A sharp mutter penetrated my daze. On instinct, I threw myself forward as far as I could—
Crack!
Part of a granite balcony on the second floor broke away from the side of the mansion and landed in the spot where I’d been standing. It would have squashed me like a grape if I hadn’t managed to get out of the way. My head snapped up. Three stories above, Sebastian leaned out of the broken window I’d jumped through.
He glared at me, clearly pissed that I’d escaped his death trap upstairs. He gave a short, sharp, angry wave of his hand. Another balcony, also on the second floor, broke away from the side of the structure and plunged in my direction, but I managed to roll out of range of the falling stone.
I had to get away from the mansion, or Sebastian would keep using his magic to tear it apart piece by piece, even though there could still be other people inside. I hoped that Charlotte had warned the staff and that she’d found Xavier and gotten him to take her away from here, but I had no way of knowing.
I scrambled to my feet and started to run again.
I staggered away from the mansion about twenty feet before I realized that I had nowhere to go. My eyes swept over the rain-drenched landscape, but all I saw was stone, stone, and more stone. All of the outbuildings were made of either marble or granite, along with the pool, the tennis courts, and the ruined remains of the mausoleum. Even if I could manage to get to the wall that ringed the estate, it too was made of stone, and Sebastian could easily use his magic to throw me off it or collapse the wall on top of me the same way he had done with the mausoleum. I whirled around and around, looking for a way out, but I didn’t see one.
I just didn’t see one—
Another flash of lightning zigzagged through the stormy sky, closer this time, but the light didn’t completely disappear when it did. I squinted through the rain and realized that a soft golden glow was coming from farther out on the grounds. The greenhouse. The lights inside were burning steadily the way they always did.
I started to turn away from the structure, since there was nothing there that would help me, but then I whipped around and faced it.
The greenhouse.
It was the only building on the estate that was made out of glass, not stone.
Oh, Sebastian would still have his magic, but he wouldn’t have as much material to use against me inside the greenhouse as he would if I made a break for the wall. So I lurched in that direction. Even as I moved farther and farther away from the mansion, I could hear the stone start muttering again as Sebastian raced through the corridors.
He was coming after me.
I picked up my pace and made myself move faster, even though the wind howled and rain batted at me from all sides, just like the stone inside the mansion had. It took me longer than I would have liked to reach the greenhouse, but I made it there. The door was locked, but I smashed my elbow through a glass pane on the door and unlocked it. I didn’t want to waste any of my magic, not even my pitiful Ice power to make a couple of lock picks. Besides, Sebastian knew that I was here, and there was no use hiding where I’d gone or where I planned to make my last stand against him.
I slid into the greenhouse and shut the door behind me. The lights were turned down for the night, casting the interior in a golden gloom. The scent of Cesar’s roses filled the air, almost knocking me down with their sweet, overpowering perfume. I scanned the interior, searching for a good place to hide. I’d only have one shot at Sebastian, and I had to make it count. I might have nicked his shoulder with my knife, but I was still far more beat-up than he was, and he could always strangle me to death with his bare hands. He might not be a giant, but he was strong enough to do that or simply bash my head against one of the planters or tables until my skull cracked open and I bled out.
I moved deeper into the greenhouse, sweat sliding down my skin at the stifling humidity, until it felt like I was still standing in the rain raging outside. Finally, I found a place that I thought would work, behind a cluster of palmetto trees at the end of one of the center aisles in the middle of the greenhouse. If Sebastian came down this aisle, he’d have to move there, to that particular spot, to get around the trees, and I could rise up from the shadows over here and drive my knife into his back.
That was my hope, anyway, and the last chance I had.
So I hunkered down behind the trees, tightened my grip on my knife, and waited for my enemy to come find me.
34
It took Sebastian longer than I thought it would to reach the greenhouse. Perhaps he’d gone to the front gate first, thinking that I was running away, when I was really waiting on him so we could finish this, one way or the other.
A dozen times, I thought about leaving the building and trying to sneak up on Sebastian somewhere out on the grounds. I wanted to do something, anything, rather than crouch in the dark playing some deadly version of hide-and-seek. But then I thought about how Fletcher had lain in wait for Finn and me at the rock quarry and how he’d managed to mock-kill us both as a result. So this time, I finally decided to follow the old man’s example and his advice.
Ten minutes after I entered the greenhouse, the door banged open, causing the rest of the glass panes in it to shatter. Lightning crackled outside again, perfectly illuminating Sebastian standing in the doorway.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he sang mockingly.
I didn’t bother answering him.
“Oh, come on, now, Gin,” he said. “I know that you’re in here. I saw your boot prints in the mud outside. Besides, the stones told me you’d come in this direction. Stone is everywhere, you know, even in the earth under our feet. There’s nowhere on this estate that you can go where I won’t find you. Although I think it’s rather fitting that you’ve retreated in here. Just like my father did so many nights when he didn’t want to face the real world. And now here you are, doing the same exact thing, not wanting to face your own death.”
He stopped talking, waiting for me to be stupid enough to respond or make some noise that would give away my location. Please. I was through talking. I just wanted to kill him now.
Finally, finally kill him.
Sebastian closed the door behind him and threw the lock, even though the glass had disintegrated, leaving nothing behind but an empty metal frame. Then he leaned over and hit a switch, causing all of the overhead lights to flicker to life. I cursed to myself and slid back as deep into the shadows as I could get and still be in position to implement my plan to ambush him. I should have remembered to disable the lights, but it was too late now.