Spider’s Revenge (28 page)

The cabin was exactly what you’d expect to find in this part of Ashland. Large, sprawling, roomy, and filled with rustic, woodsy furniture done in dark, manly shades. Soapstone figures carved into the shapes of various animals crouched on the tables, while paintings of mountains and creeks covered the smooth log walls.

They were all gathered in the downstairs living room, huddled together on the couches and chairs. Xavier and Roslyn held hands on a love seat in front of the windows. Warren Fox sat next to them in an old-fashioned rocking chair. Warren’s granddaughter, Violet, perched on one side of another sofa, next to her best friend, Eva Grayson.
Sophia stood by herself next to the fireplace, stirring up the flames that flickered there. And finally, there was Owen, already moving toward me, concern flashing in his eyes. Everyone was here, everyone was safe, except for Bria.

The guilt and grief overwhelmed me, and I collapsed in the middle of the floor.

Owen scooped me up, carried me into the next room, and gently laid me down on the bed there. Jo-Jo pushed up the sleeves of her pink flannel housecoat, leaned over, and started working her healing magic on me. I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, for once not even caring that the dwarf’s Air magic pricked my skin like hundreds of tiny needles. The discomfort was nothing to what I’d endured at Mab’s hands tonight.

It was nothing to what Bria could be suffering this very second.

Owen held my hand as Jo-Jo healed me. I could hear the others talking in low, strained voices out in the main den. Finn would have filled everyone in on what had happened at Fletcher’s house. Even now, though he had to be as exhausted as I was, my foster brother would be working the phones, contacting his myriad sources, trying to determine if Bria was still alive or if Mab had killed her on sight. The others would huddle around him, staring at each other and trying to think of some way to help, of some way to rescue Bria, of some way out of this mess. They shouldn’t have bothered. Because it was a mess that I’d created, just by being born, just by existing in the same world as Mab, just by breathing—or so it seemed tonight.

A few minutes later, Jo-Jo dropped her hand, and the feel of her Air magic faded away.

“There,” the dwarf said in a low voice. “Good as new. I’ll give you two a minute to talk.”

I nodded, and Jo-Jo left the room. As soon as the door closed, Owen lay down on the bed beside me and drew me into his arms.

“Oh, Gin,” he said, his lips pressed against my temple. “I’m sorry. So, so sorry. For you and for Bria.”

For a moment, I clung to him, letting him hold me, letting him be the strong one. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the feel of Owen’s arms around me, of his smell, that rich scent that always made me think of metal. The warmth from his body heated my own, melting the icy numbness that had gripped me since Gentry had dragged Bria away in the woods. I shuddered in a breath and came back to myself.

And then the moment passed, the way it always did, whether I wanted it to or not.

And I knew it was time to get on with things. Time for me to be the Spider once more. To be the assassin that Fletcher had raised me to be. To do the thing it seemed the old man had been secretly preparing me for all these years.

To finally kill Mab Monroe—or die trying.

Owen seemed to sense my withdrawal because he sat up and pulled me up with him. Emotions filled his face—worry, fear, concern, but most important, acceptance. Owen knew what was coming, what I had to do now as well as I did. Even if he could have, I knew that he wouldn’t try to stop me, because if our situations were
reversed, and Eva was gone, he would do exactly what I was going to do now to save Bria.

I loved him for it. For letting me be the Spider, for always letting me do what needed to be done, with no judgments, no remorse, and no regrets, even when the price was going to be so very, very high this time—for all of us.

I cupped my hand to Owen’s cheek, pulled him over to me, and kissed him once—hard. He returned my kiss, even though I knew that my lips felt like ice against his. We both drew back. He looked at me and nodded. I nodded back, then got up, walked over to the door, and stepped out into the main room.

Everyone snapped to attention as I entered, their eyes full of sympathy and worry for me, for Bria, for all of us. I stared at Finn, who ended his latest phone call and looked at me.

“Gentry and Sydney took Bria straight to Mab’s estate,” Finn said. “According to my sources, they went through the front gate with her thirty minutes ago.”

I nodded. Gentry was nothing if not a professional. The first thing the old woman would do would be to hand Bria over to Mab so no one could snatch my sister out from under her and collect on the bounty. At least Gentry had nabbed Bria and not some sick, twisted bastards like the ones I’d killed at Northern Aggression. Those kinds of bounty hunters would have raped my sister—maybe worse—before turning her over to the Fire elemental. There was some small comfort in that, and right now, I’d take what I could get.

“I need your phone,” I said. “And that private number
you got for me. You know the one. She’s sure to be waiting for me to make contact, and I think it’s time to give her exactly what she wants.”

Finn bit his lip, but he nodded. He punched in a number, then handed me the phone.

It rang three times before she picked it up.

“Yes?” her silky voice rasped over the line.

I drew in a breath. “Hello, Mab.”

Silence.

For a moment, I thought she wouldn’t answer me, but then the Fire elemental let out a low, slow laugh that made my hand tighten around the phone until my knuckles cracked. I wanted to break the damn thing—I wanted to break
her
.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Spider calling me. Tell me, do you prefer Gin Blanco? Or Genevieve Snow?” Mab sneered. “I’d like to get it right, now that I know exactly who the hell you are.”

“It’s Gin,” I quipped. “Like the fucking liquor. As for who I really am, it certainly took you long enough to put it together, didn’t it? The clues were all there. My spider rune, my rescuing Bria over and over again, my declaring war on you. You know, you really should have listened to Jonah McAllister when he wanted to kill me that night at the community college. It would have saved you a lot of trouble.”

Mab let out another laugh, a light, high, pleased, pealing sound that made the small, primal voice in the back of my head start muttering.
Enemy, enemy, enemy
.

The Fire elemental’s laughter faded away, and her tone hardened once more. “I suggest that you watch your tone,” Mab snapped. “Considering as how I’ve got your dear, sweet sister right here in this very room with me and several of my giants. Men with a particular kind of… appetite, if you know what I mean.”

I listened as closely as I could, but I didn’t hear anything through the phone. Not crying, not whimpering, nothing. Bria wouldn’t give the bastards the satisfaction of any of that—not until the pain was just too much to bear. Still, the silence unnerved me. Even if Bria had screamed, at least I would have known that she was still alive. The silence told me nothing—not one damn thing.

But now was not the time to show weakness, because I was dealing with Mab, and there was only one thing that the Fire elemental respected—strength.

“You haven’t got a damn thing,” I said, letting a mocking tone creep into my words. “Because you haven’t got
me
.”

Something in my voice must have registered with Mab, because she paused in her gloating. “And what do you mean by that cryptic statement?”

“You know, for all these years I wondered why you came to our house that night,” I said, my voice as hard, cold, and ugly as hers. “Why you murdered my mother and older sister. What the point of it all was. What had we ever done to you? But Elliot Slater was kind enough to tell me before he died. You remember Elliot, don’t you,
Mab? The giant was your number-one enforcer, before I blasted his brains out with a shotgun.”

Across the room, Roslyn shuddered. We both knew that she’d really killed Slater, but the vampire clamped her lips together and didn’t make a sound. Xavier put his arm around Roslyn, hugging her to his chest. I turned away from them, blocking them out, blocking everything out but the sound of Mab’s voice and what it might reveal to me.

“And what did Elliot tell you?” the Fire elemental sneered. “What do you think you know, little Genevieve?”

“Why, Elliot told me all about your crazy aunt, what was her name? Oh, yes,
Magda
. Elliot was more than happy to spill his guts to me. He told me all about dear aunt Magda and how she used her Air magic to see the future. How she prophesized that a member of the Snow family would one day kill you—a girl with both Ice and Stone magic.”

“So what?” Mab snapped. “Because believe me when I tell you that your precious sister is in no position to do any such thing.”

“So this, bitch. Bria isn’t the one that you want. She isn’t the one with both Ice and Stone magic—I am.”

Silence. I didn’t know what effect my words had on Mab, and I didn’t care. My whole world shrank to what I could hear on the other end of the line, to straining as hard as I could to just hear Bria’s voice, a whimper, a murmur, something, anything that would tell me she was still alive—

“You’re lying,” Mab said. “Lying to keep me from killing your precious sister.”

I laughed. “Please. I have no need to lie. Not about
this. How the hell do you think I survived being trapped in that coal mine with Tobias Dawson after the dwarf knocked me out at your party a few months ago? I used my Ice magic to collapse his own mine right on top of his head and then my Stone power to help me find my way out after the fact. That’s how. Ask Bria. She’ll tell you the same thing. Or better yet, get her to use her magic. Because she only has Ice, not Ice and Stone like I do.”

More silence. A swishing sort of noise filled my ear, and it took me a moment to figure out what it was—fabric rubbing together, like Mab was walking across whatever room she was in.

“What kind of magic do you have?” the Fire elemental hissed.

No answer.

My heart twisted in my chest, and I wondered if Mab was just playing a game with me. Why wasn’t Bria answering her? Was she in such bad shape already? Was she—was she dead already? That paralyzing, icy numbness began to fill my body again, one cold inch at a time—

“Ice,” Bria finally mumbled, her voice sounding faint and far away, so very far away. “I only have Ice magic. Gene—Gin’s the one with both Ice and Stone magic.”

Relief punched me in the gut, doubling me over. The others stared at me in alarm, and Finn started toward my side, but I waved him off. I couldn’t stop the cold tears of relief from streaming down my face, though. Alive—Bria was still alive. Which meant that I still had a chance, however small, however remote, to save her. As long as Bria was still breathing, Jo-Jo could fix whatever damage had been done to her.

More noises sounded, more voices, and then something crackled. Whatever happened, whatever Bria said or did, Mab didn’t like it. The Fire elemental hissed out a scream of rage and frustration that was so loud that even the others in the cabin heard it through the phone.

Despite the situation, I smiled. It always felt good to rattle your nemesis.

“Say that I believe you,” Mab said, coming back on the line. “How do I know that this isn’t some trick? Over these past few months, I’ve learned a lot of things about you, Spider, one of which is your rather uncanny ability to trick your opponents, to sense their weaknesses and exploit them to your own advantage.”

“It’s not a trick, Mab,” I replied. “Once again, you were just too stupid to make sure that you were targeting the right sister. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy, letting me keep on breathing all these years.”

“I could kill Bria right now for your insolence,” she snapped.

“You could, and that would be the end of you—of
everything
. Because there would be nothing left for me—nothing left for me to do but get my revenge on you.”

This time, Mab laughed. “Something that you haven’t had any success with so far. You’ve missed me twice already this week.”

“True. But if you kill Bria, then I promise you this—I will
destroy
you. No matter how long it takes, no matter what it costs me. I won’t sleep, I won’t eat. I won’t do anything but plot your downfall. I will mow down your men like they’re weeds. I’ll kill so many of them so viciously, so brutally, so horribly that no one will dare to work for you.
And sooner or later, I’ll get you too. We both know that you can’t hide in that big, fancy house of yours forever. I almost got you there this week. You really think that you can keep me out forever?”

Mab didn’t respond.

“Face it,” I said. “Bria’s not the one who’s a threat to you—I am. Me. Gin Blanco, Genevieve Snow, the little girl that you tortured all those years ago. And if you kill my sister, I will stop at nothing to end your existence.
Nothing
. And by now, you should know exactly how good I am. I’m the Spider, bitch—I’m the best there is.”