Widow's Web

27

I frowned. “Gone? What do you mean Owen’s gone?”

She waved the paper at me. “I mean I came home from class, and I found this on the kitchen table. Here. Read it for yourself.”

I took it from her and realized that it was actually expensive stationery. The cream-colored paper smelled faintly of a sweet, cloying, floral scent—and it had Salina’s mermaid rune embossed in blue-green ink across the top. But it was the handwritten message below that chilled me to the bone.

Darling Owen,

We need to talk about us. Come to my dinner party tonight, and I’ll show you the marvelous plans I’ve made for us, for all of Ashland. Black tie dress only. And come alone—or your whore of an assassin dies.

XOXO

Salina

I didn’t know what was more disturbing—the fact that Salina had threatened to kill me or that she’d signed the letter like a love-struck teenage girl. Then again, that was what she was when it came to Owen—obsessed and determined to get him back no matter what. I couldn’t help but think that if Salina couldn’t have Owen, then she would be more than happy to make sure that no one had him, especially me.

And Owen had walked right into her sticky web once more. I knew he’d gone to the water elemental to protect me from her threat, even if it meant putting himself in harm’s way, but anger spiked through me just the same, that he’d left without telling me what was going on. Owen thought he could get through to Salina, that he could convince her get help, but he was wrong. I just hoped I could get to him in time—and bury the bitch once and for all.

“Damn and double damn,” I cursed. “When did you find this?”

“About five minutes ago. His car was pulling out when I was coming in.”

I looked at the clock on the wall. I’d fallen asleep in Owen’s arms around one, and it was after seven. No doubt Owen was on his way to Salina’s estate right now. I cursed again.

“I told you,” Eva said in a cold, accusing voice. “I warned you about Salina—and Owen too.”

I sighed. “Yes, you did. Don’t worry, Eva. I’m going after Owen. I’ll get him back—”

The front door of the mansion banged open.

“Are you expecting Violet or one of your other friends?” I asked in a low voice, already moving toward the butcher block on the counter and grabbing two of the knives there. I’d left my weapons in the bedroom when I’d come searching for Owen.

Eva shook her head, her eyes wide. I gestured for her to get down on the far side of the kitchen table, where she’d be out of sight, while I crept up to the doorway, ready to deal with whomever had decided to barge in unannounced. No matter what her note said, no matter what she promised him, I wouldn’t put it past Salina to lure Owen away from the mansion and send some of her giant bodyguards to try to take me—or even Eva—out.

Loud, quick footsteps sounded in the hall, heading in our direction. My hands tightened around the knives, ready to cut down whomever was coming my way—

Finn hurried into the kitchen, walking right by my hiding spot, a thick manila folder in his hand. “Gin! Gin, are you here?”

“Right behind you,” I said.

Finn shrieked and whirled around. I winced at the high-pitched sound.

“Dammit, woman.” He clutched the folder to his chest. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“No, but it serves you right for walking in here unannounced. Come on out, Eva. It’s just Finn.”

Eva got to her feet and gave my foster brother an amused look. Finn winced, realizing she’d heard him shriek, but he still gave her a saucy wink anyway. He was rather incorrigible that way.

I stepped around him and slid the knives back into their slots in the butcher block. “Next time, I’d knock, if I were you. You almost got stabbed.”

He shook his head. “That’s the least of my problems right now. And yours too.”

“What do you mean?”

Finn turned his green eyes to mine, concern and worry etching lines into his handsome face. “I finally figured out what was so important about those fountains. Salina stole them, all right, and I know exactly what she’s going to do with them.”

I frowned. “What? And why do you look so grim about it?”

“Because it’s a trap,” he said. “Salina’s dinner party for the underworld muckety-mucks? It’s nothing but a giant death trap.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I mean, Salina’s gunning for everyone who shows up to her dinner tonight,” Finn said.

I shook my head. “But how could she do that? From what you said earlier, Salina invited everyone who’s anyone to the dinner. At a big to-do like that, all the crime bosses will have their bodyguards with them, and everyone will be on their best behavior. They’ll all be sizing up Salina and each other, trying to figure out how she fits into things, but they won’t make a move against each other. There’s too much danger of it turning into a bloodbath otherwise.”

Finn nodded. “And that’s exactly why it’s a trap. I was reviewing the information you had me dig up on Salina, comparing it with that old file of Dad’s that you found, and I noticed something strange about the guest list for the dinner tonight.”

“What?”

He pulled two pieces of paper out of his folder and spread them on the table in front of Eva. “Look at these, and see for yourself.”

I stepped over and scanned the names on the lists. It only took me a few seconds to see what Finn was getting at. “Almost all the names are the same. They’re even arranged in the same order. The only reason I can tell the one on the right is the new list for tonight is because I see Kincaid’s name there on the bottom, along with those of some of the newer bosses in town. But still, it’s just a list.”

Finn tapped his finger on the paper on the right. “It may be just a list to you and me, but I’m thinking it’s a little something more than that to Salina. This is the list of all the guests who were at the estate the night Mab killed Benedict Dubois.”

“So what?” Eva asked, jumping into the conversation. “If Salina’s trying to establish herself as the new Mab, these are the people she’d invite to her dinner, right? They’re the ones with all the money, magic, and power, the people she wants to impress and get in good with.”

“You’re right, and she would have to do that,” Finn said. “But this is where the fountains come in, all those fountains Salina had her giants steal from Cooper. The ones she got her dead husband to commission for her. Turns out Salina has been doing quite a bit of work out at the old Dubois estate, sprucing it up, updating, modernizing, and renovating everything.”

“So what?” Eva asked again.

“Well, it just so happens that one of the new features she’s had installed is a series of fountains. . . .” He pulled a map of the Dubois estate out of his folder and spread it out on the table so Eva and I could get a better look at it. “Right here, on the north lawn.”

“So?” Eva asked for the third time. “What’s so unusual about that?”

“For starters,” Finn said, “there’s already a series of fountains on the north lawn. It’s costing Salina a small fortune to get even more installed just where she wants them. And she specified that the job had to be done by yesterday. But most telling? The north lawn happens to be the very place where dear old dad was murdered all those years ago—and where she’s set up the dinner for tonight.”

I thought about all the things Salina had said to me over the past few days. All the sly hints she’d dropped that she was in Ashland to pay back her old friends and anyone else who’d ever supposedly wronged her. All the comments about taking her father’s place in the underworld. Even the mention of the future in her note to Owen. I thought that Salina had just been talking out of her ass with her delusions of grandeur, but I was beginning to get an idea of what the water elemental had in mind—and of just how devious she really was.

“She’s going to kill them all,” I said.

Finn gave me a grim look. “That’s what I think too.”

“What do you mean?” Eva asked. “How is she going to kill them all? Salina might be strong in her magic, but there’s no way she can take on every single person on this list. Not if they’re all bringing their bodyguards with them. And some of them are elementals too, or vampires or giants or dwarves.”

“She’s going to use the fountains to supplement her own magic,” I said. “She’ll use the water in them to put down anyone who challenges her. Salina’s going to take her revenge on all the folks who stood by and watched Mab murder her father all those years ago. That’s why she really invited them to her estate tonight—to finally get her revenge.”

That also explained why she’d invited Kincaid and even me—so she could kill us along with everyone else.

“And while she’s at it, she’ll take out everybody who’s anybody in the underworld,” Finn added, “clearing the way for her to take control of all the crime in the city. Two birds, one stone. You gotta admit that it’s brilliant, in a completely sociopathic sort of way.”

Brilliant? No, it was ingenious. Whatever else she was, Salina was exceptionally clever. She was going to lure all the crime bosses onto her turf, ply them with food and booze, then turn on the waterworks when they were too drunk and full to defend themselves. The folks at the party wouldn’t even know what hit them. With all those fountains, Salina could saturate the whole area with water. Then it would just be a matter of using her elemental magic to either suck the moisture out of people or drown them with all the water that would be available.

And Owen was on his way to her estate right now.

I had no doubt my lover would try to stop Salina, once he realized what she was doing. But by then, it would be too late for everyone—including Owen. He might not think Salina would turn on him, but I knew she would if he got in her way.

I immediately pulled my cell phone out of my jeans pocket and dialed Owen’s number, but for once he didn’t answer. Probably because he knew I’d be upset with him for leaving me to go see her.

“Dammit, Owen!” I snarled.

“What’s going on?” Finn asked. “Where is he?”

Eva passed Finn the invitation Salina had sent Owen. Finn let out a loud curse.

I dialed Owen’s number again. Once again, he didn’t pick up. I knew that he wouldn’t until he’d confronted Salina.

“There’s no use trying that,” Finn said. “If he’s already at the estate, he won’t get your call anyway. Among the many things that Salina has had delivered to her mansion in recent days is a series of cell phone jammers. No calls in, none get out. There’s no way to warn anyone who’s there.”

I threw my phone across the kitchen. It hit the refrigerator and clattered to the floor. Emotion surged through me, and I wanted to go over and stomp on it until there was nothing left but tiny plastic pieces. I drew in a breath and forced myself to calm down, to go to that cold, calm, dark place where the Spider dwelt, as I had so many times before. Slowly, my emotions receded, leaving nothing behind but the black determination that beat in my heart to end Salina—once and for all.

I looked at Finn. “What kind of gear do you have in your car?”

“Enough. When I realized what Salina was planning, I grabbed everything I could get my hands on. I stopped by Dad’s and got a few things for you, too. I’m loaded for bear.”

“Good. Let me get my knives.”

I started to head back to the bedroom, but Eva planted herself in front of me, her blue eyes flashing.

“I’m coming with you.”

I sighed. “Eva—”

“No,” she said, her hands clenching into fists. “Don’t you dare tell me that I don’t know what I’m doing or that it’s too dangerous. Owen is my brother, and I can’t just sit here and do nothing while he’s in danger. Besides, this is my fight too. It was my fight before it was ever yours, Gin. I want to help you finish it for Owen’s sake—for all our sakes.”

I stared at her. Eva might only have been nineteen, but she’d been through a lot in her life. The death of her parents, living on the streets, being tortured by Salina, and now this. She was right. This was her fight too, even more than it was mine, and I’d be damned if I’d keep her from it.

“All right,” I said, drawing in a breath. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”