Elemental Assassin 05 - Spider's Revenge

eyes. Everyone was here, everyone was safe, except for Bria.
    The guilt and grief overwhelmed me, and I collapsed in the middle of the floor.
    Owen scooped me up, carried me into the next room, and gently laid me down on the bed there. Jo-Jo pushed up the sleeves of her pink flannel housecoat, leaned over, and started working her healing magic on me. I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, for once not even caring that the dwarf’s Air magic pricked my skin like hundreds of tiny needles. The discomfort was nothing to what I’d endured at Mab’s hands tonight.
    It was nothing to what Bria could be suffering this very second.
    Owen held my hand as Jo-Jo healed me. I could hear the others talking in low, strained voices out in the main den. Finn would have filled everyone in on what had happened at Fletcher’s house. Even now, though he had to be as exhausted as I was, my foster brother would be working the phones, contacting his myriad sources, trying to determine if Bria was still alive or if Mab had killed her on sight. The others would huddle around him, staring at each other and trying to think of some way to help, of some way to rescue Bria, of some way out of this mess. They shouldn’t have bothered. Because it was a mess that I’d created, just by being born, just by existing in the same world as Mab, just by breathing—or so it seemed tonight.
    A few minutes later, Jo-Jo dropped her hand, and the feel of her Air magic faded away.
    “There,” the dwarf said in a low voice. “Good as new. I’ll give you two a minute to talk.”
    I nodded, and Jo-Jo left the room. As soon as the door closed, Owen lay down on the bed beside me and drew me into his arms.
    “Oh, Gin,” he said, his lips pressed against my temple. “I’m sorry. So, so sorry. For you and for Bria.”
    For a moment, I clung to him, letting him hold me, letting him be the strong one. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the feel of Owen’s arms around me, of his smell, that rich scent that always made me think of metal. The warmth from his body heated my own, melting the icy numbness that had gripped me since Gentry had dragged Bria away in the woods. I shuddered in a breath and came back to myself.
    And then the moment passed, the way it always did, whether I wanted it to or not.
    And I knew it was time to get on with things. Time for me to be the Spider once more. To be the assassin that Fletcher had raised me to be. To do the thing it seemed the old man had been secretly preparing me for all these years.
    To finally kill Mab Monroe—or die trying.
    Owen seemed to sense my withdrawal because he sat up and pulled me up with him. Emotions filled his face—worry, fear, concern, but most important, acceptance. Owen knew what was coming, what I had to do now as well as I did. Even if he could have, I knew that he wouldn’t try to stop me, because if our situations werereversed, and Eva was gone, he would do exactly what I was going to do now to save Bria.
    I loved him for it. For letting me be the Spider, for always letting me do what needed to be done, with no judgments, no remorse, and no regrets, even when the price was going to be so very, very high this time—for all of us.
    I cupped my hand to Owen’s cheek, pulled him over to me, and kissed him once—hard. He returned my kiss, even though I knew that my lips felt like ice against his. We both drew back. He looked at me and nodded. I nodded back, then got up, walked over to the door, and stepped out into the main room.
    Everyone snapped to attention as I entered, their eyes full of sympathy and worry for me, for Bria, for all of us. I stared at Finn, who ended his latest phone call and looked at me.
    “Gentry and Sydney took Bria straight to Mab’s estate,” Finn said. “According to my sources, they went through the front gate with her thirty minutes ago.”
    I nodded. Gentry was nothing if not a professional. The first thing the old woman would do would be to hand Bria over to Mab so no one could snatch my sister out from under her and collect on the bounty. At least Gentry had nabbed Bria and not some sick, twisted bastards like the ones I’d killed at Northern Aggression. Those kinds of bounty hunters would have raped my sister—maybe worse—before turning her over to the Fire elemental. There was some small comfort in that, and right now, I’d take what I could get.
    “I need your phone,” I said. “And that private numberyou got for me. You know the one.