The Spider

33

I flew through the glass. My final lurch toward the window pushed me out into the air, several feet away from the side of the mansion, but the night was so dark, gloomy, and rainy that I couldn’t tell which way was up, and then I was falling down, down, down. I used my Stone magic to harden my skin, head, hair, and eyes, along with the rest of my body—

Thud.

I hit the ground a second later.

The protective shell of my magic kept me from breaking my neck, but the brutal impact still stunned me, and it took me the better part of a minute to realize that I was still alive. I’d managed to throw myself far enough away from the mansion to land in one of the flowerbeds that lined the outside of the building. I’d landed right on top of one of Cesar’s prize rosebushes, completely crushing the delicate hedge of flowers. It took me a moment to untangle myself from the thorns that had stabbed into my clothes, roll off the greenery, and stagger to my feet. I took a step, and my left leg started to buckle, but I managed to straighten it and keep on going, even though I was hobbling in the worst sort of way.

A sharp mutter penetrated my daze. On instinct, I threw myself forward as far as I could—

Crack!

Part of a granite balcony on the second floor broke away from the side of the mansion and landed in the spot where I’d been standing. It would have squashed me like a grape if I hadn’t managed to get out of the way. My head snapped up. Three stories above, Sebastian leaned out of the broken window I’d jumped through.

He glared at me, clearly pissed that I’d escaped his death trap upstairs. He gave a short, sharp, angry wave of his hand. Another balcony, also on the second floor, broke away from the side of the structure and plunged in my direction, but I managed to roll out of range of the falling stone.

I had to get away from the mansion, or Sebastian would keep using his magic to tear it apart piece by piece, even though there could still be other people inside. I hoped that Charlotte had warned the staff and that she’d found Xavier and gotten him to take her away from here, but I had no way of knowing.

I scrambled to my feet and started to run again.

I staggered away from the mansion about twenty feet before I realized that I had nowhere to go. My eyes swept over the rain-drenched landscape, but all I saw was stone, stone, and more stone. All of the outbuildings were made of either marble or granite, along with the pool, the tennis courts, and the ruined remains of the mausoleum. Even if I could manage to get to the wall that ringed the estate, it too was made of stone, and Sebastian could easily use his magic to throw me off it or collapse the wall on top of me the same way he had done with the mausoleum. I whirled around and around, looking for a way out, but I didn’t see one.

I just didn’t see one—

Another flash of lightning zigzagged through the stormy sky, closer this time, but the light didn’t completely disappear when it did. I squinted through the rain and realized that a soft golden glow was coming from farther out on the grounds. The greenhouse. The lights inside were burning steadily the way they always did.

I started to turn away from the structure, since there was nothing there that would help me, but then I whipped around and faced it.

The greenhouse.

It was the only building on the estate that was made out of glass, not stone.

Oh, Sebastian would still have his magic, but he wouldn’t have as much material to use against me inside the greenhouse as he would if I made a break for the wall. So I lurched in that direction. Even as I moved farther and farther away from the mansion, I could hear the stone start muttering again as Sebastian raced through the corridors.

He was coming after me.

I picked up my pace and made myself move faster, even though the wind howled and rain batted at me from all sides, just like the stone inside the mansion had. It took me longer than I would have liked to reach the greenhouse, but I made it there. The door was locked, but I smashed my elbow through a glass pane on the door and unlocked it. I didn’t want to waste any of my magic, not even my pitiful Ice power to make a couple of lock picks. Besides, Sebastian knew that I was here, and there was no use hiding where I’d gone or where I planned to make my last stand against him.

I slid into the greenhouse and shut the door behind me. The lights were turned down for the night, casting the interior in a golden gloom. The scent of Cesar’s roses filled the air, almost knocking me down with their sweet, overpowering perfume. I scanned the interior, searching for a good place to hide. I’d only have one shot at Sebastian, and I had to make it count. I might have nicked his shoulder with my knife, but I was still far more beat-up than he was, and he could always strangle me to death with his bare hands. He might not be a giant, but he was strong enough to do that or simply bash my head against one of the planters or tables until my skull cracked open and I bled out.

I moved deeper into the greenhouse, sweat sliding down my skin at the stifling humidity, until it felt like I was still standing in the rain raging outside. Finally, I found a place that I thought would work, behind a cluster of palmetto trees at the end of one of the center aisles in the middle of the greenhouse. If Sebastian came down this aisle, he’d have to move there, to that particular spot, to get around the trees, and I could rise up from the shadows over here and drive my knife into his back.

That was my hope, anyway, and the last chance I had.

So I hunkered down behind the trees, tightened my grip on my knife, and waited for my enemy to come find me.