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around the sides of the mansion. Even though I was more than five hundred feet away from the patio, I could still see the thick clouds of sawdust that puffed out of the open doors and windows andlazily swirled through the air, bringing the harsh scent of paint fumes along with them.
    Madeline was doing some extensive remodeling, both inside and out, and construction crews had been roaming the grounds every time I’d come over here to spy on her these past few weeks. I’d thought about disguising myself as one of the workers to see exactly what she was doing inside the mansion, but it wasn’t worth the risk. I didn’t care if Madeline was remodeling. I just wanted to know what her plans were for me and my family.
    Still, as I watched and listened to the crews shout updates and directions to each other, I couldn’t help but think back to the last time I’d been so close to the mansion, the night that I’d tried to assassinate Mab by sneaking onto the grounds, climbing onto one of the mansion roofs, and sniping her with a crossbow through a dining room window. What I hadn’t known was that Mab had been hosting a dinner party for the group of bounty hunters she’d hired to track me down. Instead of killing Mab that night, I’d ended up getting shot and running through the woods for my life.
    Then again, that’s how a lot of my nights ended.
    So I wasn’t eager to risk another assassination attempt at the mansion. Not yet, anyway. Knowing my bad luck, I’d get spotted before I even got close enough to try to kill Madeline. Also deterring me were the giants who patrolled around the mansion, keeping an eye on the construction workers. All of them were armed with cell phones and guns, along with their massive fists.
    More gun-toting giants marched back and forth across the lawn, coming all the way down to the edge of thegrass. But they didn’t venture into the woods beyond, much less come close to where I was perched. There was no point to it, not during daylight hours anyway, since they would have a crystal-clear view of anyone slipping out of the tree line and trying to cross the lawn to get to the mansion—and be able to shoot her down before she got halfway across the grass.
    Still, I thought it was a bit sloppy of Madeline, not extending the security net farther out. When Mab was alive, giants had roamed deep into the woods at all hours of the day and night, and nasty things like sunburst rune traps had been carved into the tree trunks, ready to spew elemental Fire in your face if you were unlucky enough to trigger them. Not to mention the trip-wires, bombs, and other deadly surprises that awaited anyone stupid enough to try to breach Mab’s outer defenses.
    But Madeline seemed content to just secure the mansion itself, along with the landscaped grounds surrounding it. I wondered if she was really that confident in Emery Slater and the giant’s ability to protect her. Or perhaps Madeline was that confident in her own acid magic, along with the giant blood running through her veins, courtesy of her father, Elliot Slater.
    So I leaned back against the tree trunk, peered through my binoculars, and munched on a chocolate granola bar, since I’d only had a liquid lunch at Northern Aggression. Truth be told, keeping watch in the woods was a pleasant enough way to spend an afternoon. It reminded me of many a hike that I’d taken with Fletcher. And at least I felt like I was actually doing something to figure out what Madeline was up to, instead of just twiddling my thumbsand waiting for her to crush me under the sharp, pointed heel of her white stiletto.
    Still, while I kept my tree house lookout, I texted all my friends, checking in and making sure that they weren’t dealing with any sudden, suspicious problems like Roslyn was.
    Owen was going into a meeting, while Eva Grayson, his baby sister, and Violet Fox, her best friend, were at their usual classes at