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.