"Gin?" Owen asked, seeing me stare at the ring.
"It was a courtyard with a garden and a fountain," I said in a soft voice, focusing on the photo once more. "Bria and I used to play out there and in a secret chamber that was hidden in a nearby staircase. I destroyed it all the night that Mab came to call on us when I used my Ice and Stone magic without thinking and collapsed our whole house. Part of the house toppled over into the courtyard, crushing the fountain, the staircase, and everything else that was there."
Finn gave me a sidelong glance. "Well, it's the only part of the house that's even remotely level and clear of rubble. At least, this area is. The rest of the place is overgrown with weeds."
"Looks like there's a lot of good places for Mab to hide her men around the courtyard," Xavier said.
"And a lot of good places for us to hide as well," Owen countered.
Xavier nodded his head in agreement.
I stared at the courtyard in the photograph. "How many bounty hunters do you think Mab has left, Finn? A dozen? Two?"
Instead of answering me, Finn pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and touched the screen a few times. "As of this morning, it appears there's about fifteen of them left in Ashland from the hotel records I was able to hack into. We took out five that night at Northern Aggression. Bria and I killed several more of them at the house last night, as well as the ones you took out in the woods. That thinned the ranks quite a bit. It looks like a few more have left town since last night, when Gentry turned in Bria and collected the bounty on her. Since you're turning yourself over to Mab, there's no use sticking around since there isn't any more money to be had from the bounties. Although rumor has it that Mab has paid some of the hunters to back her up tonight."
"But Gentry hasn't left yet," I murmured. "She'll be there with Sydney. I know she will be."
I'll take care of her as best I can until you come for her. The bounty hunter's words whispered in my mind. I wondered what she'd meant by them, what she was planning on doing. Gentry had already taken Bria to Mab, had already let my sister be tortured by the Fire elemental. What did the bounty hunter think she could do? Keep Mab from killing Bria outright? And why would she even bother trying? Gentry had gotten her bounty by now. Why would she care what happened to Bria after the fact?
Maybe it had something to do with my sparing Sydney that night outside Mab's mansion. Maybe Gentry thought she owed me something for not killing the girl when I had the chance. It didn't much matter what the bounty hunter was thinking or what she thought she owed me. If she stood between Bria escaping from Mab, then Gentry would die, just like the rest of the Fire elemental's men.
Finn continued with his count. "If I had to guess, I'd say that at least a dozen bounty hunters will be there, and Mab will have even more of her giants around the place as well. So let's say at least thirty men, total. Not counting Mab herself."
I didn't say anything. We all knew exactly how dangerous Mab was. I was the only one with even a remote chance of killing her, and I didn't think I could do it. Not really. I hadn't been able to stop her elemental Fire from burning through my Stone magic at the country club. Only the giant stumbling into my path at the last minute and being able to use him as a body shield had saved me from being burned to death.
Still, this was it-the final showdown-and I had to try, whether I thought I could actually take out Mab or not. So, game on.
Since my friends were determined to come with me, there was nothing I could do but let them-and hope I did everything in my power to help them survive it. Still, I wanted to give them all one more chance to reconsider, one more chance to back out and save themselves.
"You're all bound and determined to do this?" I asked, looking at each one of them in turn again. "Because you don't have to. You don't have to risk yourselves like this."
Warren cleared his throat, leaned forward, and stared at me with his dark eyes. "And you didn't have to risk yourself when you took on Tobias Dawson for me, Gin."
"Or when you helped me kill Elliot Slater to keep him from beating me to death," Roslyn chimed in.
"Or when you saved me from Jake McAllister at the Pork Pit," Eva added.
It went on and on from there, each one of my friends telling me how I'd helped them out at one time or another and how they were going to repay the favor now-whether I wanted them to or not.
Xavier. Roslyn. Eva. Violet. Warren. Jo-Jo. Sophia. Finn. Owen.
One by one, my friends and family all spoke up and offered to do something, anything, to contribute in some small way, even if it was just watching each other's backs. I'd once lost my family, once lost everything that I'd ever cared about, and their simple words meant more to me than any of them knew or could even guess.
But when they were through, I pushed my emotions aside, shoved them into the back corner of my heart, and let them ice over. Because now it was time to leave Gin Blanco and her friends, family, and lover behind. Now it was time for the Spider to come out and hunt once more-for the final time.
"All right then," I said, my gaze dropping back down to the photographs on the table. "Here's what we're going to do."
Chapter 25
At exactly six o'clock, just as the weak winter sun was starting to sink over the western sky, I stood in front of the snow-covered ruins of my childhood home.
The last time that I'd been here had been seventeen years ago-the night that my mother, Eira, and older sister, Annabella, had been murdered. The night that I'd thought I'd killed Bria, when I'd used my Ice and Stone magic to destroy our house. The night that Mab had tortured me by melting my spider rune medallion into my palms. Even now, my scars itched and burned at the memory, so much so that I had to curl my hands into fists to keep them from trembling from the phantom pain.
Needless to say, given all that, I hadn't had any desire to return here since.
Our house had always seemed so large to me as a child, and now, standing here in the cold as an adult, I could see the ruined remains of the impressive mansion it had once been. I looked at the few walls that were still standing, even though everything else around them had collapsed and crumbled long ago. I didn't remember our having been particularly rich, but we must have been because the house stretched out and out and out. Or perhaps that was just because it had all been reduced to rubble.
My childhood home looked untouched by human hands, as if no one had been near the place since it had been destroyed. Maybe they hadn't, since Fletcher had bought the land so soon after my family's murder. Besides, not many people wanted to linger in a place where such atrocities had been committed. Even people without magic could sense those sorts of crimes, in the primal way that animals can sniff out fear, danger, and evil in others.
The mansion-or what was left of it-huddled in the middle of a dense section of the forest right in between Fletcher's house and Jo-Jo's beauty salon. Ridges covered with pine trees surrounded the mansion on three sides before rising up and rolling away into the rest of the mountainous landscape. Snow-covered rubble stretched out as far as the eye could see, rocks piled on top of more rocks. But the years had taken their toll, and the surrounding forest had made inroads into reclaiming the area. A few small pine trees had sprung up in what I remembered to be the downstairs living room, while weeds and winter wildflowers wound like ribbons through the black, jagged cracks in the stone foundation.
As I stood there, what little was left of the sun disappeared, replaced by heavy gray storm clouds. In less than a minute, twilight cloaked the land, and snowflakes started drifting down from the sky. They covered the mess in front of me in a fresh, white coat of snow, hiding what I could see of the ruins.
But even now, all these years later, I could still hear the stones.
They growled with dark, ugly, angry mutters, the remnants of my primal scream of elemental rage, pain, and fear. That one scream, that one burst of magic, had brought down the whole house. Even now, the stones still reverberated with the sound, so much so that it almost seemed to me like they were still vibrating, still ripping themselves apart one molecule at a time.
For some reason, the mutters comforted me.
Because the stones were still angry at what had been done to them, at what had been done to me, the elemental who felt such kinship with them, who had so much power and control over them. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the stones, listening to them, embracing their rage, letting it fill me up, and making it my own once more. It took only a moment for the stones' mutters to grow sharper, blacker, harsher. Stones never forgot when something traumatic happened on top of or most especially to them. Emotions, actions, and feelings might fade over time, but they never truly vanished. The stones sensed that I was near-the woman who had lashed out at them before-and that I was back now for a specific purpose. I reveled in the memory of their anger-because it was my anger as well, at everything that Mab had done to my family. And I knew that I would need it now even more than I had that awful night so long ago.
I walked forward, my boots crunching in the snow and scraping against the cold rocks underneath. I treaded slowly, carefully, making no sudden movements, not doing anything that would jeopardize Bria in any way.
Or give the bounty hunters who were watching me an excuse to put a bullet in my head.
I could see them, crouched here and there among the rubble. Men and women with rifles, crossbows, and other weapons, every one of them trained on me, ready to pull the trigger if I did anything stupid. Fools. They were the ones who were being stupid, because they all should have unloaded on me with everything they had the second that I was in range.
But Mab wanted to kill me herself and most especially wanted to gloat in my face while she did it. Her first mistake-and the one that might just finally lead to her own death.
It took me several minutes to pick my way through the rubble to the back side of the mansion. Along the way, I spotted more than a few broken bits of my childhood hidden in the snow and rocks. A half-melted doll's head. A charred teddy bear. Shards of glass and small figurines from my mother's snow globe collection. The ruination only hardened my resolve to do what needed to be done here tonight.
Finally, though, I stepped into the courtyard itself. It looked just the way I remembered it-the terrible, terrible way that it had appeared in my nightmares for so many years now. Truth be told, there was even less to see back here than there had been in the front of the house. Certainly nothing overtly menacing. Just piles of rubble everywhere.
It took me a moment, but I managed to pick out the spot where our once-beautiful fountain had sat, until part of the house had fallen on top of it, reducing the stone to splinters. Farther back was another heap of rocks that had once formed a staircase with a secret chamber underneath it, the one where I'd hidden Bria. And over there-right over there-was the spot where I'd collapsed when I'd found blood on the stones and thought I'd killed Bria with my magic.
The memories rose up in me, the black emotions skimming the surface of my mind like shark fins. Somehow, I pushed the twisted feelings back down into the bottom of my soul where they belonged. I drew in a breath, pulled my eyes away from the rubble, and focused on the people in front of me.
Mab and Bria.
The Fire elemental stood in the middle of the courtyard in a flat, level area that was relatively free of debris-in the exact spot Finn had pointed out in the police photograph several hours ago. A bloodred evening gown hugged Mab's lush body, while a black velvet cloak trimmed with mink covered her otherwise bare shoulders. Her hair seemed to be as red as her dress tonight, the soft, curling waves of it just brushing the top of her cloak. I half-expected the expensive material to start smoldering, but of course it didn't. Mab had too much control over her magic to let that happen. Still, someone had dressed to kill tonight-literally.
As always, Mab wore her rune necklace around her throat. A sunburst. The symbol for fire. Even now, in the snow and fading twilight, the wavy golden rays flickered, and the ruby set into the center of the design seemed to glow, as though she were wearing a ring of fire around her neck.
I looked past Mab to where Bria stood. Dark circles ringed her blue eyes, and her blond hair was a mess around her face, especially since it had been singed off in several places. Bria wore the same clothes she'd had on last night during our run through the woods. Camisole, jeans, sneakers, coat. Only now they hung in tatters on her, and I could see where the fabric had been burned away completely in places-along with her skin underneath it. Puffy blisters and deep, bone-searing burns dotted what I could see of Bria's legs, chest, and arms through the flapping fabric. Mab had tortured her, burned my baby sister with her Fire magic, just as I'd feared that the cruel elemental would.
It was almost as though time had rewound itself and my worst fear had come to life once more. For a moment, I was back in the Pork Pit that long, awful night that Fletcher had been murdered, staring down at the old man's ruined flesh. Looking at the burns and blisters that dotted his body, staring at all the many places where Alexis James had used her Air elemental magic to rip his skin from his bones.
Once again, I'd failed to protect someone that I loved from being tortured. The only difference was that Bria was still breathing-for now.
I struggled to keep my emotions in check, to reveal nothing of what I was feeling, but I couldn't keep my nails from digging into the spider rune scars embedded in my palms. A small circle surrounded by eight thin rays. So similar to Mab's rune, but so very different at the same time.
Bria wasn't alone, of course. A giant stood on either side of her, their hands clamped on her arms, holding her upright and keeping her in place.
And Ruth Gentry was here, just like I'd thought she would be. The bounty hunter leaned against part of a wall about five steps behind Bria and the giants. The old woman's stance was casual, nonchalant even, but her hand hovered just above the pearl-handled revolver strapped to her waist. I didn't see Sydney, but I knew that the girl was here somewhere with her rifle, probably perched on one of the piles of rubble farther out in the courtyard.
