Elemental Assassin 05 - Spider's Revenge

few sparks flashed into the night air where the iron scraped against the sides of the car, but I didn’tcare because we were out of the country club and safe—at least for the moment.
    But the others weren’t. Not by a long shot.
    “Phone,” I rasped. “I need your phone. Now!”
    Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, Owen used the other to dig into his pants pocket and hand me his cell phone. I flipped it open and hit a number that I’d programmed into his speed dial.
    “Pick up,” I muttered. “Pick up, pick up, pick up.”
    Just as I was starting to worry that I was already too late, she answered on the fifth ring.
    “Hello?” Jo-Jo Deveraux’s warm, friendly voice filled my ear, making me want to weep with relief.
    But there was no time for that. No time to give in to emotions of any kind. Not now, when Mab finally knew who I was. No doubt, the Fire elemental was already mobilizing her army of giants and bounty hunters. So I said only one word to Jo-Jo.
    “Run.”

“Mab?” Jo-Jo asked, her sweet voice sharpening as she heard the tight worry in mine.
    “Not dead,” I said. “She saw me, Jo-Jo. She knows who I am. So does McAllister. So get Sophia and go to the safe house just like we planned. Right
now
. Owen will go pick up Eva. He’ll meet you there. I’m going to call Finn and Bria next.”
    “Who else do you want me to round up?” the dwarf asked.
    I thought about the other people that I’d helped over the last few months, all my friends and even friends of friends. “Tell Xavier and Roslyn, and call Violet and Warren Fox, just to be sure. I don’t want anyone left behind that Mab can snatch and use as leverage.”
    “Got it.”
    We both hung up.
    “What now?” Owen asked, driving away from thecountry club as fast as he dared on the slick, snowy road.
    I didn’t answer him. I was too busy dialing. But instead of picking up like he should have, Finn’s cell went to voice mail. I tried again, with the same result. One missed call I could understand, given what a sprawling labyrinth Fletcher’s house was, but not two. My stomach flipped over and started tying itself into tiny, worrisome knots.
    I tried a third time. Same result. No answer, only voice mail. Why wasn’t Finn picking up his phone? He knew what was going down tonight, what was at stake for us—for all of us. Had Mab, her giants, or the bounty hunters gotten to him and Bria already? Maybe, if Mab had put out the call to her minions immediately after our fight at the country club. Now that the Fire elemental knew who I was, Fletcher’s house would be one of the first places she’d start looking for me.
    The thought that Bria and Finn could already be in trouble—could already be
dead
—made me sick, made me physically ill, but I forced myself to remain calm. To be as calm and rational as I had ever been as the Spider. To remember all of the old man’s training over the long years, everything Fletcher had taught me about how to survive and make sure that my enemies didn’t. It took a minute, but my breathing slowed, and I felt the cold, hard, unending blackness fill my heart once more. I embraced the cold, welcomed it, reveled in it, even. Because this was the only way I had any hope of living to see the sunrise—and making sure that the people I loved did the same.
    “Gin?” Owen asked in a quiet voice, sensing the change in me. “What’s wrong?”
    “Finn’s not answering me,” I said. “Which means that something’s going on with him and Bria. Either they’ve both gotten on the other’s nerves and killed each other in a fit of rage or something bad is happening at Fletcher’s house and they can’t answer me. I have to go there, Owen. Right now.”
    “Okay. I’ll take you.”
    I shook my head. “No. We’ve got to split up. You need to go get Eva and drive her over to the safe house just like we planned. I’m going after Finn and Bria—alone.”
    “Gin—”
    “I’m not going to make you choose between me and your sister, Owen,” I snapped. “I would never,
ever
ask you to do that—not when I know how much your sister means to you. Eva’s in danger right now, and you need to get to her. Just like I need to get to Bria and Finn. But we can’t be in two places at once, at least not together. Splitting up is our only option. We both know it’s true.”
    Owen turned his head to stare at me in the darkness. After a moment, he let out a loud, vicious curse, and his hands gripped the