my ear and the staccato slap of the giants’ shoes on the floor. The steady
Owen’s muscles clenched, and his body swelled with tension with every passing second. I slowly, carefully, quietly raised my hand to his and squeezed his fingers. Owen exhaled, and I felt some of the worry leave him.
“Come on,” one of the giants finally said. “They’re not in here. Let’s go.”
More
Owen and I stayed where we were. Bodies flush, lips close together, eyes locked on each other.
I would have liked nothing more than to have stayed with Owen in the shadows, but after thirty more seconds had passed and I was reasonably sure the giants weren’t coming back, I made myself step out of his arms and slide away from him.
Because this wasn’t the time for such things. What was important right now was making sure that we lived to have a later—and so did our friends.
“Come on,” I whispered. “We should be able to make it outside now.”
Owen nodded.
I let myself remember the heat of his body against mine for a moment longer before I turned, hopped off the statue, and headed for the door.
I’d just started to peer out the opening when one of the giants stepped back into the room.
18
“Wait a second,” the giant called out to his buddy, looking back over his shoulder. “I left the lights on in here, and the boss lady said to turn them off when—”
There was no time to run, nowhere to hide, and no way to keep things quiet. The giant turned to face me. He gasped and stopped short in surprise, but I was already rushing toward him, slashing my knife through the air.
The giant managed to throw himself back so that my blade only sliced across his chest instead of tearing open his throat. Still, the shallow, stinging cut made him bellow with pain and surprise.
“Paul?” the other man asked, stepping into the room. “What’s wrong—” His eyes widened as he realized what was going on, and he immediately raised his walkie-talkie to his lips. “I’ve got them! I’ve got them! Near the west exit!”
The giant in front of me started to raise his gun, but I sliced my knife across his wrist, making him drop the weapon and howl with pain.
“You take the other guy!” I yelled at Owen. “Clear a path!”
Owen stepped up beside me, already drawing a bead on the second giant, who was backpedaling.
Two bullets slammed into the doorway right next to the giant, making him curse and duck back out into the hallway. Owen hurried over to the door, stuck his arm out, and fired two more shots.
A high-pitched yelp sounded out in the hallway.
“I winged him, but there are already more of them at the end of the hallway and heading this way!” Owen called out. “We need to go, Gin! Now!”
I shoved the injured giant out of my way and drew my own gun. I peered around the doorframe. Owen must have hit the giant in the leg, because he was hobbling into another room that branched off the hallway. But what worried me more were the four giants at the far end of the corridor. They spotted us and started shooting even as they raced in our direction. Bullets
There was only one thing left to do now: run.
I jerked my head at the exit door thirty feet to our left and handed Owen the key card to open it. “Stay behind me!” I screamed at him. “I’ll cover you!”
Owen nodded, realizing what I had in mind. I reached for my Stone magic, used it to harden my skin, and stepped out into the hallway, with Owen right behind me. While he ran for the door, I turned around, raised my gun, took aim at the giants, and pulled the trigger.
My hail of gunfire slowed the giants down and made them duck for cover, but it didn’t stop them from returning my bullets with several shots of their own. One of the projectiles punched square into my chest, making me stumble back. The bullet would have bored right through my heart if I hadn’t been using my magic to protect myself. I kept backing up, heading toward the exit, and firing away until my clip was empty.
“Gin!” Owen shouted behind me, holding the door open. “Come on!”
I turned and raced toward him.
Another shot rang out. In front of me, Owen grunted and staggered outside, leaving behind a smear of blood on the glass door.
“Owen? Owen!” I made it through the opening, let the door close behind me, and ran over to him.
He clutched his left shoulder. “I’m okay. I think they just winged me—”
Bullets slammed into the door behind us, cracking the glass and making us duck down.
I put my arm under Owen’s shoulder, and together we staggered down the stairs and headed for the shadows and sanctuary of the gardens.
I led Owen to the far western edge of the gardens, where the lush flowers gave way to the creeping briars. Despite the giants’ shouts behind us, I risked turning my flashlight on for a few seconds and swept it back and forth in front of a hedge of four-foot-tall briars. Finally, I found what looked like a small animal trail through the thorns. I clicked the flashlight off and turned to Owen.
“Can you go on a little farther?” I whispered.
He nodded, although he was still clutching his shoulder.
“Okay,” I whispered back. “Follow my lead, and just take it easy. Don’t fight the briars. Go where they let you. We don’t want to leave a trail of broken branches behind us that will tell the giants exactly where we went.”
Owen nodded. I went first, worming my way deeper and deeper into the branches. The briars clutched at my tattered dress, but I went slowly, carefully moving branches out of my way. Owen followed along behind me, his breath rasping against the back of my neck.
Ten feet in, a copse of weeping willows soared up out of the briars, and I slid into a small open space between two of the trees that was free from the thorns. Fifteen feet beyond the back side of the bramble patch, the island sheared off in a straight drop down to the Aneirin River two hundred feet below.
It was as good a spot as any to hide from the giants, so I gestured at Owen to stop. He sat down on the ground and put his back against one of the weeping willows, the long tendrils brushing against his shoulders like a masseuse’s fingers. I sank down on my knees beside him.
“Let me see your arm,” I whispered.
He nodded, and I helped him shrug out of his tuxedo jacket. I used one of my knives to slice open his white shirt. Two neat holes blackened his left bicep, blood trickling out of each one of them. It was an ugly wound, one
