The ball of Air magic slammed into my chest, right where my heart would be. Alexis James wasn't messing around with me the way she had with Fletcher. She'd gone for the kill shot first.
It was like being hit by a fierce tornado, but worse. The force of the blast knocked me back on my ass and tore my knives from my hand, even as the wind screamed in my ears. The Air elemental magic slammed into me, trying to break through my Stone magic. Trying to overpower me and strip off my skin in one fatal blow.
Stone and Air didn't mix, any more than Fire and Ice did. Opposing elementals never meshed, and I could feel Alexis's power reacting to my own. The wind howled and thrashed against my body even louder than before. But I concentrated on my own magic, listening to the murmurs of the rocks underneath my body, drawing my strength from them. They were still here, despite being mined and blasted and dug into. Despite the passage of time and the harshness of the elements. Despite everything. They'd survived, and so could I.
I gritted my teeth and pushed back against the Air magic, against the wind battering my body and pricking my skin like cold needles. The silverstone metal in my vest also reacted to the surge of power, absorbing some, but not all, of Alexis's magic. There was too much of it for that. The garment grew hot and heavy on my chest. I reached for more of my own Stone magic, using my power to drive the Air magic away, to push it back, to squeeze the life, the energy out of it.
It worked.
The wind, the ball of magic battering at my torso, dimmed and died, puffing away into nothingness. But I didn't let go of my magic, my power. Slowly, I got to my feet, concentrating on my magic, my element, letting it make me as hard as I needed to be to survive this.
Alexis's eyes narrowed. "I hit you square in the chest. Why aren't you dead? Why isn't your skin, your body, nothing more than a pile of mush?"
I didn't answer. Let the bitch figure it out for herself. Alexis reared back and threw more of her Air magic at me. The blast of wind hit me in the chest again. Nothing wrong with her aim.
I didn't fall this time, but my feet slid back on the rocks, as though they were made of ice. I pushed back with my Stone magic, waited until the wind died down, then started forward once more.
But Alexis wasn't giving up. Since her Air magic wasn't immediately working the way she thought it would, she reached into her cloak and pulled out a gun. She fired off three shots. One rattled off into the twilight. One of the bullets caught in my vest, adding to the heat on my chest. The sharp, painful blow was enough to make me lose my grip on my Stone magic, just for a second. But that was plenty of time for the third bullet to slam into my left shoulder, instead of bouncing off my rock-hard skin, like it would have if I'd been properly focused. Pain exploded in my body, and I could feel the hot blood spurting out of the wound and staining my shirt. But I shut it all out and grabbed my magic once more. Nothing mattered now but killing Alexis.
Alexis lowered the smoking gun. I was closer to her now, close enough for her to finally notice the silver magic burning in my eyes and the gray, chiseled tinge to my skin.
Alexis hissed. "You're a fucking elemental." "Just like you, bitch." I started running and threw myself at her. Alexis wasn't expecting the move, and she wasn't able to get another shot off before I slammed into her. Her concentration broke, and the gun slipped from her fingers. She fell to the floor of the quarry with me on top of her. Kicking, punching, clawing. I might have been skilled, but Alexis's magic and frustration had put her into a frenzy. She absorbed my sharp punches like I hadn't even hit her and roared back with several of her own.
Kick. Slap. Punch. Punch.
We rolled round and round exchanging blows, when we weren't throwing our magic at each other. Alex pummeled me with the wind. I shoved back with my Stone magic, blocking her vicious attacks.
After ten seconds, I was starting to get tired. Thirty seconds in, I was sucking wind.
By the minute mark, it was all I could do to keep going. Using so much of my magic was quickly draining me. The bullet and the fire it caused in my shoulder weren't helping matters.
Then Alexis got in a lucky, unexpected punch, and my head slammed back against the rock. For a second, the world went black. My Stone magic flickered and started to slip away, like water being swallowed up by arid sand. I struggled to hold onto my magic, my power, to focus on it and nothing else. If I let go of my magic, I'd get dead.
Her Air power would wash over me and flay me alive, forcibly rip and tear the skin and muscle and bone from my body until I was nothing but a pile of ruined flesh.
Alexis saw me weakening. She positioned herself on top of me and hit me in the face again and again. The blows further dazed me, and my Stone magic weakened that much more. I could feel the Air magic now, lashing against my skin like a whip.
Blisters started to form on my face, neck, and hands as the magic and the oxygen it contained forced its way underneath my flesh.
Alexis raised her hand, and her fingers flashed to life. Once again, her Air magic made them burn like a welder's torch. She brought her hand up, positioning her fingers above my eyes. She was going to use her magic to put them out and tear the skin off my face.
Just like she'd done to Fletcher.
Her hand dipped downward, but I caught it with my own and shoved it back. I'd held onto enough of my magic so that her Air magic didn't immediately rend my skin, but it was just a matter of time. A minute. Two, tops.
Back and forth, our hands seesawed, her burning fingers coming closer and closer to my face every single time until all I could see was their milky white glow. More blisters swelled up on my skin, threatening to burst. That was agony enough. I couldn't imagine what the pain would be like when they ruptured. I wasn't going to last much longer. Not like this.
Fletcher, I thought desperately. What would Fletcher do? Kill the bitch any way you can. I could almost hear his gruff voice murmuring in my ear.
"Give it up, assassin," Alexis crowed. "My magic is stronger than yours. You can't win.
Air trumps Stone, in this case."
And that's when it hit me. That's when I finally realized I'd been going about this the wrong way. I never would have done a hit by confronting someone head-on. Frontal assaults rarely worked in my line of business. Fletcher had taught me that. I was the Spider. The woman who hid in the shadows. Sneak attacks were what I did best.
Outthinking people, outmaneuvering them, that's what I excelled at. That was my real strength.
Time to go back to it.
I had enough juice left in me for one final burst of magic. Maybe two. So far, I'd been on the defensive, trying to block Alexis's magic. I'd never liked being on the defensive.
I needed to end this. Now.
So I threw my right hand out to the side, as far away as I could from her body and the Air magic howling around her like an invisible wolf. Alexis thought I was weakening that much more. She paused a moment to allow herself a triumphant chuckle.
That luxury cost the bitch her life.
With my outstretched hand, I reached for my other magic-my Ice magic. That element had always been far weaker than my Stone magic. All I could really do with it was make Ice crystals and cubes and other small shapes.
But it was enough.
The spider rune scar on my hand iced over. My fingers closed around the edge of the jagged icicle I'd created in my palm. Cold comfort. I snapped up my wrist and slammed the crude weapon into Alexis James's heart.
The milky white flames on her fingertips snuffed out, like a candle doused by a stiff wind. The icicle broke off in her chest, so I threw my hand out to the side and made another one. This time, the cold weapon went into her neck. I turned my head to the side. Her blood spattered onto my left cheek, stinging it like hot wax. The pressure made some of the blisters on my face burst. I gritted my teeth against the searing pain.
Alexis James's eyes widened, and she clawed at the cold cylinder in her neck. But I didn't wait for her to pull it out. I formed another icicle and cut her throat with it.
She gurgled and put both hands over her windpipe. Too little, too late.
I'd severed her jugular. Alexis might have been able to recover from it, if she'd known how to use her Air magic to heal instead of kill. But she didn't. And a cut artery was one thing all her power, all her precious Air magic, couldn't help her with. Alexis had been right. My magic hadn't been stronger than hers. I'd just used it better.
Alexis pitched forward, and her blood soaked into my clothes, hair, skin. The last dregs of her magic erupted from her body, pummeling me a final time. The silverstone vest pressed down on my chest like a scalding rock. The metal had absorbed all the magic it could and had liquefied. It sloshed around like water and leaked out of the shell of the vest. I just lay there under Alexis, focusing on my own magic, using enough of the Stone power to shield myself from the screaming wind and superheated metal.
After about a minute, Alexis's blood slowed to a trickle, and the wind whistled away.
It always amazed me how quickly life, warmth, could turn dead and cold. I gathered up enough strength to roll the elemental off me and take off my melted vest. I threw the ruined material to one side. More silverstone leaked out of the fabric and pooled on the ground like a pale river.
I turned my attention to Alexis James. She'd flopped onto her back, staring up at the stars that had already started to populate the darkening sky. She coughed once, and more of her blood spattered on the rock around her. The stone under her body took on a harsh mutter.
I staggered to my feet, watching her die. I leaned down just before Alexis James slipped away and stared at her. The Air elemental's pained gaze flicked to me.
"Idon't know where you're going," I said. "But if you see Fletcher Lane, tell him Gin says hello."
Chapter Thirty
The milky white magic in the Air elemental's gaze dimmed, dulled, and leaked out of her eyes. But I didn't move until I was sure Alexis James was dead. I idly wondered if I should get her gun and put three in her head just to be sure-
Click.
I was so focused on Alexis that I didn't hear the gun until it was too late. Something that was happening a lot lately. I turned.
Wayne Stephenson stood behind me, his weapon level with my chest. The giant was less than twenty feet away. He wouldn't miss. Not at this distance. I was too exhausted to reach for my Stone magic again, to try and harden my skin with it, and my silverstone vest lay in a crumpled, melted heap at my feet.
At least I'd killed Alexis James first. Finn and Roslyn would be safe now, assuming Stephenson hadn't already shot them. The pudgy police captain didn't look so good.
His breath came out in ragged gasps, and sweat rolled down his forehead like he was standing in the shower.
The giant looked at me, then at Alexis's still body. He pulled a white handkerchief from the breast pocket of his suit and mopped some of the nervous moisture off his beefy face.
"I can't believe you killed her. You did me a favor, you know?" he said. "I wish I'd never gotten involved with that psychotic bitch. But she had pictures of me with a girl.
I couldn't say no to her, to any of it."
More confirmation Alexis had been blackmailing Stephenson and further affirming my opinion that blackmail was the lowest form of arm-twisting.
"And then she promised me more. More money, more girls, anything I wanted. And all I had to do was find you, kill you ..."
He was babbling, but I didn't say anything. The longer he kept talking was the longer I kept breathing. My eyes flicked to the ground. One of my knives lay about two feet off to my right. I might be able to lunge for it and throw it at Stephenson before he shot me. I tensed. Only chance I had.
But Stephenson wasn't completely gone. He saw I wasn't paying attention to his ramblings. His eyes sharpened. "But this will fix it," he said. "This will fix everything.
I'll say you killed Alexis, and I killed you. It'll work. I can make it work."
Stephenson raised his gun-I dived forward, going for my knife and trying to get out of the path of the bullet- A shot rang out, then five more in rapid succession-
My head snapped up. Stephenson towered over me. He teetered to one side, then toppled to the ground like a mighty oak that had been felled by a lightning strike. I saw three small, neat wounds in back of the police captain's skull. The same place Brutus had wanted to shoot me a few days ago. Three more holes leaked blood in the giant's back: two in his kidneys, one in his heart. I raised my eyes to the man who'd been standing behind the giant. The one who still had his gun raised.
Donovan Caine.
He walked over to Stephenson's body and stared down at his dead captain. His hazel eyes darkened, his face drooped, and his whole body just sagged. Once again, the detective reminded me of Atlas, bearing so much on his lean shoulders.
I sat up, too tired and bloody to do anything else. I'd carried my share of the load tonight too.
Donovan's hazel eyes flicked to me, then to Alexis James's body. He moved toward me, gun still clenched in his hand. I reached down and palmed my knife. I wasn't going to let the detective kill me. Not because of Cliff Ingles. Not because of anything.
Survival no matter what. The very first lesson Fletcher had taught me. One I'd learned even before I'd met the old man.
Even if killing Donovan Caine would extinguish whatever light might still be left inside me. Caine stopped about three feet away from me. "You killed her. You killed Alexis."
I didn't say anything.
"How did you do it?" he asked. "I saw her magic. She was lighting up the whole quarry with it. And the wind you could hear the wind screaming. How did you avoid it?"
"I got lucky." My voice was weak and raspy.
"Alexis is dead. Stephenson's dead. Which means our truce is officially over." Donovan Caine raised his gun, pointing it at my forehead. My hand tightened around the hilt of the knife. "You killed my partner."
