“You bastard!” Dixon screamed, blood spewing out of his mouth too. “I’ll kill you for that!”
Phillip growled and lunged forward, his fingers curved into claws like he wanted to rip out the giant’s throat with his bare hands. That made two of us. But another giant came in on Phillip’s blind side and pistol-whipped him across the face before he could get his hands on Dixon. But Phillip was strong, thanks to his mysterious giant and dwarven parentage, and the blow only rocked him back instead of knocking him into next week. He shook it off and started forward again—
Click.
The distinctive sound made Phillip draw up short of tackling the giant who’d hit him. He whirled around and realized the same thing I did, that Clementine now had her gun leveled at Owen’s head.
“Stop,” she commanded. “Or I might just decide that I don’t need Mr. Grayson after all.”
A hard knot of fear clogged my throat, choking me, but I immediately reached for my Ice magic, ready to blast Clementine with it. The giant was about fifty feet away from me, with Owen standing in front of her, but I wasn’t about to let her shoot him. I’d find some way to stop her with my magic or my knives or something, anything—anything—to save Owen.
But I didn’t have to. Phillip cursed, but he slowly lowered his hands to his sides and stepped away from the giant.
“Good boy,” Clementine said, and dropped her gun from Owen’s face.
But one person wasn’t satisfied that Phillip had quit fighting. Dixon spat out a mouthful of blood. His aim was spot-on, and the mess splattered onto Phillip’s shoe and pants leg. Phillip stiffened, but he didn’t move. Dixon studied him a moment, then pulled his gun out of the holster on his belt and shot him.
Phillip grunted and crumpled to the ground.
“Philly!” Eva screamed and dropped to her knees beside him.
Finn and Roslyn rushed forward too. I couldn’t tell exactly where he had been shot, what side the wound was on, or how close to his heart and lungs it was, but I could see the bright splash of blood on his white shirt—a whole lot of blood. Finn ripped off his tuxedo jacket and immediately pressed it to the wound, trying to stanch the blood flow.
For a moment, Dixon’s features twisted with satisfaction. Then he glanced over his shoulder at Clementine, who gave him a sharp, murderous glare. Dixon swallowed. Looked like he wasn’t supposed to shoot any more hostages, at least not yet.
Still, Clementine didn’t let the rest of the crowd see the slight dissension in the ranks. Instead, she tilted her head to the side and studied Finn and Roslyn as they tried to help Phillip. For a moment, the rotunda was completely silent except for Phillip’s hoarse rasps of pain.
“Well, now, that looks like a nasty wound,” she said. “Painful but not fatal. Not immediately, anyway.”
I let out the breath I’d been holding.
“Why, if you come with me right now, Mr. Grayson, you might return in time to get your friend to an Air elemental and get him all healed up,” Clementine drawled. “It’s your choice, but I suggest you be quick about it.”
Owen stared over his shoulder at Finn and Roslyn, and they all exchanged grim looks. Finn shook his head. There was nothing they could do. Not without all of them and a whole lot of other people getting hurt in the process.
Owen turned back to her. “Fine,” he growled. “You’ve made your point. I’ll help you.”
“Good,” Clementine replied. “I’m glad you’ve decided to be reasonable. Now, follow me.”
She strolled out of the rotunda. Dixon stepped over, shoved his gun into Owen’s back, and forced him to follow her. Opal gathered up the jewelry she’d been sorting through, put it into a silverstone case lined with black velvet, and went with them, as did two other giants.
Owen managed one more tight, worried look over his shoulder at the rest of our friends before he disappeared from sight.
10
I remained in my position, lying flat on the balcony floor, and considered my options. There were really only two: stay here and keep an eye on the hostages, or follow Owen and see what Clementine wanted with him.
No choice, really. I hated leaving them behind, but Finn and the others were safe enough for now. The other hostages had been properly cowed, and I doubted anyone else would be stupid enough to try anything. Yes, Phillip was seriously injured, but Finn and Roslyn would slow the bleeding and help him as much as they could. Given his above-human strength and muscled body, the bullet probably hadn’t gone quite as deep and done quite as much damage as it would have to a normal person. That probably meant he had at least a few hours left.
On the upside, Clementine had just split up some of her men, which meant that she’d also split her attention, energy, and resources. She couldn’t be everywhere at once, and she’d already done the dividing for me. All I had to do now was conquer, or, rather, kill. One on one, I had a chance against the giants.
More than a chance as the Spider.
I scooted back across the floor toward the doorway. When I was sure I was out of sight of everyone below, I stood up, grabbed my shoes, and eased down the stairs to the first level. The chill of the marble had sunk into my skin from lying on the floor for so long, and it felt good to move, even though I could still hear the worried whispers of the stones and the sharp stings from the gunfire that had already seeped into them. I pushed these things from my mind.
A soft, familiar mechanical whirring sounded. I looked up and realized that a security camera was mounted above the staircase entrance. I hadn’t paid any attention to the cameras when I’d rushed out of the bathroom earlier. Clearly, nobody had spotted me running toward the rotunda on the feed because nobody had come charging onto the balcony after me. Besides, the crew had been focused on the hostages then, not the possibility that one lone woman had somehow escaped their sticky web. But now that Clementine and her giants had taken control of things, I didn’t want to give myself away by barreling down the hallways in plain view of all the cameras.
The camera moved in a slow, steady arc, so it was easy enough for me to dart past just outside of its line of sight when the lens turned in the opposite direction. I stared down the hallway at the next camera mounted on the wall, but it likewise moved in the same slow half-circular pattern and was just as simple to dodge.
Repeating the maneuver, I slid from shadow to shadow, hallway to hallway, all the while keeping my eyes and ears open for any sign of anyone else lurking in Briartop. But the only ones moving through the museum were the group Clementine was leading. Wherever her other men were, they were all busy with the tasks they’d been given. I stayed one hallway behind Clementine and the others, close enough that I could hear her voice as she barked out orders to her men and the faint crackles of the walkie-talkies as they reported back to her.
“Team one, status?”
“Starting on Exhibit Hall A.”
“Good. Keep to the schedule.”
“Roger that. We’ll load everything up and move on to Exhibit Hall B when we’re done in here.”
And so on and so on. Clementine and her crew really were looting the whole museum, stripping it bare like locusts chewing through a field of sweet summer clover. Good for them, for thinking big.
Too bad she’d singled out Owen to help with her heist. She was going to die for that, for threatening my friends, for Dixon shooting Phillip, for ordering Jillian’s murder—for all of it.