Deadly Sting

by Jennifer Estep

  The Aneirin River rippled by on either side of the wide path, the water constantly churning back and forth and sucking at the cattails on the muddy banks. Water lilies bobbed up and down on the surface of the river, the strong currents spinning them around and around in endless circles and ultimately taking them nowhere.

  The good thing about meeting Clementine down here was that there was no way she could ambush me, since there weren’t any trees for her to hide behind. No thickets of brambles for her to crouch down in. No high spots for her to snipe at me from. Just the stone path, the boathouse, and water, water everywhere.

  The bad thing was that I was out in the open for everyone to see. No cover for Clementine meant there was no place for me to retreat to either when things went to hell, as they most surely would.

  By this point, I was fifty feet away from the boathouse. My gaze locked onto the entrance, but I didn’t spot Clementine, Opal, Dixon, or, more important, Eva. All I could see ahead of me were darkness and shadows—a metaphor for my life if ever there was one. But this was the path I’d chosen, in more ways than one, and there was nothing to do now but see it through to the end.

  So I stepped forward and went to meet my enemy.

  23

  As I neared the boathouse, I thought about reaching for my Stone magic and using it to harden my skin. If I was Clementine, I would have ordered Opal and Dixon to shoot first and search my body later.

  But in the end, I decided not to use my magic. I’d already depleted some of my power fighting the other giants, and I had a sneaking suspicion that I’d need every scrap of magic I had left to take out Clementine. Besides, with any luck, she would want to make sure that I actually had Mab’s will on me first before she killed me.

  I hoped so, since I was betting my life on it.

  I walked slowly down the path, scanning the shadows in front of me for any hint of movement, any sign that one of the giants was going to pop out and start shooting at me. The closer I got to the boathouse, the more I felt like there was a target on my chest. Then again, this was nothing new. There was always a target on me these days, a big red bull’s-eye I’d put there myself just by killing Mab, just by being the Spider.

  But like I’d told Owen before, I had to do this. And not just because my friends were being held hostage inside the museum or the fact that Eva was in danger out here now. An innocent woman was dead when I should have been instead, and Clementine had to pay for her mistake, simple as that.

  I kept walking until I reached the front of the boathouse. I waited a moment, but Clementine didn’t call out to me, so I stepped inside.

  Moonlight sliced in through the gaps between the columns, painting the inside of the boathouse a soft silver and letting me see that it was like a museum unto itself. No paintings decorated the interior, but each of the marble columns had been carved with intricate designs of fish, birds, and flowers, all of which peeped out at me from among the curling clutches of the museum’s briar rune. Several statues also stood inside, although I could clearly see only the one closest to me. An old man with his pants rolled up to his knees, hefting a spear as if he were about to lean forward, toss it into the river, and stab a fish.

  Maybe it was the sly grin on the fisherman’s face, but the statue reminded me of Fletcher.

  Thinking about my mentor calmed me, and once again, I let the cold, black rage well up out of the deepest part of my soul and seep through me, until there was nothing left but my dark desire to kill Clementine.

  I looked away from the statue and took another step forward.

  “That’s far enough,” Clementine called out.

  A second later, a soft click sounded. I tensed, expecting a burst of orange gunfire to erupt from the shadows, but lights blazed on instead. I squinted and blinked rapidly, trying to get my vision to adjust to the sudden brightness.

  Just like the rotunda, the boathouse was shaped like a giant circle. Alternating columns and statues ringed the path that ran all the way around the outer rim. Two more walkways cut through the interior, one going from left to right and the other running front to back, creating a capital T in the middle of the circle. Water ran between each one of the two main paths, forming three large pools, while metal gates set into the walkways could be hoisted up to let the boats move from one pool to another and then out into the river itself. Short metal poles had been pounded into the marble paths at intervals, and red, white, and blue paddleboats bobbed silently up and down on the river. The currents made the boats’ fiberglass hulls bump into the stone docking stations, causing the ropes that secured them to creak faintly, almost like there were crickets nesting inside them.

  I was standing on the main path, with Clementine about twenty feet in front of me. The other two giants were about twenty feet behind her in the very center of the boathouse, where the two walkways met. Opal was on the far right, having flipped a light switch on one of the columns, while Dixon hovered off to the left, one hand clenched around Eva’s arm. All of the giants had guns.

  My eyes met Eva’s, and she drew in a surprised gasp. Shock filled her pale face. For a moment, I wondered why, and then I remembered—she thought I was dead.

  Eva wasn’t the only one who was stunned by my appearance. Clementine blinked and blinked, as if she didn’t believe what she was seeing. No doubt, she’d expected someone clad in black from head to toe, someone suave and confident, someone who looked more like a cat burglar, rather than the victim of some bloody, horrific accident, like I did right now. Her eyes widened as she realized exactly who and what I was.

  “You!” she hissed.

  “Hello, Clementine,” I drawled.

  “You’re supposed to be dead!” she hissed again, then turned and fixed her cold, angry glare on Dixon.

  He stared at me in horrified shock for a moment before his gaze snapped over to Clementine. I hadn’t thought it possible, given how much self-tanner had soaked into his skin, but his orange face actually paled and took on a sickly, sallow tint. He swallowed once, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down like a fishing lure that was stuck in his throat.

  “But—but you saw her!” he sputtered. “I killed her! I killed the Spider! I blew her face off!”

  “No,” I snapped. “You killed a woman who had on the same dress as I did. Nothing more. Her name was Jillian, and she didn’t deserve to die like that.”

  Eva sucked in another breath at the revelation of Jillian’s fate. Apparently, so much had been going on in the rotunda that Eva hadn’t realized that Jillian wasn’t there, just like Owen hadn’t.

  “She was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” I said, for Eva’s benefit. Then I stared at Clementine. “Your nephew there was just too dumb to realize that he’d killed the wrong woman. Maybe if he hadn’t shot her in the face so many times, he would’ve seen his mistake before now—and you would have too.”

  Anger stained Clementine’s cheeks, her hazel eyes narrowed, and even her hair seemed to curl tighter with wrath, but she didn’t respond to my taunts. Instead, she stared at me for the better part of a minute, her sharp gaze taking in my hacked-off ball gown, the belt around my hips, the black boots on my feet, the blood spattered all over me.

  “You look like you’ve been rode hard and put up wet,” she said. “Not what I expected from the mighty Spider.”

  I shrugged. “Well, I do aim to please, but as you know, my plans for this evening were interrupted. I’ll give you this, you don’t do anything halfway. Robbing the entire Briartop museum and holding Ashland’s finest at gunpoint at the same time is no small feat. You should give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve earned it.”

  Clementine grinned. “My mama always said, why steal one million, when you can steal two. Or a hundred, in this case.”

  I snorted. “Give it a rest. You’re not stealing a hundred million.”

  She cocked an eyebrow. “Oh, why is that?”

  “Because you’re planning to blow all of that pretty art to smithereens.”


  Dixon blinked. “How do you know that?”

  I stared at him. “Because in addition to the one I stole from the bridge, I also found a bomb hidden underneath one of the moving trucks. My guess is that the three of you were going to load all of that art and all of the other giants onto those trucks, then blow them all sky-high when they crossed the bridge. That way, all your men would be dead, and everyone would think that the three of you were too.”

  Clementine kept staring at me, but Opal and Dixon shared a nervous glance behind her back, confirming that I was right.

  “No, the only things the three of you ever planned on leaving here with were that tube from the vault and all of the jewelry you took off the hostages,” I said. “Pry the gems out of their settings, and they’re a lot easier to fence than well-known pieces of art. Since the jewelry wasn’t in the moving trucks, I’m willing to bet that it’s down here somewhere.”

  Opal’s head snapped to the right. I followed her gaze and realized that there was something else tied up to one of the slips in the very back: a small speedboat. I could just see the glint of a silverstone case that had been propped up in one of the seats.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Nobody said anything, and the only sound was the steady rush of the river flowing around us. Finally, Clementine barked out a laugh.

  “Well, maybe I was wrong to be so hasty in my previous judgment about you being so disappointing,” she said. “Because you certainly are clever.”

  “I do try.”

  Yeah, I was preening a little bit, but only so I could give Owen as much time as possible to get into position to rescue Eva. I didn’t want the giants to remember that he was out here somewhere and realize that all my blustering was just a ploy to distract them from his rescue attempt.

  Clementine’s face hardened. “Enough talk. Why don’t you hand over the tube before I tell Dixon to blow the girl’s head off?”

  Dixon grinned and waggled his gun at me. I looked at him a moment longer, not giving any hint about the waterlogged figure I saw climb up one of the ladders at the very back of the boathouse, sneak over to the outer circular path, and head in his direction.

  Since I had a knife in my right hand, I reached down with my left and slowly slid the ebony tube out of the pouch on my belt. I held the tube up high and then slowly turned it around, making sure that Clementine saw the flash of Mab’s sunburst rune on the smooth wood.

  Her eyes narrowed, and she studied me a moment longer.

  “Put it on the ground, and roll it over here,” she said. “Real easy-like. Or the girl dies.”

  I slowly bent down and did as she asked. The tube hopped and skipped across the stone, heading toward her. Clementine raised her foot, then brought her boot down gently on top of the tube, stopping it. Still keeping her eyes and her gun on me, she bent down and picked up the tube.

  “Opal, you keep your gun on her,” Clementine said. “You too, Dixon. I want to make sure that Ms. Blanco gave us what she promised she would.”

  I gave her a bright, carefree smile. “Why, Clementine, would I lie?”

  “Certainly,” she replied. “I would.”

  Apparently, Clementine was more familiar with the tube than I was. Instead of taking a moment to figure out how to open it, she immediately pressed on the ruby in the middle of the sunburst rune. Interesting, that she would know to do that.

  Clementine slid the paper out of the hollow tube, unrolled it, and read the sheet. Opal and Dixon kept their guns trained on me, and I stayed perfectly still, not wanting to give them any reason to shoot me or, worse, Eva.

  Clementine scanned the sheet for the better part of two minutes before she was satisfied. I kept my eyes on Dixon—and the shadow that was creeping closer and closer to him. Another minute, two tops, and Owen would be ready to make his move, as would Bria and Xavier in the rotunda.

  When she finished reading, Clementine rolled the paper up, slid it back into the tube, and stuffed the whole thing into her pants pocket. Then she looked at me again.

  “You know, I’m rather surprised that you gave it back to me just like that.”

  I shrugged. “It’s just Mab’s will. What do I care about that? It’s not like she left me anything. Although I am curious about why you want it so badly. Care to share? After all, you’re just going to kill me anyway.”

  “You’d better fucking believe it,” Clementine agreed. “But I’m not dumb enough to tell you anything, especially while you’ve got that radio clipped to your belt. Why, who knows who might be listening in?”

  Well, it had been worth a shot. More important, though, Owen had crept closer to Dixon. He was now standing on the outer circular path behind the column nearest and parallel to the giant. He couldn’t move any closer for fear that Dixon or Opal would spot him, but he was well within striking distance. All I had to do now was distract the giants until the right moment.

  “You know, you and I are a lot alike, Gin,” Clementine said.

  “Really? How so?”

  She stared at me. “We both do whatever we have to in order to survive. In fact, I rather admire you. Why, to hear the rumors, you’re the most heartless, ruthless bitch this town has ever seen.”

  “My, my, my,” I drawled. “What a lovely compliment. Especially coming from someone like you.”

  “I mean it,” she continued in a genuine voice. “The things you’ve managed to do as the Spider, the folks you’ve taken down these past several months. I’ve heard about them, you know. Tobias Dawson. Elliot Slater. Elektra LaFleur. And then of course the biggie, Mab Monroe herself.”

  I shrugged. “What can I say? I don’t like bullies. That’s what all of them were—just like you.”

  Her eyes glittered in her face, but her voice was calm, friendly even, when she spoke again. “Actually, you killing Mab has made life better for a lot of folks, including me. My boys and I have had a lot of fun with that Fire elemental bitch out of the picture. My protection business has been booming. Of course, what the idiots who hire me don’t realize is that there’s no one around anymore to keep me from taking whatever I want, whenever I want it, especially from them.”

  “Well, I’m happy that I could help a small business succeed.”

  “But the problem is that a lot of other people have had the exact same idea,” she continued, as if I hadn’t spoken. “In some ways, things are even worse than before. At least, with Mab around, you knew where you stood: below her. Now everybody’s fighting everybody else. It makes things . . . messy for us all. It’s one of the reasons I’ve been thinking about getting out of town for a while now. Too much damn drama going on these days.”

  “Pardon me if I don’t shed any tears for the trials and tribulations of Ashland’s criminal element,” I said. “I’ve got my own problems with them, in case you haven’t heard.”

  Clementine grinned. “Oh, I’ve heard, all right. Did you know there’s a huge betting pool about who will kill you and when they’ll do it? Last time I’d heard, the pot was more than a million bucks.”

  I didn’t respond, but the news didn’t surprise me. There was already some fool supposedly selling T-shirts with some cheesy slogan about eating at the Pork Pit and living through the experience. I didn’t know whether to be flattered or annoyed that people were cashing in on my notoriety. Finn would have been annoyed, especially since he wasn’t getting a cut of the action.

  “Really?” I asked. “Well, who am I to stand in the way of commerce? Although I pity the folks who try to collect on that particular wager. It’s a deadly gamble.”

  Her grin widened. “I thought you might say something like that. That’s another way we’re alike. You make sure that your enemies don’t live too long, just like I do.”

  “Well, I’d say that you’ve failed pretty miserably at that so far tonight, since I’m still breathing. Then again, you should never trust a minion to do something important, especially one who doesn’t know when to quit with the self-tanner.” I looked
at Dixon. “You do realize that you look like a pumpkin on steroids, right?”

  “Hey!” Dixon shouted, his features turning petulant and sullen. “I’ll have you know that this was a spray tan. The best spray tan money can buy.”

  Opal rolled her eyes. So did Clementine.

  “And my point is made. If you want something done right . . .” I let my voice trail off.

  “Oh, don’t you worry, Ms. Blanco,” Clementine said, flexing her free hand into a fist and taking a menacing step forward. “I plan to give you my personal attention this time around—”

  A sharp, high-pitched squawk sounded through the walkie-talkie on Clementine’s belt, followed by several more distinctive sounds.

  Crack! Crack! Crack!

  Gunshots burped through the device. Looked like Bria and Xavier had finally pulled their triggers on the giants in the rotunda, so to speak.

  “Clementine! Clementine!” a voice screamed through the walkie-talkie. “We’re taking fire! We’re taking—”

  The voice abruptly cut off with a loud gurgle, although other screams and more crack-crack-cracks of gunfire continued to sound through the walkie-talkie. Clementine stared down at the device, then her head snapped up to me.

  “What the hell did you do, you meddlesome bitch?” she demanded.

  “You have your crew, and I have mine,” I said. “Right now, they’re killing your giants in the rotunda. And when they’re done up there, they’ll come down here and help me finish off you and the rest of your sick, twisted family—”

  Clementine didn’t bother responding to my taunts.

  Instead, she raised her gun and fired at me.

  24

  The second Clementine started to raise her gun, I ran to my right, ducking behind the fisherman statue.

  Crack! Crack! Crack!

  The three bullets she’d just shot at me slammed into the statue. One of them punched through the brim of the old man’s hat, causing the marble to wail.