Elemental Assassin 05 - Spider's Revenge

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 thefrozen 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