“I don’t believe you,” Clementine replied. “You went to a lot of trouble to get him out of the vault.”

“Wrong. I went to a lot of trouble to get my diamond necklace and your mystery tube out of the vault. Grayson was just there. I took him along as a human shield, in case I ran into any of your giants, which, of course, I did. He served his purpose, then outlived his usefulness.”

I stared at Owen. He frowned at me, doubt filling his eyes—doubt about me and my words. He was wondering what I was playing at. The fact that he couldn’t just trust me after everything we’d been through hurt, another briar burrowing into my heart. But I wasn’t surprised by his lack of trust. That was another thing I’d sliced in two when I’d cut Salina’s throat.

“Well, if Grayson’s dead, then why haven’t one of my men found his body yet?” Clementine asked.

“Because your men aren’t nearly as good at this game as I am. I hope you got them at a discount rate. I haven’t been impressed so far. I’ve killed, what, eight, nine of them now? And I haven’t got a scratch on me.”

Not true, of course, but she didn’t need to know about all my aches and pains, or my dwindling reserves of magic.

Clementine was quiet for a moment. Thinking. “Why haven’t you left the island yet?”

“Well, let’s just say that I didn’t count on you bringing along quite as many giants as you did. They’ve made things a bit more difficult than I expected.”

“You won’t get off Briartop alive,” she vowed, anger coloring her voice.

“If you want to lose more men, that’s fine by me. I don’t have any plans for the rest of the night, and I’ve got plenty of guns and ammo, thanks to all the weapons I’ve taken off your men. Rest assured that I have ten million little reasons to motivate me to live—and to kill whoever gets in my way.”

More silence.

I let Clementine stew a few seconds before speaking again. “However, all that doesn’t mean that we can’t come to some sort of agreement. Things don’t need to get any bloodier and more unpleasant than they are already. Besides, if there’s one thing I’m always interested in, it’s increasing my profit margin. I’m rather lazy that way.”

I was totally channeling Finn and his never-ending greed, but I figured it was an emotion the giant would understand well.

“What do you want?” Clementine asked.

Ah, the money question. Now she was finally getting down to business—and so was I.

“Now you’re talking, sugar. I consider myself a reasonable person. I’m willing to trade you the tube and its contents.”