Hexed

ew, ew!
    The jorōgumo dipped her finger into the liquid and drew it across the contract. Magic snapped, clutching at the paper.
    I took a deep breath and touched the ward. It melted into nothing.
    “First riddle.” Hiromi bared her teeth. “It rises to the heavens but never reaches them; it flies like a bird but has no wings; it makes you weep without a cause; those who see it stop and stare; it served as my black funeral shroud and it was the only one I had. What is it?”
    Funeral shroud. What did she see as she lay dying? People walking and the city on fire, because of the phoenix birthed by the flare. And where there was fire, there was . . . “Smoke,” I said. “When you died, Atlanta was burning. Next.”
    Hiromi clamped her mouth shut. Her spider legs kneaded the ground. “Men make it, but gods crave it; its loss weakens, its appearance threatens; fear chills it, war heats it; it binds family together, and I watched mine leave me.”
    “Blood. You watched yourself bleed out onto the street.”
    Hiromi rocked back and forth. She had powerful magic, but it didn’t make her smart. The blood riddle was almost painfully obvious. What else could fear chill except for your blood?
    “Last one.”
    Hiromi shifted back and forth, left and right, thinking. On the bench Jim opened his eyes. He blinked and saw the jorōgumo . His lips drew back, revealing his teeth. Hiromi saw him and hissed, her legs churning the ground.
    I pointed at Jim. “Stay where you are! Hiromi, we had a deal. The last riddle.”
    Hiromi bit the air with her fangs and hissed at me. “It has eyes but cannot see; it has ears but doesn’t listen; it has fangs, but it doesn’t hunt; it has a womb, but it’s shriveled and dry; it has knowledge but can’t save itself; it will die alone, regretting everything. What is it?”
    Ha! “It’s me. Do you think I don’t know myself, Hiromi?”
    She snarled. Spit flew from her mouth.
    That’s right, rage away. You know you want a piece of me. I’m so tasty. Come get me.
    Hiromi wailed in helpless fury.
    She was almost there. I just had to piss her off enough. “You are stupid, Hiromi. Baka, baka Hiromi. You are dumb like a worm.”
    White substance burst from behind her in wet clumps and flew to the trees and the house, unfurling into webs.
    Behind me Jim tried to rise.
    “Jim, stay down!” I barked. “Look at him, you had him and I took him away from you. Even if you weren’t a freak, he would never be with you. There is nothing you can do about it, Hiromi. Nothing! We will go free. You are weak! Helpless and we—”
    Hiromi let out a screech and charged at me. The huge spider body swept me off my feet. Hiromi’s chitin arms grasped me and dragged me up to her mouth.
    Jim pushed himself off the bench and stumbled forward, like a drunk man on wet cotton legs.
    A sweet, slightly woodsy aroma drifted through the air.
    Hiromi’s mouth gaped at me, the fangs dripping drool and venom.
    A swarm of long yellow petals swirled around us. Wet mist slicked my skin and Hiromi’s chitin.
    Jim conquered the last two feet and clamped onto Hiromi’s spider leg, trying to rip it apart.
    Hiromi’s arms shook. “What is this?”
    “Punishment for eating people.”
    Her fingers lost their strength. I slipped through them and fell clumsily on my butt.
    Hiromi reared above me on her hind limbs, the six remaining spider legs waving in the air. Her back arched, farther and farther, and for a second I thought she would crush me. The jorōgumo screamed, a desperate shriek of pain and sheer terror.
    Jim threw himself over me.
    Hiromi twisted left, her legs jerking back and forth, rocked by spasms. She dashed into the water and smashed into the statue of Lakshmi, leaving a yellowish splatter on her side, veered left, banged into a tree, trampled through the oleander bushes, rammed herself into the fence, and spun in place, screaming. The yellow petals chased her, clinging to her skin.
    I pulled Jim up into a sitting position and hugged him in case he fell. He wouldn’t remember it later anyway—far more exciting things were happening.
    Hiromi’s legs churned the ground. She sprinted to the house, ran up the wall partway, until she was almost vertical, and crashed back down. Her human arms flailed. She plunged them into her body and ripped chunks of skin out.
    Her front left leg snapped like a toothpick. She screeched and hammered herself into the house. A yellow stain spread on the wall. She rammed the