Thwack-thwack-thwack.
The dwarf hit me over and over again. My silverstone vest took the worst of the blows, but I still felt every hard, bruising punch. I tried to wriggle out from underneath him, but he locked his arms around my body and flipped me over, so that his back was pressing into the ground and I was lying on top of him, my arms and legs sticking up into the air like a turtle that was upside down on its shell and couldn’t right itself. I couldn’t even reach down far enough to touch and blast him with my Ice magic.
That was bad enough, but the view didn’t make me any happier. By this point, the guards Bria had warned me about had made it around the side of the mansion and all the way back here. More and more men darted past Rivera to surround Porter and me, their guns drawn and leveled at my head.
Fletcher had a saying: Arrogance will get you, every single time. I should have listened to Bria and left while I had the chance, but I’d thought that I could get my answers and escape too. And what had my arrogance gotten me? Nothing but caught.
“Hit her with the stun gun!” Porter yelled, still holding on to me, even as I struggled against him. “Quick—I can take it!”
Uh-oh.
I reached for my Stone magic, ready to send it rushing out through my entire body and harden my skin again, but one of the men was quicker. He threw himself down onto the ground and slammed a stun gun into my side. Electricity surged through my body, hot and caustic, singeing every single one of my nerve endings and making me scream and scream.
In an instant, my vision went white, then gray, then utterly, finally black.
24
I headed for the canyon, running as fast as I dared through the dark woods.
Off to my right, the Snow family mansion continued to burn, but the flames were slowly weakening and taking their precious orange-red light along with them. Soon I wouldn’t be able to see anything up ahead. With what little light there was I still kept tripping over rocks and tree roots, and my bare feet were a bruised, bloody mess that throbbed with every step.
Another rock stabbed into my big toe, making me hiss with pain and finally forcing me to slow down to a quick walk. I glanced back over my shoulder, but I didn’t see the giant behind me, not even the yellow beam of his flashlight sweeping through the trees. I took another step forward and put my foot down.
But there was nothing there to hold me up.
My head snapped around, and I spotted the dark, gaping chasm in front of me. At the last second, I managed to windmill my arms and lurch back away from the edge. My heart pounded, and cold sweat slid down my spine, as I realized how very close I’d come to falling to my death.
I carefully tiptoed forward and peered down into the canyon. But the distant firelight couldn’t penetrate the ink-black shadows down there, and all I could make out were the vague, murky shapes of the stones below.
I thought back, trying to remember what the canyon looked like in the daylight. Wide and deep, with slick, jagged pieces of moss-covered rocks running down the sides and lining the bottom like spikes. But would the fall and the rocks be enough to kill the giant? I didn’t know. I just didn’t know—
Crack.
A branch snapped behind me. I whirled around, my eyes wide, my breath caught in my throat.
Crack.
Another branch snapped, followed by a muttered curse, and a bright beam of light sliced through the trees, quickly heading in this direction. The giant must be following the trail I’d left.
I whirled back around and stared down into the canyon again. Sure, I’d almost stepped off the edge, but I hadn’t been watching where I was going. So how could I trick the giant into doing the same? Especially when he had a flashlight?
Think, Gin, think! I silently shouted at myself again, shifting back and forth on my feet, my fingers twisting in the ruined, tattered fabric of my nightgown—
My hands stilled, and I looked down. Despite the eerie gloom, I could still see my nightgown, since the fabric was so much lighter than everything else in the woods. What color was it? White? Blue? I couldn’t even remember. But if I could see it, so could the giant, and maybe, just maybe, it could help me trick him.
I reached down, grabbed the bottom of my nightgown, and ripped a long, thin strip off it. At least, I tried to. The fabric didn’t want to give, and fresh pain flared up in my burned hands, but I kept on tugging at it. Tears streamed down my face, and I had to grind my teeth to keep from screaming, but eventually, I managed to rip a piece off the bottom of the gown.
Crack-crack. Crack-crack.
Behind me, I could hear the giant getting closer and closer. There was no time to be picky, so I hooked the fabric on a bush that was right by the canyon’s edge, arranging it so that it looked like I was hiding behind the thick branches. Then I moved away from the steep drop, darted around a tree, and hunkered down in the blackest shadows I could find.
I’d just settled into place when the giant charged into view. He swept his flashlight back and forth, and the yellow beam caught the piece of fabric that I’d hooked to the bush. The giant spotted it immediately.
“There you are!” he growled.
He charged forward, right by my hiding spot, and leaned down, as though he was going to snatch up that piece of fabric and me right along with it.
He never had a chance.
“What— Ahh!”
The giant ran right off the edge of the canyon, almost like a cartoon character would, and he screamed all the way down. A few seconds later, another sickening crack sounded, louder than all the ones before. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself, waiting, but the giant didn’t make another sound, not so much as a whimper, and I knew that he was dead, his bones broken by the fall and the rocks below.
But there were still other people in the woods.
Before I could even think about moving, more shouts rang out, and people crashed through the underbrush, heading in this direction. I hunkered down even lower, scooping leaves and dirt up over my nightgown to hide its pale color and making myself as small and invisible as possible.
Less than a minute later, another flashlight appeared, bobbing up and down through the trees, and a man stepped out of the shadows—Hugh, the vampire.
Unlike the giant, he was careful as he moved forward, slowly sweeping his flashlight back and forth across the ground. He too noticed the fabric strip hooked to the bush, but he realized that there was a steep drop beyond it, and he walked right up to the edge and stopped, shining his light down into the canyon below. After several seconds, Hugh crouched down and plucked the fabric off the bush, examining it with his light. His mouth puckered in thought, but he didn’t move or mutter anything to himself.