I made it up to the house and raced around the side, heading to the forge. Over the thump-thump-thump of my roaring heart, I strained to listen, but I didn't hear Cooper's hammer striking anything. That meant something had interrupted him - and I was willing to bet I knew exactly what that something was.
I sprinted into the backyard, looking right and left and doing a quick, visual sweep of the grounds, but no one was there, and I didn't see Cooper or anyone else lurking in the forge. I stopped on the stone patio, my head snapping back toward the house, wondering if they were inside. I'd just taken a step in that direction when I felt another cool gust of magic coming from the woods.
The sculpture garden.
Even though I wanted to get to Cooper as fast as possible, I forced myself to slow my steps and calm my racing heart. I'd need the element of surprise and every bit of magic I could muster up to take out Salina, so I palmed a knife and headed for the sculpture garden.
I'd only gone about fifty feet into the woods when I saw the first giant.
He stood with his back to me, facing the statues, his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't even have his gun out.
I slid behind a tree, hunkered down in the bushes, and scanned the rest of the landscape. The giant in front of me was the only one I could see, but there had been another one down at the moving trucks, and Salina would have been sure to bring at least a couple more, if only to move the last fountain more easily. That was what I would have done if our situations had been reversed. Besides, there was always a chance she couldn't finish Cooper off with her water magic and that she'd need the help of one of her bodyguards.
The faint murmurs of voices drifted out of the trees in front of where the giant was standing. Good. Voices were good. They meant Salina was probably still talking to Cooper and hadn't gotten down to the business of actually killing him yet. Not that the dwarf would go easily. I imagined he would put up a good fight, but I'd felt how strong Salina was on the riverboat. The water elemental was in her prime and only growing stronger - just the way Jo-Jo always described me and my magic.
I wondered if Cooper had put it together, if he'd connected the stolen fountains to Salina as soon as Kincaid had mentioned her name. I wondered if that was why he'd been so insistent about not coming back to Ashland with us, if he'd wanted to catch Salina in the act, face her down and try to kill her himself. Didn't much matter now.
My fingers clenched around my knife, the small spider rune stamped into the hilt pressing into the larger, matching scar on my palm. Owen had made this and my other knives, crafting them with as much care and detail as Cooper did his sculptures, and I planned to put them to use - right now.
The giant never even saw me coming. With the voices still murmuring, I snuck out from behind the tree and headed toward him. At the last moment, I quickened my pace, launched myself upward, and leaped onto his back. As my knife punched into his spine at the base of his skull, he grunted like it was of no more consequence than a bee sting, rather than the lethal blow it was. He went down on one knee. I didn't give him the chance to scream as I yanked out my knife, reached around, pulled his head back, and slit his throat with the blade. The giant was dead before he thumped to the forest floor. One down, who knew how many more to go.
I crept through the underbrush, taking out another giant who'd been stationed at the perimeter the same way, before I was able to ease up to the edge of the sculpture garden itself.
Cooper and Salina stood in the middle of the clearing, their eyes glowing with magic, his a bright copper, hers shimmering from blue to green and back again. They were facing each other with about twenty feet of space separating them, hands down by their sides, intently studying each other. I'd expected nothing less, since they were getting ready to duel.
Elementals often fought by dueling, by flinging their raw magic, their raw strength, at each other over and over again until one person ran out of juice and succumbed to the other's power. Suffocated by Air, burned alive by Fire, frozen solid by Ice, encased in Stone, or some variation or offshoot thereof. None of them painless ways to die. Then again, elemental duels were only about one thing - destroying your enemy as quickly and brutally as you could.
"I was wondering when you would show up," Cooper said. "Seems like you've been busy since you've been back."
Salina smiled - that same cold, calm, serene smile she'd given me at the Pork Pit. "You might say that. You should have known better than to force me to leave Ashland in the first place. I always told you that I'd come back and kill you for it."
"And I always told you that I'd be right here to stop you. I only wish you'd come here first so I could have put you in your rightful place to start with. But instead, you decided on sneak attacks, just like always. Just like your father always did when he was alive. That's why he couldn't kill Mab, you know. Because his sneak attack to stab her in the back failed, and he just didn't have the raw magic to defeat her."
"Don't you dare talk about my father, you miserable little toad!" Salina screamed. "His plan would have worked! He would have killed Mab, if one of his giant guards hadn't gotten greedy and sold him out and told her what he was planning."
I winced at her screeching. Looked like daddy's death was indeed a sore spot, just like I'd thought. I wondered if that was another old score she planned to settle while she was in town, although I had no idea who she'd target, since Mab was already dead.
Salina made a visible effort to unclench her jaw and fists. A moment later, her stiff posture relaxed, and her features were smooth and serene once more. "But enough talk," she purred. "I've waited a long time for this moment, and I plan to savor every second of it."
She brought her hand up, curling her fingers into a loose fist. Then her fist seemed to almost . . . liquefy. Her skin became pale and glassy like, well, water. It almost seemed like I could hear her skin sloshing as she fully embraced her water magic. I could feel the cool, soothing wetness of her power all the way across the clearing.
But Cooper wasn't to be outdone, and the dwarf reached for his own Air magic. The wind seemed to gather around him, like he was standing in the center of a miniature tornado. Around and around the wind whirled, stirring up leaves, twigs, and rocks underfoot and making the trees creak and groan and the metal sculptures sway back and forth, despite their sturdy bases and heavy frames.
While the two elementals gathered their power for that initial strike, I turned my attention to the others, the five additional giants Salina had brought along. Three were about twenty feet behind Salina. They'd already grabbed the last fountain from its perch in the woods and were carrying it through the trees as fast as they could. I'd deal with them later. The other two stood behind Cooper, probably in case he tried to retreat from Salina and her magic. The dwarf didn't seem like the kind to turn and run, even when he knew he was on the losing side - like he was right now.
Oh, the dwarf was strong in his magic, but Salina was stronger. She was fully embracing her power now, and I could tell that she was almost as strong as Mab had been. That made her dangerous enough, but the wild card here was the type of magic she had. Like Cooper had said, Salina's water power was a tricky thing, hard to get a fix on, hard to defend against. It wasn't like any magic I'd ever felt - or fought - before.
But what most people forgot, even elementals, was that all the water magic in the world couldn't save someone from a knife in the heart - and I planned on driving mine into Salina's black one the second I got the chance. But first, I had to deal with the giants. Together, I knew that Cooper and I could beat Salina at her own game, but I wanted to level the playing field as much as possible. Besides, if I went after Salina first, there was too much risk of one of the giants pulling out a gun and trying to end things that way, with Cooper getting caught in the crossfire. No, I'd take out Salina's backup first, then go in for the kill on her.
I slithered through the underbrush, heading toward the first giant. He was focused on Salina and Cooper, instead of watching his own back, like he should have been. I reached the tree closest to him, then drew in a breath and rocked back on my heels, ready to surge forward at just the right moment.
"And now, Cooper, it's time for you to die," Salina said. "I'm going to enjoy marking you off my to-do list. Don't worry. You're not the only one I came back to Ashland to teach a lesson to. In fact, many people are finally going to get what they deserve. Very, very soon."
I frowned, wondering what she was talking about. With Cooper dead, the only people she would have left to go after would be Phillip again and perhaps Eva - and me, of course. So who else could Salina possibly be targeting? I didn't have time to puzzle it out, as a translucent, watery ball of magic appeared in her right hand.
"Good-bye, Cooper," Salina hissed, rearing her hand back to throw her magic at the dwarf.
Cooper didn't bother responding. Instead, he reached for even more of his Air power, ready to block her attack for as long as he could.
And that's when I pounced on my prey.
Just before Salina let loose with her magic, I erupted out of the underbrush and plowed into the giant closest to me. One, two, three quick cuts across his chest and stomach, and he was down for the count, without even really realizing what had happened in the first place.
But the giant's brain took over, causing him to scream and scream as he fell and bled out. I let him yell, because it had the desired effect of ruining Salina's concentration. The ball of magic she'd been about to toss at Cooper slipped through her hands and hit the ground, exploding like a water balloon someone had dropped from a high window. She cursed and reached for her power again, but Cooper was quicker. He snapped his hands up and in front of him. The wind that had been whistling around him coalesced into a shimmering blast of magic that zoomed through the air - hitting Salina in the stomach and throwing her back into a tree. If I was lucky, she would have a broken neck and be dead by the time I got around to dealing with her, but I wasn't holding my breath. My luck was never that good.
That left one giant standing in the clearing. I tightened my grip on my bloody knife and headed in his direction. But the giant was faster than I was, and he managed to get his gun out from underneath his suit jacket before I reached him. I grabbed hold of my Stone magic and used it to harden my skin the second before he pulled the trigger.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The giant's bullets pinged off my body and rattled away into the woods, burying themselves in the leafy foliage. He frowned, wondering why I hadn't gone down when he'd just put three bullets in my chest, but I didn't give him a chance to get off more shots.
Slice-slice-slice.
Three quick passes of my knife, and the giant was down on the ground - never to get up again. Still, I cut his throat, just to be sure.
Then I hurried over to Cooper. "Are you okay?"
Instead of answering me, the dwarf lurched forward and shoved me out of the way. A second later, a ball of water magic slammed into the spot where I'd been standing - and hit him square in the chest. Cooper flew back through the air just like Salina had a moment before. My head snapped around. I'd foolishly assumed it would take her some time to recover from being tossed across the clearing, but the water elemental had already gotten back up on her feet and was forming another ball of magic in her hands.
"Cooper!" Kincaid shouted.
I turned and spotted him and Owen at the edge of the sculpture garden. Kincaid broke free of Owen's grip on his arm and raced over to the dwarf. I reached Cooper the same time Kincaid did, being sure to put my body in front of theirs to protect them from Salina.
I shouldn't have worried. Salina was too busy staring across the clearing at Owen - and he right back at her. Shock filled Owen's face - absolute shock that Salina had just tried to kill Cooper. Despite everything he'd learned about her, he'd finally seen her in action, finally seen Salina for her true self. I just hoped it was enough to break whatever hold she still had on his heart.
I knelt beside the dwarf. Salina had thrown her magic at him in such a way that it sucked the moisture out of his body, and Cooper's skin looked as wet and saggy as Antonio's had on the Delta Queen last night.
"It's . . . how she . . . fights," the dwarf wheezed, trying to breathe. "She pulls the water out of you and into her. It makes her . . . stronger."
I reached into my jeans pocket, yanked out a small tin I'd grabbed earlier at the Pork Pit, and thrust it into Kincaid's hands. "Here's some salve infused with Air elemental magic. I brought it along just in case. Rip open his shirt and put that on his skin, especially over his heart and lungs where Salina hit him the worst with her magic. It'll have to hold him until we can get him to the healer I know."
"Forget about me. Go!" Cooper rasped. "Go! I'll be all right!"
I could see the pleading in his eyes. No matter what happened, whether he lived or died, he wanted this thing with Salina finished - now.
And so did I.
"You stay here with him," I told Kincaid. "I'm going after Salina."
I scrambled to my feet. Salina saw me. She looked at Owen once more, then turned and ran into the trees. Owen just stood there, watching her go, and then me racing into the woods after her.
Salina darted through the trees like she was a deer - nimble, light, and quick. Too quick. I was losing ground on her, so I sucked in a breath and forced myself to move faster, to run harder. But I just couldn't seem to catch her, and I desperately wanted to. I wanted to end the threat Salina was to Owen and all the people he cared about - and the threat she was to us.
I caught a glimpse of Salina's long hair before she vanished around a large tree. If I'd had the breath for it, I would have cursed at how fast she was. Instead, I forced myself to pick up the pace that much more, despite the fact my heart felt like it was going to pound right out of my chest and my lungs burned in the warm, humid, spring air.
