Spider's Trap

by Jennifer Estep

  Behind us, steady sounds of gunfire still ripped through the air, along with an occasional shout, but the trees muted the sounds, so I shut them out of my mind. Besides, my friends couldn’t help me now.

  We’d gone about two hundred feet when the trees gave way to a smooth lawn crisscrossed with white flagstones. Old-fashioned streetlights lined the paths, the golden glows hovering over the stones like fireflies suspended in a spider’s web.

  “The botanical gardens?” Pike muttered. “How did we wind up back here—”

  Crack-crack-crack.

  More gunfire sounded, along with several shouts, the voices getting closer and closer.

  “Where are they?”

  “Do you see them?”

  “We’re coming for you!”

  Pike cursed and shoved me forward again, forcing me down one of the paths that led into a hedge maze. Rows of thick, impenetrable bushes rose up eight feet on both sides, cutting us off from everyone and everything else. Only a few lights were spaced here and there along the path, adding to the gloom. Pike’s hot breath rasped against my cheek. The stink of cigar smoke clung to his body, overpowering the far more pleasing aromas of the garden.

  A few smaller paths split off left and right, but Pike pushed me along the center trail. We’d gone about fifty feet when the maze opened up into a large circular area. White picket fences ran along the path, cordoning off flowerbeds full of pansies, mums, and fat pumpkins with leafy green vines curling all around them. Embedded in the center of the garden was a round mosaic made out of jagged, colorful bits of red, orange, and yellow glass that had been fitted together to form a cornucopia.

  Pike marched me over to the mosaic and threw me down face-first in the center of the glass. I used my hands to break my fall, but I still felt the hard, jarring impact. My palms scraped against the words, Harvest Time, that curved over the top of the cornucopia.

  Pike circled around me, his boots tapping on the glass. He was wearing another black satchel of nails across his chest, and the metal pieces tinked in time to his footsteps. All the while, he kept swinging his mace back and forth like a scythe of death hanging over my head. Finally, he stopped in front of me.

  “Now, bitch,” he growled, “I think it’s time for our long-awaited family reunion—and for you to finally pay for killing our father.”

  Instead of begging for mercy like he wanted, I started laughing. Deep, hearty chuckles spewed out of my lips.

  “What’s so funny?” he growled again.

  It took me another few seconds to stop laughing. “Well,” I said, lifting my head to look at him. “You finally got one thing right. I did kill your father, but he wasn’t my daddy too. Something that I am extremely grateful for.”

  His black eyebrows drew together, confusion filling his face.

  I reached up and yanked off the black wig I was wearing, which Jo-Jo had braided to look just like Lorelei’s hair.

  Pike sucked in a breath, finally realizing how thoroughly he’d been fooled—and that he had kidnapped the wrong woman.

  “Surprise,” I drawled. “I’m not the bitch you’re looking for.”

  28

  I surged to my feet, palmed the knife hidden up my sleeve, and lashed out with it.

  I wanted to gut Pike and end the fight before it even got started, but he ducked out of the way. I raised my knife again, but he was quicker and swung his mace out in a wicked arc. This time, I was the one who stepped back, and we started circling around and around, each of us searching for an opening to take the other down.

  Pike’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not Lorelei.”

  “Way to state the obvious. Aren’t you the observant one?”

  “But there was a woman in the van with you,” he accused. “One dressed in black clothes with a brown ponytail just like yours. I saw her when I planted the bomb on the back of the van.”

  “My sister, Bria, dressed up to look like me.” I gestured with my knife at the black boots, dark jeans, and blue leather jacket I was wearing. “With me dressed up to look like Lorelei. A simple trick, but you totally fell for it.”

  Pike’s face hardened. “Lorelei was supposed to be in the lead van.”

  I smirked. “That’s what we told your boy Corbin, and he spoon-fed it right to you.”

  He blinked, surprise flickering in his face. “How do you know about Corbin?”

  “That he’s been keeping tabs on Lorelei for you? Feeding you all her movements and plans? Please.” I scoffed. “Paranoia is my middle name. You had to have some way of tracking her, since you kept showing up every single place she went, and how better to do that than by turning Lorelei’s right-hand man? Plus, I thought it was odd that you appeared right after Corbin drove up to the mansion last night. The only way you could have snuck past me was if you were hidden in his car. You also spared Corbin, when you could have easily killed him with your nails. You really should have offed him, instead of giving him all those superficial wounds.”

  His mouth twisted. Looked like we agreed on one thing.

  “So I had my guys do a little digging into his finances. And guess what? Corbin has received several large cash deposits over the past week. Not to mention the fact that the security cameras at the Peach Blossom caught him going in and out of your penthouse several times. You only get that much money and take those kinds of meetings on the sly when you sell someone out. Besides, I saw him on the road. He was driving that black sedan you were in.”

  A muscle ticked in Pike’s jaw. This wasn’t going at all how he’d imagined it.

  “Now, one of the things I admire about Lorelei is her creative problem solving,” I said. “She really is very clever about getting other people to do her dirty work, myself included. It was her idea to get Corbin to tell you all about her supposed plan to leave Ashland. We gave him all the juicy details, including our route and which van she was supposedly going to be in, which Corbin oh-so-obligingly passed on to you. And what do you know? You totally bought it, and here we are.”

  “Where is she?” Pike growled, looking around the garden. “Where is that bitch?”

  “If I were you, sugar, I’d be more concerned about me right now.”

  “You? You think I’m scared of you?” This time, he was the one who laughed. “Oh, I know all about you. Gin Blanco, the Spider. Ooh. Just saying your name gives me chills.” He gave a fake shudder with his shoulders.

  “It should, since you walked right into my trap.”

  He laughed again. “Trap? What trap? All I see is you, with one knife and no one to help you.”

  “I don’t need anyone to help me with you. All I needed was this lovely little garden spot.”

  Pike frowned, his brows knitting in confusion again. His gaze flicked back and forth between me and the white picket fences, flowerbeds, and glass mosaic. His eyes glowed bright blue for a second. Realization dawned on his face.

  “No metal,” he growled.

  I stabbed my knife at him. “Ding-ding-ding. We have a winner. Did you really think that I would just let you kidnap me and take me any old place you wanted? Your ambush on the road, bombing the van, thinking that I was Lorelei and grabbing me, marching me all the way back here. I planned it all, with every single thing designed to drive you into the gardens. So far, everything’s gone off without a hitch.”

  “Not everything.” He sneered. “What about your friends? My giants should be done shooting them to death by now.”

  I tilted my head to the side. “Funny. I don’t hear anything. Do you?”

  Pike listened, but the crack-crack-crack of gunfire had stopped, and the only sound was the soft slapping of our footsteps as we kept circling each other.

  “Do you know what the one good thing about being the head of the Ashland underworld is?” I asked.

  He glared at me.

  “Everyone more or less rep
orts to me now. I figured that you might try to hire some local muscle to help you this time around, especially since you’d already offed Smith, your previous stooge. So I put the word out and offered a very generous payday to anyone who came forward with information about you. Those giants you thought were on your payroll? They’re really on mine.”

  Pike’s mouth dropped open. “But—but they were firing at your friends! I saw them!”

  “Your smuggler sister has access to all kinds of interesting things. Fake ammunition is one of them. Those giants you thought you hired? They were shooting blanks. Just like you’re doing, sugar.”

  Shock flashed across Pike’s face, along with more than a little embarrassment. His cheeks flushed a mottled red, although it was nothing compared with the rage sparking in his eyes.

  “You bitch,” he growled. “You think you can put one over on me? No fucking way.”

  “Not just me,” I purred, stabbing my knife off to the side. “Look. The rest of our garden party has finally arrived.”

  Pike glanced over at the entrance, his mouth dropping open again.

  My friends were here.

  Finn, Bria, Xavier, Sophia, Jo-Jo, Silvio, and Owen stood in a loose semicircle, all of them armed with elemental Ice guns. Mallory was with them too, wearing the same sort of black clothes as the rest of us, along with her usual array of diamonds. She looked like a cat burglar who’d just lifted the biggest score of her life.

  Mallory had her Ice gun trained on Corbin, who looked utterly miserable. Cuts and bruises marred his face, and his eyes were dull and dim. He’d bet on the wrong side, and he knew how badly he’d lost.

  And then there was Lorelei.

  She left my friends behind, heading for the center of the garden where Pike and I stood. She too was carrying an Ice gun, with a couple more holstered to her thighs and a brace of knives circling her waist. After this was all over with, I’d have to tell her how much I approved of her wardrobe choices.

  Pike cursed and backpedaled so that he could keep both of us in sight at the same time.

  Lorelei stopped beside me and smirked at him. “Hello, Raymond. You wanted to see me?”

  Pike looked back and forth between us before focusing on his sister. “You think you’re so smart, with your schemes and your new friends and your pet assassin. But you know what? You’re still the same weak, whiny little bitch you always were, too afraid to face me by yourself.”

  Ice magic rolled off Lorelei’s body, and her fingers tightened around her gun. “Weak? I was never weak. I was the one who got hit over and over again. I was the one who got beaten by our father for every little thing he thought I did wrong. I was the one he tortured, right along with my mother. You? All you ever did was pucker up and kiss his ass. You were too afraid of him not to. I’d say that makes you the weak, whiny little bitch. Not me.”

  More of that hot, embarrassed rage stained Pike’s cheeks a dark, ugly red.

  Lorelei shook her head, her braid swishing against her shoulder. “I don’t know why I was ever afraid of you, Raymond. You don’t have any real strength, any real power. Not the kind that truly matters. All you have is your ego, and it’s not going to be enough to save you. Not this time.”

  But Pike laughed, the sound soft yet confident. He gestured out at the gardens. “You think you’ve beaten me by bringing me here? I don’t need any metal here to kill you. I brought plenty of my own. I always do.”

  His eyes flashed a wicked blue, and he chucked his mace at us.

  For a second, I thought that he was a complete idiot, throwing away his one weapon, especially with such a halfhearted attempt. But then I felt a wave of magic surge off him, and I realized what he was really targeting with it: the mace.

  “Bomb!” I screamed.

  I reached for my Stone magic and used it to harden my skin, even as I tackled Lorelei, driving her to the ground and covering her body with mine—

  Boom!

  * * *

  Fire, heat, smoke, noise.

  Shrapnel.

  The mace’s metal spikes shot out from the force of the explosion, while the rest of the weapon splintered into jagged pieces that cut through the air like knives.

  I grunted as the dangerous mix of shrapnel pelted my back, along with wads of dirt and rocks. The hailstorm punched into my body, leaving bruises behind, but my Stone magic kept the pieces from actually slicing into my skin. As soon as the last of the shrapnel fell, I rolled off Lorelei and scrambled to my feet. She did the same, both of us searching for her brother.

  But Pike wasn’t there.

  Lorelei whirled around, searching for him. I looked over at my friends.

  Mallory was down on the ground, with Jo-Jo, Silvio, and Owen trying to help her up. Corbin must have used the explosion to make a break for it, and he was running for the entrance, with Finn, Bria, Xavier, and Sophia chasing after him.

  My gaze locked with Owen’s.

  He pointed to the hedge maze tunnel on the far side of the garden. “Pike went that way! Go! Go!”

  Lorelei and I looked at each other, then sprinted in that direction.

  29

  Lorelei and I plunged into the hedge maze.

  As we ran deeper into the maze, the hedges became taller and thicker, the tight tangle of limbs impenetrable, and the path twisted and turned, with new branches splitting off from it every few feet in no discernible order or pattern. A sign planted at one of the junctions said that the maze was designed to look like a rose when viewed from above.

  Wasn’t that ironic.

  The silvery light of the full moon frosted the tops of the hedges, outshining the iron streetlights that were planted throughout the maze. The air smelled crisp and green, with a metallic hint of the night’s coming frost. Leaves had fallen off the trees farther out in the gardens and blown down into the maze corridors, the brown curls creating spiderweb patterns on the white flagstones.

  Lorelei and I came to a junction. I looked left and right down the murky, shadow-strewn corridors, but I didn’t see Pike or hear anything but our harsh, raspy breaths. If we went the wrong way, he was gone—until the next time he decided to plant a bomb somewhere.

  I reached out with my Stone magic, listening to the rocks in the ground and hidden in the bushes. But they only murmured of the night’s growing chill. Pike’s passage hadn’t been long or distinctive enough to resonate with them. I cursed and bent down, hoping there would be some sort of scuff mark or bootprint on the flagstones that would indicate which way he’d gone.

  Nothing.

  I got to my feet and stalked back and forth in both directions, but I didn’t see so much as a broken branch. I let out another curse. Given my luck, I’d pick the wrong direction, and Pike would get away.

  Lorelei pointed to the right. “He went that way.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She nodded, her eyes glinting like pale sapphires, and I realized that she was using her own metal magic, weak though it was. “I’m sure. I spent years tracking him and his magic all through our house so I could avoid him as much as possible. He’s still holding on to his power, trying to find some metal to use with it. It’s faint, but I can sense his trail. Trust me.”

  “Lead the way.”

  Lorelei headed down the right passageway.

  We moved quickly and quietly. We didn’t speak. We didn’t need to. The only thing that mattered now was finding Pike—and finishing him.

  But the maze made it difficult.

  Time and time again, we came to junctions where the hedges split into two or three or sometimes even four new directions. I would have been floundering around for hours, trying to track him, but Lorelei never wavered, and she never hesitated.

  The whole trek reminded me of that day in the woods, except this time, Lorelei was the hunter, the unstoppable force. No matter how many different d
irections Pike took, no matter how he maneuvered through the maze, she followed the faint trail of his magic like a bloodhound glued to a scent that only she could detect.

  Finally, we rounded a corner and spotted Pike darting through a patch of light. He quickly disappeared into another corridor.

  “There he is!” Lorelei yelled, raising her Ice gun. “There he is!”

  She ran after him. I reached for her, but I wasn’t quick enough to grab and yank her back. In an instant, she was several feet past me and sprinting even deeper into the maze.

  “Wait!” I hissed. “Wait!”

  There might not be any metal around, but Pike still had that bag of nails draped across his chest, and, worse, he could always have another bomb on him. Besides, he was as fond of traps as I was, and I was willing to bet that the only reason we’d seen him now was so he could try to lure us into some sort of kill spot.

  “Lorelei!” I hissed again. “Stop!”

  But she didn’t.

  So I went after her. She was going to get herself killed, being so reckless and blindly chasing after Pike, but I could understand why she did it. She was tired—tired of hiding and waiting and wondering when and where he might strike next.

  She wanted to end this.

  But I crept forward at a more cautious pace. We might have trapped Pike in the maze, but a rabid animal was always the most dangerous when it was cornered—

  Lorelei’s scream shattered the silence.

  I forgot about being cautious and sprinted forward. She kept screaming, and a cold, hard burst of magic filled the section of the maze up ahead, like an invisible mushroom cloud arcing up into the sky.

  Please! . . . Please don’t leave me!

  Lorelei’s voice echoed in my mind, even as her screams assaulted my ears.

  The corridor opened up into another garden, one with a Japanese theme, given the clusters of cherry and bonsai trees that lined the paths and the wooden pagoda sitting in the middle. I spotted a rock garden behind the pagoda, the stones glowing like opals in the moonlight.