On the outside, I looked as calm as everdistant, remote, cold even. I wondered if I was the only one who could see the purple smudges under my eyes, the ones the makeup couldnt quite hide. I wondered if I was the only one who noticed the faint slump in my shoulders or the way my mouth always seemed to turn down with a hint of sadness these days.
Because the truth was that Owen wasnt the only one haunted by Salinas deathI was too.
More than once, Id dreamed of the night Id killed her. The sharp, curved thorns of her water magic ripping into my skin, trying to tear me apart. My desperate struggle to release enough magic to overcome hers. My elemental Ice glittering all around us like a field of cold crystal. The way Salinas blood had spilled down her neck in a cascade of crimson teardrops.
Killing Salina had been a necessity. Shed told me herself that shed never quit, not until shed taken her revenge on everyone she thought had wronged her. And that shed never stop loving Owen or trying to win him back by any means necessaryincluding murdering me.
Yes, killing her was something that just had to be done, but it didnt make the memories any easier to bear.
Because there was a second twisted truth to this situation, one that kept me up late brooding into the dark of the night: the fact that I was more like Salina than I cared to admit. Cold, brutal, ruthless. And Id done some of the same things she had over the years, like killing people for revenge, or money, or because letting them live just didnt fit into my plans.
Maybe Owen was right to keep his distance from me. Maybe it would be better for both of us if I went ahead and ended our relationship for good. That way, at least maybe he could move on, even if I couldnt
The door erupted open with such force that it almost banged against the marble wall before a hand reached out and stopped it at the last second. My head snapped to the right. Thoughts of Salina still filled my mind, and for a crazy moment, I thought the water elemental was coming after me again, or at least her ghost was.
But it wasnt Salina who stepped into the bathroomit was the giant waiter whod spoken to me earlier. Curly auburn hair, hazel eyes, nice features. The same waiter whod been hovering nearby while McAllister and I had been insulting each other.
The giant realized that I was watching her. Maybe it was the hard, flat stare I gave her, but she hesitated a moment before stepping into the bathroom and letting the door swing shut behind her.
Sorry about the door, she said, a slightly sheepish tone in her twangy voice. It got away from me.
I didnt respond. All giants were strong, but shed practically ripped the door out of its frame in her haste to get in here. And shed pulled at least one of the hinges loose, since the door didnt quite line up with the wall anymore.
Given her seeming urgency, I expected the giant to scurry into a stall, but instead, she meandered over to one of the sinks and turned on the faucet. For a moment, the only sound was the steady hiss of water streaming over her hands.
Lovely night, isnt it? she said.
Just gorgeous, I muttered.
The giant quickly washed her hands and dried them, before throwing her used paper towel into the silver trash container. Id thought shed go back out to the party, but instead, she turned to look at me again. She stared at me for another second before smiling and leaving the bathroom. The door shut behind her, once again not quite closing the way it should.
Well, that had certainly been odd. But since the giant hadnt pulled a gun out of her pants pocket, come at me with clenched fists, or otherwise tried to end my existence, I put her out of my mind and turned back to the mirror.
I was staring at my reflection and brooding once more when the door opened again a few seconds later. Only this time, it wasnt the giant who stepped throughit was Jillian Delancey. Of course. Because that was just my kind of luck.
Jillian stopped when she saw me standing in front of the mirrors. I wondered if she was as offended by the fact that we were both wearing the same dress as Finn was, but I decided not to be rude and ask.
Oh, she said. Hello again . . .
Gin, I said, when it became apparent that she didnt remember my name. Like the liquor.
Gin. Right.
Jillian walked over and put her small black beaded clutch down on the counter. Even though Finn had made me buy a purse to match my dress, I hadnt bothered bringing it inside the museum. I had my knives. That was all I needed.
Jillian opened up her clutch and pulled out a tube of scarlet lipstick, along with a small compact so she could touch up her face.
I washed my hands again, just to have something to do, and I took my sweet time drying them off. Finally, Jillian finished with her makeup. She put everything back into her bag, snapped the top shut, and headed toward the door. But just before she reached it, she turned around and faced me.
So, she said. Do I need to be worried about you and Owen?
Me and Owen?
She hesitated. When I came over to the two of you earlier, it looked like you were both . . . involved in something.
I didnt know that we were involved, so much as feeling awkward with each other, but I could imagine how we must have looked to her, each one of us staring at the other, pain and tension glinting in our eyes.
No, I said. We werent involved in anything except a nice little chat. Owen and I are old friends.
Thats what Id introduced myself as to her before, and thats what I was going with now, since it was far less complicated than the truth. Id hoped that would be enough to satisfy her, but Jillian kept staring at me, her brown eyes dark and thoughtful.
So Im not encroaching on your territory, then? she asked in a blunt tone. Because Im not the kind of woman who goes around trying to poach men who are already involved with someone else. And I especially dont like being anybodys rebound fling.
I arched an eyebrow. Well, thats a colorful way of putting things.
She shrugged, but she lifted her chin and kept her eyes steady on mine. I admired her for thatI admired her a lot for that. It took moxy to confront your dates ex, or whatever I was these days, and ask her point-blank what was going on. So I decided to be polite about things.
Owens a big boy, I said. His actions are his ownand so are mine.
Jillian frowned, clearly not understanding my words, but I didnt feel like explaining them to her. I wasnt quite sure what I meant myself. But if she wanted to make a play for Owen and he decided to move on with her, I wasnt going to stand in their way. I owed Owen that muchher too. No matter how much it hurt.
What Im trying to say is that I hope you have a nice night, I said. With or without Owen.
She nodded, accepting my words. What she really thought about them and me, I couldnt tell, but they seemed to ease her mind.
Well, I guess I should be getting back to the party, she said. I believe Mr. McAllister is about to start his speech.
Oh, I drawled. You certainly wouldnt want to miss that.
Finn had told me that sometime during the evening McAllister and a few of the muckety-mucks who were on the Briartop board were going to talk about what a wonderful benefactor of the arts Mab had been, how much shed supported the museum throughout the years, and how generous it was of her to endow Briartop with her art collection postmortem. Lies, lies, and more lies, all the way around. The only things Mab had ever generously dished out had been pain, misery, and suffering, courtesy of her Fire magic.
If that was what was next on the agenda, Id be quite happy staying in the bathroom until all the pretty speeches were over with. Id rather scrub my hands until they were red, raw, cracked, and bleeding than listen to people prattle on about how damn noble the Fire elemental had supposedly been. And I certainly wasnt going to raise a glass of champagne and toast Mab with it. Especially not now, when Id discovered that shed had my mothers and Annabellas rune necklaces all these years
Anyway, it was nice seeing you again, Gin, Jillian said, cutting into my dark thoughts. You have excellent taste in clothes. And men.
She was trying to make a joke and lighten the mood, so I forced myself to laugh, hoping she wouldnt notice how tight and hollow the sound really was. You too.
Jillian smiled at me a final time, then opened the bathroom door and headed out into the powder room. But the door didnt quite shut behind her, and I watched her through the wide gap. Jillian walked through the powder room, opened the exterior door, and stepped through to the other side. That door was just swinging shut behind her when she jerked and let out a small, startled gasp, then
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
The sounds were soft, no more than harsh whispers, but they made me reach for one of my knives all the same.
Because unless I was mistaken, someone had just been shot with a silenced gun.
6
The first thing I did was toe off my shoes so the heels wouldnt clack against the marble floor. At the same time, I reached through a slit in my skirt. Id just stepped out of my second shoe when my hand closed around one of the two knives I had strapped to my thighs. I slid the weapon free and pulled open the interior door just wide enough for me to slip into the powder room. Then I tiptoed over to the exterior door. I stood there, head cocked toward the heavy wood, but I didnt hear anything else.
But there was a pane of glass that served as a vent in the top of the door, so I picked up one of the white velvet chairs, carried it over to the door, and climbed up onto the seat so I could see through the glass.
Jillian Delancey lay on the floor right outside the bathroom doordead.
At least, I assumed it was Jillian. It was kind of hard to tell, since most of her face had been blown off.
But she wasnt alone. A giant stood over her body. He was on the small side, a few inches short of seven feet tall, but he made up for it by having a ripped, chiseled figure that would have put any bodybuilder to shame. His biceps bulged so big I doubted that he could rest his arms down against his sides. His skin was exceptionally tan, bordering on orange, the sort of fake, unnatural color you got out of a bottle. Everything else about him was pale, though: his hazel eyes, his curly blond hair, even the wispy soul patch that clung to his chin like puffed-up peach fuzz.
But the most interesting thing about him was the fact that he was wearing the dark blue uniform of one of the museums security guardsone that didnt quite fit. The pants legs stopped an inch short of his black socks, and the chest and sleeves of the shirt threatened to split open with every breath he took. It almost looked like he was playing dress-up in someone elses clothes.
He clutched a silenced gun in his right hand, the weapon trained on Jillian as if he thought she was suddenly going to come back to life with that much of her face missing. Not even Mab could have survived something like that.
For a moment, sorrow washed over me. I hadnt known a thing about Jillian Delancey, other than that shed come here with Owen and had been interested in him, but she hadnt deserved to die like that.
But the real question was, why had the giant killed her? Why here? Why now? All around me, the marble whispered as Jillians blood oozed across it and the giants ugly, violent actions soaked into it. Id thought the stones had sounded upset before, but now they practically hummed with tension and whined with worry. Whatever was going down, it was happening now.
Lucky for me, there was a guy standing right outside the door who could tell me exactly what that wasand how I could stop it before anyone else got hurt.
I started to get down from the chair so I could yank open the door and confront the giant when another sound caught my earclack-clack-clack-clack. Footsteps, hurrying this way. The giants head snapped up, and he moved away from Jillians body so the new arrival could see his gruesome handiwork.
The giant waiter whod entered the bathroom earlier stepped into view. Dropping to one knee beside Jillian, she was careful not to get too close to the blood spreading across the floor. She looked at Jillianor what was left of herand shook her head, making her tight curls bounce every which way before they settled back into place.
What a fucking mess, she said. Why the hell did you shoot her in the face so many times?
Are you kidding me? the second giant asked. His high, whiny voice reminded me of a mosquito buzzing around. With her reputation? I wasnt taking any chances. Not with this bitch. And see? It worked.
Her reputation? My stomach clenched, and I started to get a bad, bad feeling.
Yeah, it worked because you blew half her skull off. The female giant shook her head again. I told you to kill her, Dixon. Not splatter her brains everywhere.
Well, who cares as long as shes dead? Dixon, the male giant, said. Come on, Clementine. You know Im right about this.
Clementine? That wasnt a very common name, and it rang a bell in the back of my mind. I studied the giant, but once again, I couldnt quite place who she was or where I might have seen her before tonight. I was going to find out, thoughreal soon.
Were the ones taking all the risks, Dixon said, his voice taking on a pleading, petulant note. I say we do whatever we want, as long as we get the job done in the end. This is the score of a lifetime. I dont want anything to screw it up. Do you? So three in the head, and the Spiders dead.
The Spider. That sick, sick feeling ballooned up in my stomach, choking me from the inside out, burning as cruelly as the hottest elemental Fire. They thought that theyd killed the Spider; they thought that theyd murdered me. But it was Jillian lying there on the cold marbleor what was left of her.