“Besides, I don’t plan on meeting Clementine so much as leaping out of the shadows, driving my knife into her back, and cutting her throat.”

I didn’t mention that such a sneak attack was probably the only way I could kill the giant now, given her incredible strength and all the licks I’d already taken tonight.

Bria looked at me, her mouth pinched with frustration. After a moment, she let out a tense breath. My sister didn’t like it, but she knew I was right. “At least, promise me that you’ll be careful.”

I slung my arm around her shoulder and hugged her tight. “Don’t worry, baby sister. I can take care of myself. You know that.”

Bria nodded, but her face remained grim. We all knew what I was up against—what we were all up against.

Finally, Owen spoke. “You don’t have to risk yourself for everyone else, Gin. Not for any reason.”

I knew he was talking about Jillian and the guilt I felt over her death, but I just shook my head. “That’s where you’re wrong. I have to do this. You know I do.”

Jillian was dead because of me. It was stupid and cruel and random, just like Owen had said, and there was no way I could go back and fix things, no way for me to bring her back. But I could make sure her murderers paid the same price they’d forced upon her. It wouldn’t make up for what Jillian had suffered, and it wouldn’t lessen my guilt. But it needed to be done, and I was the only one capable of doing it.

Instead of arguing, Owen just looked at me, his gaze slowly going over me from top to bottom, just like Bria’s had a few minutes before. Ruined dress. Black boots. Blood on all the spaces in between.

It wasn’t a pretty picture, I knew it wasn’t, and I waited for Owen to turn away from me. He was still struggling with his feelings about Salina’s death, including the conflicting ones he had for me, and I knew that how I looked right now wouldn’t help my cause any. It would only reinforce what I did as the Spider—and what I’d done to Salina.

Owen kept staring at me, his violet eyes on my gray ones. I wondered what he saw there and what he thought about it all.

Bria and Xavier glanced back and forth between us, but they remained quiet. All around us, the hums of the crickets continued, punctuated every now and then by the haunting hoot of an owl hidden in one of the trees.

“Yes,” Owen finally said. “I suppose you do.”