaller than Maestra’s but more numerous. Her eyes, two big ones bordered by six small ones, cycled through colors like rainbow puddles.

“After all, I always play for keeps.”

Mira felt a tingle over her skin where the web touched her. She worried the silk had a numbing toxin, but a shock through her body sent her screaming. It felt like thousands of needles. It felt like—static electricity, like Enna had said. It was a far bigger shock than Mira could have ever imagined.

When the shock ended Mira slumped under the sticky web, gasping. Her body ached like something had dug into it. She looked up to see Maestra’s daughter, who watched her with a frown. She hoped the scent of stale burning came from Maestra’s daughter and not her own flesh.

“Oh, it’s just one of those lamias.” She twanged the webbing holding Mira. “You’re a dime a dozen around here, not like that escargot down there.” She grinned. “You’re not even an interesting class.”

Mira glared. She still didn’t understand half of what Maestra’s daughter said, but she got enough of a gist that she was mocking her. She shuffled her arm, pinned to her chest. Just close enough to grab an arrow and cut the web—but she needed Maestra’s daughter distracted.

“Hello, Miss Mira. It’s so nice to see you again.” Maestra climbed webbing to the second floor. “Dear, this is Miss Mira; a hunter, I’ve heard. Mira, this is my daughter, Cyda.” She chuckled. “Isn’t it wonderful? My dear wonderful daughter dropped by to visit.” She mussed Cyda’s braided hair, a blue as striking as Mira’s scales. “Finally spared a thought for her dear old mother.”

“Mom!” Cyda slapped her hand and backed away. Her soft shoes squeaked. “I send you an email every week! Don’t you read them?”

Maestra frowned and tilted her head.

“You know I don’t get mail delivered out here.” She shrugged. “I suppose I have detained a few too many deliverypeople. There must have been none left to bring my mail.”

“No, not that type of mail,” Cyda said, “I mean through the phone I gave you.”

Maestra blinked.

“Really? I’ve never seen anything come through on that.”

Cyda groaned and facepalmed.

“Am I going to have to set that thing up for you again?”

Mira blinked. She never imagined families bickering like this.

She shoved that thought aside—now was her chance. From her hood she twirled an arrow and sliced across the webbing. She pushed it aside and leapt off the balcony to the first floor.

“Hey, I’m not through taunting you!” Cyda shouted.

It would take Cyda but a moment to reach her. Mira swung most of her body off the balcony. She only needed part of her tail to stall her fall. With the girth of her tail’s midpoint she grabbed the balcony railing. She’d pull her body taut just before she landed.

The rail broke off. Mira’s tail fluttered in the air. She slammed to the floor.

Pain shuddered through her, but the railing slowed her fall enough to muffle it. The pain she already felt from that electric web deadened it. Mira slithered around the webbing on the floor to reach Ainsley.

“Ainsley, are you in there?” Mira shouted. “I’m getting you out!” She reached to the webbing pile but flinched when it shocked her.

“Mira?” Ainsley’s voice sounded muffled. “What the bloody—? Just get out of here, I’ve contacted–”

Mira heard nothing more—the webbing pile rose like tentacles and crashed over her. She shouted and strained against the sticky silk, but it held her down. Cyda landed on top of her, leaving Mira winded.

“So, you really want to play, do you?” Cyda hurled Mira against the wall, and she stuck by the silk. With a grin that looked ready to bite her, Cyda pulled the silk tight around Mira. This left her arms splayed out against the wall. “Then we’ve got to get you properly suited up!”

Cyda spun silk from her abdomen, which the mechanical arms twisted taut and strung against Mira. From her hands to her chest, hips, and head, Cyda formed an interlaced pattern across her.

Mira pushed her muscles against the warm silk. The tight cocoon held firm, squeezing her skin like snug clothes. She hissed when Cyda tightened the silk bindings. Other than her face she could only move her free tail, but Cyda swatted it away when she whipped at her. Mira tensed as the silk crackled. Warmth buzzed through her body.

“Now then . . .” Cyda’s metal appendages tapped her abdomen with the speed of a musician playing an instrument for their life. She smacked the abdomen against Mira’s head. “Welcome to my web server!”

Mira felt a shocking buzz. She felt soaked to the bone with buzzing. She wasn’t even sure if she screamed. Her awareness flooded with the buzzing through her body.

Everything blanked out.