Finn would realize that I was planning something, though. Knowing that I was still alive, he would have figured that I was up to my usual tricks as soon as I set off that bomb. He’d help Eva, Roslyn, and Phillip until we could free them. Finn might be selfish, flighty, and infuriating and have an inflated sense of his own self-worth, but if there was one thing I could always count on, it was for him to be there when the chips were down—and they were certainly down tonight.

Finally, a pair of guards we’d been following reached a set of exit doors and checked them to make sure they were locked. Owen and I slipped into one of the rooms that branched off from the hallway and looked out the doorway at the giants, keeping an eye on them.

“West exit secure,” one of the guards said into his radio. “We haven’t seen anyone. Haven’t found any more bombs either.”

After a moment, Clementine’s voice crackled back. “Well, retrace your steps and keep searching. They have to be in the museum somewhere. Go back through and look again. Check every room—I want them found. Now. Got it?”

“Understood,” the giant said, and clipped the device back onto his belt. He jerked his head at the other man. “Come on. You heard her. She wants us to keep searching.”

Damn and double damn. I’d hoped that Clementine would order the giants to start sweeping the grounds. That way, Owen and I would have been able to follow them outside, kill them, and slip into the gardens before anyone was the wiser. Instead, the two men turned and headed back in our direction, which meant there was nowhere for us to go.

“Gin?” Owen whispered, raising his gun. “What do you want to do?”

We couldn’t backtrack deeper into the museum without risking running into more giants, and I didn’t want to try to take out the two men in front of us—not now, when they were on high alert, guns drawn and ready to shoot at the first hint of trouble. Oh, we could kill the giants, but I doubted we could do it quickly or quietly enough to make it outside before the others heard the commotion and came running. If Clementine and her men surrounded us, we were done—simple as that.