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.
Chapter 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."