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Red fury blazed through me. I tackled him from behind. We hit the floor hard and instantly he was on top, pinning me. I struggled, trying to break his hold. The way he used his feet, elbows, knees, and hands in tandem…it was like he had extra limbs.

His face inches away from mine, he spoke. “Xander. Not win.”

I slammed my forehead into his nose. White seared through my vision. But I was free. I scrambled away, bumping against my bed. My sight clearing.

“Xander?” A groggy voice sounded, then sobered quickly. “Yuan’s Light! What…Who…?”

Roi had scuttled to the far side of the room, holding his bleeding nose. In the purple moonlight, his blood was black against his bare skin. Squatting on his haunches, the same staccato chirp from earlier that day emanated from his throat. He was laughing.

On my feet, I placed myself in front of Marigold, I reached back blindly. She grasped my hand. “What’s going on? Who is he?” Panic laced her voice, but not as much as I expected. Marigold could get upset fairly easy, but scaring her was a hard thing to do.

“Just stay still,” I whispered back to her. “Okay, Roi. What’s so funny? And what the hell were you doing to Marigold?”

The chirping continued between his words. “Xander is tricky. Surprised Roi. Spider head too hard to hit with human head. Good hit.”

“Wait. You’re praising me?” This guy confused me to point that it sapped my anger. He still had not answered my other question. “What were you doing to Marigold?”

“What? He was doing something to me?” Marigold slipped off the bed, next to me. “How long was he in here?”

“Not long, I barely left you. Get back behind me.”

“I don’t think he is going to hurt us.” She took a step forward.

“How in the Blight can you think that?” I pulled her back. “He’s more spider than human!”

“Spider?”

Which reminded me, in the rush of Sam’s murder and rescuing Jamus and all of the panic that came with it, I had neglected to tell Marigold about Roi the spider freak. And at that moment I didn’t feel casual conversation the best choice of action. I tried to pull Marigold behind me, but she resisted, staring at Roi.

“I thought we were the only humans on Erimia,” she said, still staring. “He’s amazing.” Marigold flashed a mesmerized smile at Roi. He returned it, his perfect bright teeth almost shining in the twilight.

What was she thinking? Amazing? “He’s not amazing. He runs around with spiders. The ones that almost killed me last night and the same ones that killed Alana.”

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The smile melted off of Marigold’s face. “What?”

“Look,” I said, pulling her behind me, not meeting any resistance this time, “with all Hell breaking loose…well, there’s a lot that happened you don’t know. But what’s important is that this freak over here is best friends with the spiders that killed Alana. He probably helped.”

“No. Xander wrong.” Roi croaked out the words, while rubbing and waving his hands.

“Blight you, stop doing that!” I flicked on the light in my room, Roi cringed and covered his eyes. I turned my head toward Marigold, speaking over my shoulder. “See, he is a freak. Not amazing. A murderous, and from the way he was standing over you when I came in, perverted freak.”

“But he didn’t do anything to me—”

“He killed Alana.”

“No!” Roi jumped up and slammed his hands on the floor. “I not kill,” he barked.

“Right. It was your spider friends that did the dirty work.”

“Not my spiders!” Roi beat his fists against the floor, shook his head from side to side, sending his long hair. “Xander is wrong. Xander knows nothing about spiders.”

Whatever confusion Roi had caused me disintegrated. I ripped the melted rifle off my wall. Closing the gap between Roi and I. I’d like to think that I’d surprised him, that a little fear seeped into his eyes. But he held his ground.

I didn’t care.

“You see this?” I shoved the rifle sideways right up to his face. “Do you know what’s on this rifle? Blood.” Roi jerked his head away from the rifle. “Rueben Suiza’s blood. Marie Suiza’s blood. My blood!”

“Xander. Stop,” Marigold said from behind me.

Ignoring her, I dropped the rifle and brandished my palms in Roi’s face, he flinched. “See these?” I knew I was yelling. “See the scars. I was the lucky one. I lived. Each day I see my hands and the scars that damned rifle burned into them I remember that I am the lucky one. Because I’m alive. But I saw what the spiders did. I’ve seen how they kill. So don’t you say I know nothing about spiders. All I need to know is that they are killers!” I stepped away from Roi, I didn’t even want to be near him. Picking up my rifle, I pointed to the open window. “Now get the hell out of my house before I kill you.”

Roi didn’t move. “No. Xander is wrong.”

I was turning, swinging the rife by the barrel before I knew I’d even thought. The thing couldn’t shoot, but that wasn’t going to stop me from bashing Roi’s brains out with it.

“Xander!” Marigold cried out and grabbed me, pulling me back so that the rifle missed Roi. “Xander, stop. Don’t hurt him!”

I turned on Marigold and threw the rifle at the wall. “Why the hell not? Why do you care? He’s with the spiders. He killed Alana.”

“I not kill!” Roi yelled at me.

“You’re a liar!” I rushed at Roi. Marigold jumped in front of me, her hands out to stop me.

“Stop! He’s not lying!”

I tried to sidestep her, but she juked and kept in my way. “What? How could you know?”

“Because I know. Because I know who did kill Alana.”

“I do too.” Clenching my fist, I pointed at Roi with my other hand. “He killed her!”

“I no kill!” Roi yelled at me again.

I pulled Marigold out of the way, determined to kill Roi before he could lie to me again. Marigold began to cry. “It was my brothers,” she sobbed.

“What?” I didn’t understand what she was saying. “What about your brothers?”

Marigold had her eyes screwed shut, like each word she said through clenched teeth caused her so pain. “My brothers killed Alana.”