The woman was one of those who'd come in with someone else. A young girl of about sixteen stood off to her right, dressed in a low-rent pink gown with a poofy ballerina skirt, which made it look like a prom dress. The girl was as light as the woman was dark, with long, molasses-colored hair shot through with honey-blond highlights. Her hazel eyes were wide and innocent in her lean, almost gaunt face, and the girl kept glancing from side to side, obviously awed by all the lavish furnishings.
"Well, there was really no choice in the matter, Mab." The woman's voice was low, pleasant, friendly even, as though she were talking to some stranger on the street and not the most dangerous person in Ashland. "Not with the generous payout that you were offering. I'm surprised that more people didn't show up to try to collect."
The others in the room nodded their agreement. My eyes narrowed. Payout, for what? And how were they going to collect? Was this some kind of business deal? Or something else... something more sinister? Something to do with the Spider perhaps?
It wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Not too long ago, Mab had hired an assassin named Elektra LaFleur to come to Ashland, hunt me down, and kill me. Of course, I'd taken care of LaFleur instead. Still, ever since then, I'd been waiting for the Fire elemental to do something, anything, to try to find the Spider again. Mab wasn't the type of person to give up, especially when I'd been offing her men, thwarting her best-laid plans, and generally thumbing my nose at her for months.
But everything had been quiet since I'd killed LaFleur in the city's old train yard. Even Finn and his many spies hadn't heard a whisper of what Mab might be planning, which worried me more than if I knew that the Fire elemental had dispatched every man at her disposal to track me down.
Somehow, though, I felt that the quiet was about to end tonight-in a big, big way.
"And you would be?" Mab asked, staring down her nose at her guest.
The other woman bowed her head respectfully, although she never took her eyes off the Fire elemental. "Ruth Gentry, at your service."
"Ah, yes, Gentry. Well, I appreciate your honesty," Mab said, returning the thin woman's pleasant tone. "You have a stellar reputation, as does everyone else in the room. Which, of course, is why I asked you all here tonight."
The Fire elemental had peaked my curiosity with her strange words, and I paused, wanting to find out exactly who the mystery people were. Curiosity was often an emotion that got the best of me, but for once, I forced it aside. I was here to do one thing-kill Mab. Everything else could wait.
"I hope you all had a pleasant journey," Mab said, looking at her guests. "As you can see, we'll be dining on the various dishes that my chef has prepared..."
I tuned out the Fire elemental and lifted my eye away from the rifle scope. Slowly, I reached forward until my fingers closed around a tiny, clear, almost invisible suction cup on the window in front of me. I gently pulled on the cup, and a small circular piece slid out of the window. A glass cutter was among the tools I'd brought with me tonight, tucked away in the zippered pocket on my silverstone vest. Earlier, I'd used it to carve an opening in the window. I wanted a clear shot at Mab and not one that might be distorted by my crossbow bolt punching through the glass.
I put the glass down beside me on the snowy roof. Then I slid my crossbow forward, until the tip of it, the end with the bolt, just protruded through the hole in the window-aimed right at Mab.
One of Mab's giant bodyguards, who was pulling double duty as a waiter tonight, came over to stand beside her, as though he had an important message for her. The Fire elemental ignored him and kept talking to her guests about how they'd discuss business after dinner. Too bad she wasn't going to even make it to the soup course.
I waited a few seconds to be sure that the giant wasn't going to interrupt or step in front of Mab, then scooted forward even more and put my eye next to the rifle scope once more. The Fire elemental wasn't that far away from me, maybe fifty feet, but the scope gave me a crystal clear view of her face.
I aimed for her right eye, which looked blacker than ink. I'd only get one shot at her, and I didn't want to waste it on a chest wound that might not put her down for good. Mab might have more magic than any other elemental in Ashland, but even she wouldn't be able to survive a crossbow bolt through her eye, especially since the silverstone projectile would keep on going until it blasted out of the back of her skull. Hard to recover when half your brain matter was missing.
Despite all the people I'd killed over the years, all the blood I'd spilled, all the sudden, violent, brutal deaths I'd caused, my finger trembled just a bit as I set it on the crossbow's trigger. My heart raced in my chest, picking up speed with every single beat, and a bead of sweat trickled down the side of my face, despite the cold. I drew in a breath, trying to calm my nerves and quiet myself. Trying to go to that cold, dark, hard place that I'd been to so many times before-the shelter that had gotten me through so many terrible times in my life.
Because this was the hit that truly, finally mattered. For my murdered family, for my baby sister, Bria, for me. It wouldn't make things right, it wouldn't erase all the horrible things I'd suffered through or the equally bad ones I'd done myself, but killing Mab would keep the people I loved safe. And I hoped it would bring me some kind of peace too.
I hadn't been able to stop Mab years ago, when she'd murdered my mother and older sister, but I could kill her now. Everything I'd ever done-living on the streets, becoming an assassin, honing my deadly skills-had been leading up to this one moment, this final confrontation.
I let out my breath and pulled the trigger.
Chapter 2
The softest snick sounded, and the barbed bolt zipped through the dining room on its deadly collision course with Mab's eye.
Too bad I missed.
At the last possible second, at the very last instant, the giant who'd been standing beside Mab got tired of waiting and bent down in front of her, his melon-size head obscuring her face. The crossbow bolt punched through his left temple and out the other side of his skull, missing Mab entirely, before slamming into the wall behind him. The projectile stopped there, quivering from the force of its violent journey, blood and brain matter sluicing off it like water.
For a moment, I just lay there on the snowy roof and cursed luck, that fickle, fickle bitch who'd screwed me over again-tonight, when it had mattered the most. Damn and double damn. And then some. All around me, the gray stones of the mansion cackled with insanity, as if they were pleased that their mistress was still alive. Fucking luck. Fucking stones. Fucking everything.
I'd missed. I'd had my shot at Mab, taken it, and I'd missed.
Some assassin I was. My mentor and foster father, Fletcher Lane, would have given me a sad, pointed look with his rheumy green eyes and shaken his head, telling me without a single word that I should have known better. That I should have waited just a few seconds more or at least until the giant had moved away from Mab for good. I was the Spider, after all. My rune was the symbol for patience, one of the defining emotions of my career, of my whole existence. But for once, I'd ignored Fletcher's teachings. No, tonight I'd been stupid, impatient, sloppy even, and it had cost me-maybe everything.
Nothing happened inside the dining room for half a second. Then the giant toppled forward, slammed into Mab, and sent them both crashing to the floor. I cursed again, because now there was no way that I could get to the Fire elemental. Hell, I couldn't even see her, since she was trapped underneath the giant's seven-foot-tall body.
Another second ticked by, and it finally registered in everyone's brain what had happened. That someone had just taken a shot at Mab-in her own mansion.
Instead of screaming like normal businessmen and businesswomen would have, the majority of the people inside dropped to the floor. A few reached for the silverware that they'd been eyeing earlier, their hands curving around the knives, spoons, and forks with surprising familiarity. I also noticed that Ruth Gentry, the woman who'd spoken to Mab, had draped herself over the young girl she was with, protecting her from potential harm. How considerate.
I took all this in on the move. Even though I'd missed Mab, I had something even more important to think about right now-getting out of here. My hands were already slapping another silverstone bolt into the crossbow, even as I scrambled to my feet.
"The window!" someone inside said. "That bolt came in through the window."
"Of course it came in through the window," Mab's muffled voice jumped into the mix. One of her arms flapped at the giant's body on top of her. "Get her, you fools!"
Everyone froze for another moment, looking first at each other, then at the window. A breeze gusted through the hole that I'd cut into the glass, making the black velvet drapes flutter together like a bat's delicate wings.
"Now!" Mab roared.
My cue to leave. With one collective thought, the guests in the dining room scrambled to their feet and raced toward the window. There was a bit of a logjam as they slammed into each other, jockeying for position, knives and forks slashing like daggers across whoever was in range.
The infighting gave me a few more precious seconds to get the hell out of Dodge. The crossbow still in my hands, I sprinted across the snow-covered roof. My boots slipped on the ice, but instead of fighting the wicked slide, I leaned into it, using my weight and momentum to propel myself forward that much more. I needed to leave the dining room area, and I'd take whatever help I could get, even if it was only a few measly inches.
The roof stretched out flat for about thirty feet before it dropped away into the darkness. I paused at the edge, twisted around, and fired my crossbow back up at the mansion. This silverstone bolt, shaped like a grappling hook with two hundred feet of climbing rope attached to the end, punched through a stone balcony two stories above my head before catching on one of the railings.
I dropped the crossbow, unlooped the rest of the rope from its position around my waist, and threw it over the side of the roof. The thin, black ribbon of it drowned in the darkness below. I gave a quick tug on the rope, checking to see if the grappling hook was anchored securely. Didn't much matter though, because I didn't have time for another shot. Already I could hear glass smashing behind me, as the men and women who'd been in the dining room continued their hot pursuit.
So I grabbed hold of the rope, drew in a breath, and stepped off the roof.
The wind screamed in my ears as I fell the hundred feet to the earth below. There was no time to be subtle or cautious, not now, so I let myself free-fall. I reached for my Stone magic, pulling the cool power up through my veins and pouring it out onto my hands, hardening my skin there so that the thin rope wouldn't shred my flesh as I slid down it. Just before I hit the ground, I reached for even more of my Stone magic, pushing the power outward into my arms, legs, chest, and head, making them all as hard and solid as the stones of the mansion around me.
I didn't have time to slow down, and my body punched through the layers of icy snow before slamming into the frozen ground. I grunted at the hard, bruising impact, but thanks to my Stone magic, my swan dive didn't do any real, lasting damage. I was already rolling, rolling, rolling, churning through the snow, before using my momentum to pull myself back up onto my feet.
I'd taken only two steps when a thin scream sounded, growing louder and sharper with each second, like a train's whiny whistle. I looked up just in time to see the body plummeting toward me. I dived out of the way, and a man splattered onto the ground where I'd been standing. Looked like someone had misjudged the ice on the roof in his haste to get to me and had paid the price for it. The blood and brains splashed across the snow reminded me of the pale pink color of the girl's prom dress, but I didn't give the man more than a passing glance as I rolled back up onto my feet once more.
Because now it was time to run-for my life.
It didn't take long for the alarm to be raised. I wasn't even halfway across the wide, white expanse of the lawn before lights snapped on inside the mansion. One by one, they winked on, like dominos tumbling over each other, each bright blaze taking more and more of the precious darkness with it. Footsteps scraped, scratched, and scuffled on the mansion's stairs and balconies above my head, but I was more concerned with the ones that crunched into the snow on the ground behind me. The cracking sounds made me think of bones breaking-my own, if I didn't get out of here.
"Security alert! Security alert!" a mechanized voice boomed.
The alarm sounded five more times before someone shut it off, but hoarse shouts immediately replaced the blaring, distorted voice. The giants who made up the bulk of Mab's security force had been alerted to my presence and were on the hunt. I could hear their startled, angry bellows even above the thump-thump-thump of my quick footsteps in the snow.
"She's here! The Spider's here!"
"She tried to kill Mab!"
"Find the bitch! No matter what it takes! She won't get away this time!"
I'd at least hoped to make it into the woods before Mab sent every single one of her giants after me, but luck had never, ever been my friend.
Still, I didn't slow down, not even for an instant. Now that they knew I was here, the giants would rush in from all directions, trying to trap me in their security net. If they did that, if the web tightened around me, I was dead. Right now, speed was preferable to stealth-
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Bullets thunked into the snow behind me, sending up cold, icy sprays that pelted my legs and back, but I kept running, my eyes locked onto the shadow-strewn tree line up ahead.
Since it had been snowing for the last week, and Mab's mansion was as frozen and frosted as the rest of Ashland, I'd forgone my usual black assassin clothes-boots, pants, sweater, vest, ski mask-in favor of light gray ones to help me blend in better with the soft shadows. But movement was still movement, and the giants were aiming at anything bigger than a squirrel skittering through the snow tonight.
