Black Widow

by Jennifer Estep

  It was harder than it should have been to pry my burned, blistered hands out of her cold, dead, frozen ones, almost as if she were still somehow desperately clinging to me, but I managed it, even though I left a fair amount of skin behind.

  This time I stumbled back for real and fell to my knees in the center of the ballroom. All around me, pools of bright green acid smoked, bubbled, and burned, but they were slowly losing strength, their flames sputtering, as if their hot, caustic power had somehow been tied to Madeline’s life, her very existence. Maybe they had been. Either way, she was dead, and I wasn’t, and I didn’t care about what remained of her magic or how it corroded everything it touched.

  “No!” an angry shout rose up behind me. “No! Impossible! She can’t be dead! She can’t be!”

  Emery darted forward. I grimaced, ducked, and braced my hands on the floor, thinking that she was going to tackle me, but instead she hurried over to Madeline’s side, drew back her fists, and started pounding at the Ice that coated the acid elemental’s body. But I’d mixed my Stone magic in with all the cold, frosty layers, making the Ice hard and thick, and she couldn’t so much as chip the façade, despite all her giant strength.

  “No!” Emery kept screaming. “No! No! No!”

  While the giant kept trying to free Madeline, Jonah had a much smarter thought—he turned and sprinted for the terrace doors. He would have made it too, if Owen hadn’t stepped up, stuck his foot out, and tripped the lawyer.

  Jonah stumbled forward and cracked his head against one of the glass doors, splintering a pane, before collapsing into an unconscious heap on the floor. Owen grinned and flashed me a thumbs-up. I managed to grin back at him.

  But the rest of the crowd had an entirely different reaction. I thought that they might try to flee, along with McAllister, but instead, several loud cries ripped out.

  “Let’s get them!”

  “Yeah!”

  “Now’s our chance!”

  I wasn’t sure if they were talking about me and my friends or all the collective enemies who were gathered in the ballroom. Either way, a brawl erupted. Madeline hadn’t allowed anyone to bring weapons inside her mansion, but the shattered end of a champagne flute made for a good enough knife. Fire and Ice flashed, blood and bodies flew through the air, people tackled each other, and folks rolled around on the floor, kicking and clawing and stabbing and biting for all they were worth. By killing Madeline, I’d shattered the fragile peace among all the underworld bosses and their followers, all of whom were doing everything they could to stick it to all their enemies within arm’s reach.

  Despite the fights rampaging through the ballroom, no one approached me, and none of the bodies even came close to hitting me. I supposed that they were all too afraid of me to openly attack me. Or perhaps they just didn’t want to navigate the pools of acid that were still burning and flaming on the marble floor all around me.

  I looked at the crowd, too tired to do anything to break up the massive free-for-all. Maybe if I was lucky, they would all take each other out, and I could quit worrying about the whole troublesome lot of them.

  One woman stumbled forward, clutching her stomach and bleeding out from the jagged wound in her belly. Sandra Smyth, a socialite who paid for her lavish lifestyle by dealing in prescription drugs. She fell to her knees, right onto one of the pools of acid that was still flaming, and she screamed and bucked violently before her body suddenly went slack. The flames crawled up into her hair and down the back of her dress, the acid burning a little brighter now that it had something new to chew on.

  Her gruesome death was enough to snap me out of my daze, and I realized that if I didn’t stop this, no one would get out of here alive—including me and my friends. So I forced myself to get up onto my knees, although I wobbled back and forth, burned, bruised, and utterly exhausted from my duel with Madeline.

  “Enough!” I yelled. “That’s enough!”

  But the brawl continued, despite my friends’ firing their guns up into the air, and my hoarse voice was lost in the cacophony of snarls, shouts, shrieks, and screams. Since I was still closer to the floor than I was to standing, I leaned forward and laid my hands flat on the marble, or what was left of it, careful to keep my fingers out of the pools of acid.

  I must have had a bit more power left than I’d realized because I was able to send out a strong enough blast of magic to make the entire ballroom floor ripple like water. That wasn’t enough to get everyone’s attention, so I let loose with another burst of magic, this time making the walls quiver and even the chandeliers above our heads tremble and shake.

  Everyone froze, their hands clenched into fists, their fingers curled around their champagne-flute shivs, their thumbs digging into the windpipes of their enemies.

  It took me a moment, but I managed to get up onto my feet, then straighten up to my full height.

  “That is enough.” My voice was cold and dangerous. “Unless you want me to tear this entire mansion apart and bring the whole thing down on top of your idiotic heads.”

  My threat was enough to get everyone to drop their fists and hands and shuffle away from me. I walked forward, and they pressed back even more, as though the air in the room were somehow propelling them toward the terrace doors, and they were about to pop right out through the glass. Or maybe that was just the cold chill blasting off my body.

  I stopped and placed my hands on my hips. I knew that I looked a fright, my body bruised, my face battered, and my skin red, blistered, and burned from Madeline’s magic. But I was still standing, which is more than any of them could have said had they gone up against the acid elemental.

  “Good,” I said. “Now that I have your attention, let me tell you how it’s going to be.”

  At my words, everyone’s eyes sharpened, and their mouths flattened out into hard, knowing lines. No doubt they thought that I was going to give them the same exact speech Madeline had and announce that I was taking over the underworld. But I didn’t want that.

  I’d never wanted that.

  “Now, unlike some people, I don’t give a fuck about being the big boss,” I snarled.

  Snorts, scoffs, and disbelieving murmurs rippled through the ballroom just like my Stone magic had a few seconds before.

  “I don’t,” I snapped again, my voice even colder than before. “If it were up to me, I’d walk out of here and never think about or see any of you ever again. But we all know that’s not going to happen. Because, like it or not, Ashland is your home as much as it is mine. We’ve all done bad things here, and we’ll all keep doing bad things. Because, like it or not, the corruption isn’t just going to disappear overnight. Neither are the drug dealers or the gangs.”

  “What is this? A plea for the downtrodden?” Lorelei Parker snickered. “An after-school special?”

  I glared at the crime boss, and her laughter quickly died down, although she lifted her chin and glared right back at me.

  “Now,” I growled, “most of you have spent the last several months trying to kill me. As Madeline oh-so-eloquently described it, you sent your brothers and sisters in arms after me. She said it was for revenge, but we all know that’s bullshit. You all just wanted to prove your worth. You thought that by killing me, you could get everyone else to anoint you as the head of the underworld.”

  Most everyone in the crowd shrugged, and I caught a few snatches of conversation.

  “Can’t blame us for that.”

  “It’s just business.”

  “Too bad we didn’t succeed.”

  That last snide comment came from Lorelei.

  “I’m talking about you, Parker. And you, Ron Donaldson. And you, Dmitri Barkov.” One by one, I stabbed my finger at the underworld bosses I’d named before throwing my hands out wide. “Well, here I am, standing in front of all of you. I’ve frozen Madeline in her tracks—literally—and I’m willing to take on anyone else brave or stupid enough to try. Please, if you want me dead so very badly, make yourselves known. I�
�ve fought one duel tonight. Trust me when I tell you that I’ve got enough magic left for plenty more.”

  A blatant lie on my part, but now was not the time to look weak or indecisive. No, now was the time to finally get what I’d wanted, what I’d always wanted ever since I’d killed Mab—a little peace and quiet. Even if I knew that it wouldn’t last long. Not in a place like this. Never in Ashland. But it was my home, for better or worse, and these hills and mountains were as much a part of me as my Ice and Stone magic and the spider runes branded into my palms.

  But no one stepped forward to call me on my bluff, so I moved on to what I really wanted to say.

  “As of this moment, you will all stop being so damn stupid,” I snarled. “Every single one of you will stop trying to kill me. You’ll stop sending men to my restaurant, my home, and everywhere else. And if any of you black-hearted sons of bitches even think about hurting one of my friends, then I will rain my cold wrath down on you and yours like you have never seen before.”

  I looked from one face to another, making sure that they all got my message loud and clear. “Madeline wanted fifty percent. Well, this is what I want. Consider yourselves lucky that you’re getting off so light.”

  “And if we don’t stop?” Lorelei Parker piped up again. “If we all keep trying? What will you do about it then, Blanco?”

  I stared her down. “Then I will keep eliminating you—all of you—until I’ve made my point. I’d thought it would have sunk in by now, given everyone I’ve killed over the past few months, but apparently, y’all are slow learners.”

  Lorelei opened her mouth, but I held up a finger, and she swallowed whatever she’d been about to say.

  “I don’t care what you do,” I said. “If y’all want to get in a pissing contest to determine who rules Ashland, that’s fine. Paint the streets red with each other’s blood. Doesn’t much matter to me. I can’t stop all the crime in Ashland. No one ever could. And it’s not like I’m any better than the lot of you, with all the bad things I’ve done. But don’t involve me in your power struggles anymore, and don’t think that killing me is the answer to being king or queen of the mountain. All it’s going to get you is dead. Trust me on that.”

  I didn’t point to Madeline’s still-frozen body. I didn’t have to. Silence descended over the ballroom as everyone shifted on their feet, wondering what came next. It suddenly occurred to me what they were all waiting for.

  I sighed. “Y’all can leave now.”

  But no one made a move to actually open any of the terrace doors, even though they were all still pressed up against them.

  “Leave!” I barked out. “Now! Before I change my mind!”

  That got the lot of them moving. Oh, they tried to maintain some semblance of dignity, but their movements became faster and faster. Doors were wrenched open, and they all practically trampled each other in their desperate desire to get away from me as quickly as possible. In less than two minutes, my friends and I were the only ones left in the ballroom.

  As soon as the last of them were gone, I shuffled over to the marble stairs and collapsed on the lowest one. I groaned at how good it felt to sit still and not have to try to appear tough and strong and pretend that Madeline hadn’t done a number on me with her acid magic.

  Jo-Jo rushed over to my side and took my hand in hers. The milky-white glow of her magic flashed in her eyes, and I welcomed the pins-and-needles sensation of her Air magic sweeping over me, repairing all my burned, blistered skin and healing the worst of my wounds. But my injuries weren’t as bad as this hollow feeling deep in the pit of my stomach. The one that told me that I’d used up all of my magic, more than ever before. I had no idea when it might return to me or how many days that could take.

  Or how many plots might be hatched against me in the meantime.

  Just because the underworld bosses had seen me kill Madeline didn’t mean that they wouldn’t keep coming after me. Oh, it might take them a while, but they all still wanted to be the top dog, and I was still standing in their way. So I would try to enjoy my respite for as long as it lasted.

  “Well,” Finn drawled, coming down the acid-splattered stairs to stand beside me, “I think that went rather well, all things considered.”

  Owen hurried over as well, crouching down in front of me, his violet eyes full of concern. “Are you okay, Gin?”

  I waited until Jo-Jo had finished with her latest wave of healing magic. “Right as rain, now that Madeline is dead. I just didn’t think that there would be so many other casualties.”

  More than a dozen still, crumpled bodies littered the ballroom. The bosses hadn’t been brawling all that long, no more than a few minutes, but they’d gotten their licks in, and they’d made them count. Bria, Xavier, and Sophia were already busy going from body to body to see if anyone was still breathing underneath all that blood. Roslyn walked down the stairs and joined Phillip, who was trailing along behind the others and cataloging the bodies as well, to see which of his competition might have been eliminated.

  Owen pushed a bit of loose hair back from my face. His fingers fell away, and I tried not to notice the clump of hair that they dragged along with them. Madeline’s magic had eaten into me a little more deeply than I’d thought, but I wasn’t worried. Jo-Jo could fix the parts of me that were broken, even if she could never touch or heal the scars that would continue to smoke and burn in my heart, just like the pockets of acid on the floor.

  “So now what?” Owen asked.

  I scanned the ballroom again. Jonah was still out cold next to the terrace doors, but there was one body that I didn’t see among all the others.

  “Where’s Emery?” I asked.

  Finn shook his head. “Gone. Out one of the doors with the rest of the crowd. I tried to get a bead on her, but there were too many people in the way.”

  A cold finger of unease crept up my spine at the news of the giant’s escape. She wouldn’t let this go. Madeline had been her boss, her cousin, her friend, and she’d want revenge. Emery would find some way to make me pay for Madeline’s death. It was as certain as the sun coming up in the morning. But there was nothing I could do about it tonight. Even if the giant had been standing right in front of me, I barely had the energy to blink at the moment, much less take her on.

  “Don’t worry, Gin,” Silvio piped up, texting on his phone. “I’m already reaching out to my contacts to track her.”

  Finn slapped his hands on his hips. “Your contacts? And what makes you think that your contacts will find her faster than my contacts will?”

  Silvio gave him a patronizing look. Finn glowered back at the vampire. I was too tired to even roll my eyes, much less snicker at their rivalry—

  “Who are you people?”

  Every single one of us froze. Me. Owen. Finn. Silvio. Jo-Jo. Even Bria, Xavier, Sophia, Roslyn, and Phillip on the other side of the ballroom.

  Then, with one thought, we all whirled around, fists and weapons raised, looking for the source of that soft, hesitant voice.

  A little girl stood at the edge of the dance floor.

  She was dressed in soft, pale blue footie pajamas patterned with penguins and clutched an even softer-looking blue rabbit to her chest. Her hair was mussed with sleep, but I could see the auburn highlights glinting in the dark brown strands.

  She looked at all of us in turn, not really afraid, but her green eyes were big and curious.

  “Who are you?” she asked again. “And where’s my mommy?”

  29

  All the air left my lungs in a ragged rush. I blinked and blinked and blinked, as if that would change who and what was before me.

  But it didn’t.

  A little girl. In the Monroe mansion. Staring at me with Madeline’s eyes. Wondering where her mommy was.

  I didn’t have to look at the others to know that they were just as shocked and surprised as I was. In all the intel that Finn and Silvio had gathered on Madeline, in all my spying on her, in all my confrontations with her
, there had never been so much as a whisper that she had a child. Then again, I’d never known that Mab had had a daughter either. But now here I was, confronted by the next little girl in the Monroe family. I couldn’t help but wonder if she had the same kind of acid magic that her mother did, or perhaps even her grandmother’s Fire power.

  Jo-Jo was quicker and kinder than the rest of us. The dwarf got to her feet, plastered a smile on her face, and slowly approached the girl.

  “Hi, there, darling,” Jo-Jo crooned in a soft, easy voice. “What’s your name?”

  “Moira. Moira Monroe.”

  She held out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Moira. I’m Jo-Jo.”

  The two of them shook hands, the little girl as serious as she could be. Jo-Jo gestured over her shoulder at the rest of us.

  “And these are my friends.”

  Moira looked us over, her green gaze moving from one of us to the next, even as my friends shuffled forward and sidled sideways, trying to hide as much of the blood and as many of the bodies as they could from her.

  Finally, her eyes met mine. Her tiny face creased in thought, and I realized that she was staring at my spider rune necklace.

  “Oh,” she said, her face clearing. “You’re the spider lady, the one that my mommy doesn’t like. What are you doing here? I thought that you were dead.”

  I heard her words, even though they all sounded like gibberish at the moment. But I forced myself to get to my feet and slowly walk over to her, not wanting to scare her. It was a good thing Jo-Jo had healed all the burns and blisters on my skin already, or I would have looked like even more of a monster than I already did.

  Up close, Moira was as pretty as a picture. She couldn’t have been more than three or four, but I could already tell that she would grow up to look just like Madeline. I imagined that she’d be even more beautiful than her mother had been.

  I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I didn’t know what to even think right now, much less say to her. I wet my lips and tried again, but I still couldn’t utter so much as a single sound. My silence must have scared Moira, because she backed away from me. A pale green light began to flicker around her fingers.