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More silence.
Finally, Mab huffed out a sigh of displeasure. "Fine. I won't torture your sister. . . much more. "
It was the best I could do, given the circumstances-no matter how much it hurt. No matter how much my heart was breaking for Bria and what she was suffering right now. "Good. So why don't you tell me when and where, and we can get on with things?"
"Tomorrow. Dusk. As for the place, why don't we go back to the beginning?"
My stomach twisted at her nasty tone. "What do you mean?"
"Let's go back to the very beginning, since you seem to be such a fond student of history," Mab said. "Meet me at your old house, Genevieve Snow. The place where I tried to kill you all those years ago. I'm sure you remember where it is. And don't worry. Because this time I plan on succeeding. "
I opened my mouth, but for once, Mab hung up on me.
I closed the cell phone and turned to face my friends. If they'd been shocked before, they were simply horrified now-eyes wide, mouths open, faces pinched white with fear for me and what I was about to do.
"What did Mab say?" Finn asked. "Will she go for the trade?"
I handed his phone back to him. "She'll go for it. She wants to kill me too badly not to. "
"You're not actually going to go through with it?" Eva piped up from her spot on the couch. "It's suicide, Gin!"
I shrugged. "No more so than any of the other things that I've done over the years. "
Roslyn, Xavier, Finn, Eva, Violet, Warren-they all tried to talk me out of it, of course. They listed all the reasons why meeting Mab would result in nothing but my own death, along with Bria's. They ranted and raved up one side and down the other that I was being foolish, stupid even, if I thought that Mab would let either one of us live.
But they didn't change my mind.
If I had to sacrifice myself to save Bria, so be it. I didn't care anymore as long as she was safe. It was all I'd ever wanted since this whole thing had started.
Jo-Jo and Sophia didn't join in the others' protests. Instead, the two dwarven sisters stood still and silent by the fireplace. They both knew that there was no use trying to talk me out of meeting Mab. Hell, maybe Jo-Jo had seen this was what was going to happen, thanks to her Air magic and the precognition that went along with it.
Owen was quiet too, not joining in the Greek chorus. Instead, he slung his arm over my shoulder and stood by my side while the others alternately bullied, threatened, and tried to cajole me into abandoning my plan. I leaned into his body just the smallest bit, letting him take the weight of the moment.
Finally, when the others realized that they weren't going to change my mind, they quit grousing and drifted off to bed. Jo-Jo shepherded the crowd and made sure that everyone had enough pillows, sheets, and blankets for the night. I took a long, hot shower to wash the blood and grime from my body, then grabbed a spare set of pajamas from among the various clothes stashed at the cabin.
Owen and I took the bedroom on the ground floor, while everyone else trooped to the upstairs bedrooms. I wanted to be downstairs, wanted to be the first line of defense, just in case any of the bounty hunters traced us here. The odds of that happening were next to impossible, especially since on paper the cabin was owned by Nick A. Medes, which was one of Fletcher's rock-solid aliases. But Sophia had volunteered to stand watch, just in case. I would have done it myself, except that Jo-Jo bullied me into getting some rest.
I was tired-so tired-but I couldn't sleep. Instead, I paced back and forth across the bedroom, the wooden floorboards creaking under my bare feet. Owen watched me from his position on the bed. He didn't say anything, but his gaze never left my tight face.
"I'm sorry," I said, finally stopping to turn and look at him.
"For what?"
I threw my hands out wide. "For all of this. For the fact that you and Eva are now on the run because of me, because of my being the Spider. "
Owen sighed. "There's nothing to be sorry for, Gin. I knew that this was a possibility when we got together. I knew that you were going after Mab, and I knew that it might come to this. "
"Yeah," I said, flopping down on the bed beside him. "But it's not exactly what you signed up for, is it?"
Owen shrugged. "Maybe it's not, but I wouldn't trade it-or you-for a second. You know how much I care about you, Gin. You know how much I love you. "
He'd finally said the words that I'd been dreading and longing to hear.
And I wanted to say them back to him.
My mouth opened, but the words-the damn words-just wouldn't come out. They snagged in my throat, choking me, even as the syllables squeezed my heart like a silverstone vise cranking tighter and tighter. My emotions were just too raw from everything that had happened tonight and all the awful things that might happen tomorrow. I couldn't speak, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't do anything but just feel-feel all the love I had for Owen.
Part of me knew that my gaped-mouth silence was stupid. I should tell Owen how I felt now, tonight, before another second passed. But part of me wanted to wait. When I told Owen I loved him, I wanted the moment to be about him, about us, and what we had-not because Mab was more than likely going to kill me tomorrow.
