I grimaced and turned my attention back to my attacker. Porter finished reloading his weapon and started to run toward the entrance, but Sebastian had finally caught up with us. He held his hand out in front of the giant.
“Stop,” Sebastian said. “I didn’t see her run out the other side. Unless I’m mistaken, Gin is lying in wait for us in there.”
He stepped forward so that he was standing about twenty feet from the mausoleum entrance, bathed in the golden glow from the lights that blazed on the outside of the structure. If I thought that I could hit him with my knife from here, I would have thrown it at him, but my arms felt as wobbly as my legs. Besides, the blade was my only weapon, and I wasn’t wasting it like that. No, the only thing I wanted to do with my knife was bury it in Sebastian’s black heart.
“Gin, Gin, Gin,” Sebastian called out in a mocking voice. “You really should have stayed in bed. You wouldn’t have known what hit you. Now I’m afraid that you’re going to have to suffer.”
“Really?” I called out. “I think that I’ve suffered enough already, letting you put your hands on me, you sick, slimy bastard.”
He laughed, apparently delighted by my answer. “From what I saw, it seems you were eavesdropping on me and Mab in the library. That seems to be a bad habit of yours. But I take it that you heard what I said to her?”
“Every last word.”
“Well, then, there’s no need for us to lie to each other any longer, now, is there?” He practically purred. “You know who I am, and I know who you are too.”
“I’m not who you think I am. You’ve got it all wrong. I’m not some assassin. I’m just a waitress.”
Yeah, it was a weak denial at best, but if I died here tonight, I at least wanted to give Finn and Fletcher some plausible deniability, even if Sebastian was sending his giants after them.
He laughed again, even more amused than before. “Maybe you can sell that line to someone else but not to me. I’m a much better liar than you are, Gin. Although I can’t figure out if you actually killed my father yourself or stood by and watched while your foster father or brother did it. I suppose that any one of you could be the assassin. Care to tell me who it is? Hmm? I’m just dying to know.” He laughed again at his stupid joke.
“I’m not telling you a damn thing, you black-hearted son of a bitch,” I growled back.
“Come on, boss,” Porter snapped. “Let me go in there and take care of her.”
The giant raised his gun and started forward, but once again, Sebastian held out his arm, stopping him.
“It doesn’t have to be like this, Gin,” Sebastian called out. “Come out now, and I promise you that we’ll have some fun together before you die.”
“No, thanks,” I shot back. “I’d rather die where I stand than let you put your hands on me again.”
He grinned. “Well, that can certainly be arranged.”
I adjusted my knife in my hand, getting it into position. “Well, come on in here, and we’ll find out.”
Porter tightened his grip on his gun and looked at Sebastian, who shook his head at the giant. Sebastian made a circling motion with his hand, and Porter nodded and disappeared from my line of sight.
“Since you and your family killed my father, I’m sure you did your homework beforehand. I’m sure you know all about his Stone elemental magic, since he used it to shatter all of those stupid models in his office, I assume in a desperate attempt to save his own miserable life.”
Sebastian paused, as if he was waiting for me to confirm his suspicions, but I kept quiet.
“Well, I thought you should know that I lied to you before, Gin,” Sebastian called out. “Because my father’s not the only one in the family with that particular power.”
All around me, the marble of the mausoleum began to mutter with deep, dark intent, the same deep, dark mutters that I’d first heard at the construction compound and then again in the mansion. All this time, I’d thought that Cesar had caused the murmurs, a by-product of his abusive actions toward Charlotte. Wrong again, Gin.
“Many people sneer at it, but Stone magic is actually quite handy,” Sebastian called out. “It has all sorts of uses.”
A thought occurred to me. “Like crumbling restaurant terraces?”
Surprise flashed across Sebastian’s face before he was able to hide it. But he grinned again. “Just like that.”
So that’s what Vaughn had had Harry Coolidge investigating, and that’s what had been in the file: exactly how Sebastian had caused the terrace collapse. Coolidge had said something about getting an elemental to go over the crime scene. It must have been a Stone elemental, one who’d sensed the same disturbance in the balcony rubble that I had at the mansion. The other elemental had just been smart enough to figure out who and what had caused it. Unlike me, the colossal fool.
“Did you even care about those innocent people you hurt at that restaurant?” I called out. “Or were you so eager to get your father out of the way that it just didn’t matter to you?”
I already knew the answer, but it kept Sebastian from unleashing his magic for another few precious seconds, which might give me enough time to slip out the back and get away . . .
No such luck.
I hurried over to the far side of the mausoleum, but Porter had already taken up a position there, his gun trained on the entrance, ready to shoot me the second I stepped outside.
Trapped—I was trapped.
If I’d been at full strength, it wouldn’t have been a problem. I would have barreled through the opening, used my Stone magic to harden my skin, and then plunged my knife into Porter’s chest before racing around the structure and doing the exact same thing to Sebastian.
But whatever drug had been in the champagne had weakened me, and my frantic run through the mansion and across the grounds had further sapped my strength. My entire body trembled, sweat streamed down my face, and a stitch throbbed in my side. It was all I could do to stand upright and hold on to my knife at the same time.
Everything felt loose and slippery, including my magic. I reached for my Stone power, but it slid out of my grasp like a wet fish. I bit back a curse and tried again, with the exact same result. No, I’d have to find another way to get past Porter and his gun and then disappear into the woods beyond the mansion.
“Don’t care who I hurt?” Sebastian mocked. “Oh, Gin. I’m very particular about who I hurt. Why waste my time on people who are of no use to me?”