She turned her black gaze on me, and I took an involuntary step back.
"Yes," she murmured, voice silky. "But I have nothing to fear from you; do I, Risa dear?"
I felt like a rabbit caught in the spotlight, only this particular one shone with a dark, dark light and promised a bloody, brutal death.
"Your threats grow tedious, Hunter." Azriel's voice held little inflection and no doubt for good reason. It wouldn't take much to set her off. "And you are here for the Jorõgumo, remember."
"Yes."
Hunter's gaze returned to the caged spider, and the energy radiating off her suddenly spiked. Only it wasn't aimed at any of us, but rather the Jorõgumo herself. Her form began to flicker, change, shrink, until what stood before us was once again a woman.
A woman who looked suddenly scared.
Just for a fraction of a second, I almost felt sorry for her. Then I remembered what she was and what she'd done. The death Hunter was about to give her was surely quicker than the one she'd given any of her victims.
"Lower the force of your flames and allow me access," Hunter said.
Chills raced across my skin. There was nothing human behind those words.
Lower Amaya's flames so they leash just her legs, Azriel said.
I echoed his words to my sword, and she obeyed. Hurry must, she said. Weak growing for both.
Yes, it was. I bit my lip and tried to ignore the fact that my head felt like it was about to explode.
Amaya's flames followed Valdis's down the Jorõgumo's body until they encased just the lower half of her legs. The spider-spirit didn't move. I suspected the energy radiating off Hunter had a whole lot to do with that.
"For the crime of killing four, you are sentenced to death," Hunter said, stepping so close to the Jorõgumo that she was practically in her face. "But for the crime of killing one of those four, you are sentenced to death by me."