I didn't have to ask Fletcher what he meant. The old man had told me all about Mab and her ruthless reputation.
Two giants dragged a man across the lawn, causing murmurs to ripple through the crowd. He was a handsome man with blond hair, but his once-impeccable tuxedo jacket hung in smoking tatters on his shoulders, while his white shirt was charred. The holes in his shirt showed the blistering burns on his skin. The giants stopped with him in front of a beautiful stone fountain shaped like a mermaid. Twinkling white lights had been wrapped around the mermaid's elegant form, although they seemed to make the shadows darker, rather than lighter.
It took me a moment to gather my courage enough to drag my gaze away from the mermaid and look at the injured figure again. I knew what was going to happen now. Everyone did.
"Tie him down." Mab's command floated through the air.
Two of the giants moved off to the left and pulled some metal hoops out of the ground and picked up some wooden mallets. A croquet set. I'd seen it on the lawn when I'd been serving champagne earlier. That was what the giants had grabbed, although I had no idea what they planned to do with it.
I got my answer a few seconds later. Four giants held the man down spread-eagled, while two more positioned the metal hoops over his arms and legs and then pounded them into the ground.
Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap.
The light, ringing sounds were so at odds with what was happening, and every blow the giants struck took on a somber, sinister note in my mind, until all I heard were death knells. We all knew that was what they really were, and so did Benedict Dubois, who started swearing and screaming at the giants to let him go. When that didn't work, he reached for his Ice magic, trying to blast his captors with it. But the giants were ready for that. They punched and kicked him over and over again, breaking his concentration, his ribs, and his nose, and hurting him until he was too bloody and battered to summon any more of his power.
Finally, Dubois raised his head off the ground and looked out at his dinner guests, his friends and business partners. He started yelling at them to help him. But no one stepped forward - no one dared to, not with Mab staring at them.
No one wanted to share Dubois's fate.
Finally, the giants finished their work and stepped back. A hush fell over the crowd, and even Dubois grew silent as Mab walked across the grass toward him.
"Daddy?" a voice called out. "Daddy!"
A girl a few years older than me sprinted across the lawn, her long, blond hair streaming out behind her like ribbons of silk. She must have been in some other part of the mansion, because I hadn't seen her before at the party. A boy with black hair chased after her, catching her just before she reached her father. He wrapped his arms around the girl and held her tight, even though she struggled against him. Smart guy. He knew it was already too late for Dubois, even if the girl didn't.
"Let me go!" she yelled. "We have to help him! Someone please help him!"
But no one did. Instead, they all looked at the girl with pitying eyes.
A couple of the giants moved toward the young couple, probably to try to get the girl to shut up, but Mab held up her hand.
"No," she purred. "Let her watch. Let it be a lesson to her - and everyone else here tonight."
Mab held out her hand, and elemental Fire sparked to life on her fingertips, hissing and crackling with evil intent. I could see the glow of the flames through the crowd, and once again, I felt the invisible waves of her power pressing against my skin. I couldn't tell for sure, but I got the impression that Mab smiled before she bent down.
And then she started torturing Dubois.
I couldn't see everything that was going on, but I didn't need to. I didn't want to. Dubois's screams let everyone know exactly what was happening to him - and just how much it hurt.
The stench of burning flesh filled the warm spring air, reminding me of the night that a Fire elemental had done the same thing to my mother and older sister, how she'd burned them to death. My stomach roiled, and bile coated my throat. For a moment, I thought I might vomit, but I managed to swallow down the bitter liquid that choked me. Other people in the crowd didn't manage to do the same, turning to the side and retching up the food and drinks they'd just downed.
Fletcher put his arm around me and held me close, trying to tell me that it was okay, that he was here with me, that we would get through this, but there was nothing he could do - for me or Dubois.
But the worst part wasn't the stench or the memories or Dubois's pleas for mercy or the heat of the elemental Fire scorching my face. No, the worst part was that through it all, I could hear his daughter screaming - screaming for her family just like I had.
"Daddy! No! Daddy! Daddy - "
The dream abruptly faded, and my eyes snapped open, although I could still hear the faint echo of the girl's screams in my head - Salina's screams.
For a moment, I wondered what had pulled me out of the vivid memory, but then a creak sounded in the corner, and I realized what had woken me up.
Someone was in my bedroom.
Chapter 16
My hand slid underneath my pillow and curled around the knife there. I also reached for my Stone magic, ready to use it to make my skin as hard as marble for when I leaped out of bed and -
"Gin?" a soft voice whispered in the darkness. "Are you awake?"
Eva. It was just Eva. Although she should have known better than to slip into my bedroom unannounced in the middle of the night.
I let go of the knife and sat up in bed, shaking off the last bit of the dream. Eva perched on a rocking chair in the corner, her knees drawn up to her chest and her feet resting in the chair seat. She had her arms wrapped around her knees, hugging them in, as if that small motion would protect her from all the big, bad, scary things out there - things I imagined looked a lot like Salina to her tonight.
"Eva?" I asked. "What are you doing in here? You should be in bed, trying to rest."
"I heard you talking in your sleep," she replied. "I wanted to make sure you were okay."
I shrugged. "I had a bad dream. I have them quite often. You know that. So why did you really come in here?"
Eva didn't say anything. The moonlight peeking in through the curtains illuminated the whole room, painting everything a soft silver. Even though she was curled up in the rocking chair, Eva still looked like a princess straight out of a fairy tale, her black hair gleaming, her blue eyes luminous, her porcelain skin pale and ethereal.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked. "About Salina? And what you think happened back then? Because downstairs, you looked like you remembered things a lot differently than Owen did."