At that exact moment, Derek swung the fire iron.

But Luellen heard it coming, and she turned and caught the iron as if it were made of paper.

“Idiot boy,” she snarled, snatching the poker from his hands and pushing him to the ground, where he was instantly overtaken by spiders.

Maria screamed, but she had no time to rescue her friend now — Luellen was jamming the rings back onto her fingers, and if Maria didn’t think of something fast, she and her family were history.

Ripping out of her bonds with a desperate burst of adrenaline, she ran, only daring a look back after she rounded a corner of antiques.

The Black Widow whipped out her hand as if she were throwing a dart, and Maria flinched. But the Black Widow hadn’t thrown anything at all; she had issued an order, and now her army was scrambling after Maria like desperate villagers fleeing a landslide. The glint of the mirror spiders newly under the Black Widow’s command shone through the masses.

Maria could feel the vibrations of the approaching swarm, and she could feel the desperate buzzing of her brown recluse friends as they hurried to surround and defend her. Maria could see that it wouldn’t be enough. She kept on running, crawling under a table and coming out in a crouch between two dressers. The floor was littered with shattered glass from where Arturo and Derek had battled not five minutes before. Her spiders surrounded her, awaiting her next instruction.

“Show yourself, girl. I grow tired of waiting.”

Quietly, carefully, Maria crawled over to a tall wooden wardrobe. She was so close to the stairs leading up and outside. If she made a dash for it, she might be able to escape and come back when she had more help.

Run, her spiders said. Run far and hide.

“If you don’t come out here right now, I’m going to start feeding your family and friend to my army. I think I’ll start with your mother.”

It was now or never. Fight or flee.

Flee, flee.

But she’d made her decision a long time ago. She’d promised her grandmother.

She got to her feet.

“You don’t scare us,” she called.

She stepped around the wardrobe. She could see the Black Widow in the center of the maze, waiting for Maria like the spider she was.

The swarm of enemy spiders scrambled up behind her. Her brown recluse spiders formed a circle at her feet, ready to defend, and her ring became hot with their wild energy.

The stage was set for a final performance.

“No, please,” Maria said to her spiders. “You’ve done so much to help me and my family already. I don’t want you risking your lives for me anymore. Thank you.”

And with that, Maria took off her ring.

“Is this what you want?” she said to the Black Widow. “Well, you can have it!” She threw the ring as hard and as far as she could.

“No!” the Black Widow screamed, darting after it.

Maria seized her chance, running to the corner where her family — and now Derek — were strung up in the web. Derek was still awake and aware, at least. His eyes darted frantically in every direction.

“I’m here, don’t worry,” Maria said, even though she knew there was no way she was getting them down. The web was too tough. But they were together now, and that was all she wanted.

She heard the triumphant cry of the Black Widow behind her, and she knew it would be over soon — that she’d found the last ring.

Maria hugged her brother, her mom, and Derek, as best she could.

“I love you,” she said. “I hope you know that.”

She turned. The Black Widow stood facing her, not fifteen feet away. Her transformation was complete, and the sight was so horrible, Maria could barely look. Spiders — now including Maria’s brown recluse friends — swarmed over and around her body, skittering at her feet.

“Now, my soldiers,” the Black Widow said, “it is time to feed.”

She pointed her terrible arms, and the spiders came at Maria in a streak like chain lightning. Maria closed her eyes, prepared for the end.

But then a second passed, and another.

Not only was she still alive, the room had gone silent.

Maria opened her eyes. The approaching army had stopped cold a mere two steps in front of her. Between the front ranks and Maria stood a single black widow spider.

Could it be —

Was it the spider from before?

“What are you doing?” the Black Widow snarled. “Feed, you fools! I gave you an order.”

But the spiders did not move. With a surge of hope, Maria wondered if the black widow at her feet might be the very same spider whose life she’d spared in Grandma Esme’s house. The same spider she’d let live in this very basement — the spider she’d saved in her house tonight.

Whatever this black widow was telling the others, it seemed to be working.

The brown recluse spiders broke away from the group, joining the black widow at Maria’s side.

“She’s just a little girl! Don’t tell me you’re afraid of her.”

Without her ring, Maria couldn’t know for sure, but she didn’t think this was fear. This looked more like an act of friendship.

“Fine, I’ll do it myself,” the Black Widow said acidly. She took a step forward, stomping on a cluster of spiders without even a flicker of remorse. She took another step — bam. And another. And another.

Maria gasped. The spiders were angry. She didn’t need a ring to see that.

The Black Widow went to take another step — the step that would bring her within striking distance of Maria — but the legion of spiders saw to it that her foot never hit the ground.

Like a cloud of locusts, they were upon her.

The last thing Maria saw, before she covered her ears and closed her eyes, was a poison-red hourglass on the Black Widow’s inhuman face.

Her time was up.

“Maria?”

It was Derek’s voice, cracked and scared. Maria opened her eyes. Only a fraction of the spiders from before remained. There was no trace of the Black Widow. The eight spider rings were in a cluster on the floor.

Maria turned to her friend and pulled at the webbing around his face. Derek had a gash in his forehead that didn’t look too deep, and a bite mark on his neck that was large and red. He was, to put it mildly, a little shaken up.

“Maria, I thought — And then when those spiders were coming at you, I was all — But then they went after my — after the —”

Derek couldn’t say anything else. He was too overwhelmed.

“It’s okay, Derek. It’s all over now. I’m going to get you down from there.”

One more time, Maria clawed at the web. But this time, the spiders — all the spiders — came to help her.

It was slightly terrifying. “Thank you,” she said delicately. She had a feeling they could understand her, even without her ring.

One by one, Maria and the spiders brought down Derek, Rafi, and her mother. Their heartbeats were normal. Their breathing was normal. Still, Maria knew she needed to get them an ambulance right away.

“Derek, can I use your cell phone?”

“What? Oh, yeah.” Derek fished out his phone and handed it to her. He was clearly still in a daze, and hadn’t entirely stopped crying.

Maria told 9-1-1 where to find them, and repeatedly exclaimed that she couldn’t fully explain what had happened. Then she handed the phone back to Derek. Surely, her mom would let her have one of her own after this.

“Maria, I still don’t understand what happened tonight. One minute, I was sitting in my room after Claire’s birthday party, and the next, I’m down here with a fire iron and there are spiders everywhere.”

“I’ll give you the full version later. For now, let’s just say your aunt was in a secret club with some really messed-up people.”

“Maria, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. And I can’t believe I yelled at you —”