Widow's Web (Elemental Assassin) (29 page)

“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.

I rounded the tree, stepping into another clearing in the middle of the woods. About fifty feet ahead, I caught another flash of Salina’s blond hair streaming out behind her, shimmering like melted gold in a patch of sunlight. I leaped over a fallen log, determined to catch her, but to my surprise, she did the most curious thing of all—she stopped.

She turned around and faced me, standing on a small rise at the top of the clearing, and I wondered if she was out of gas already. A satisfied smile curved my lips. If so, too bad for her. I put on a final burst of speed and surged up an incline to the edge of the clearing—and then I stopped too.

Because a creek lay between us.

The water had worn its way through the hill we were standing on, creating a slight dip in the landscape. About fifteen feet of water separated us, churning and frothing its way down the ridge to parts unknown.

Salina had already crossed the clear water, probably walking on top of it as she had the Aneirin River out by the
Delta Queen
. For a moment, I thought about saying the hell with it and plunging into the creek to continue my hot pursuit, but I knew better. Besides, I could easily blast her with my elemental magic from this side of the creek.

“You know, I’m getting rather tired of you interfering with my plans,” Salina said in a mild, slightly amused
voice. “And look at you—you’re covered with blood, sweat, dirt, and who knows what else. Disgusting. What did Owen ever see in you?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I said, my voice as cold and calm as hers was. “Maybe the fact that I’m not a psychotic bitch who tortures people for kicks. I’m also not the one going around Ashland killing his friends and family because I’m secretly jealous of them. Tell me, how many folks are you going to bump off before you’re satisfied that you have him all to yourself? Call me crazy, but I don’t think murder is the way to Owen’s heart.”

Her eyes narrowed in her beautiful face. “I think I know a lot more about Owen’s heart than you ever will, Gin. I saw how he looked at me that night at Underwood’s and just a minute ago in the clearing. He still loves me, and he’ll always love me—no matter what.”

I shook my head. “That’s where you’re wrong. Sure, he might have some feelings left for you, but believe me when I tell you they won’t be enough to overcome you trying to murder Cooper—or what you did to Eva when she was a kid.”

Salina gasped, surprised by the fact that her dirty little secret had finally come to light after all these years.

“Oh yeah,” I said. “Cooper and Kincaid told him all about what you did to his baby sister. Owen’s not the kind of man who forgets things like that. He protects the people he loves.”

Salina stared at me, the rush of water the only sound between us. I kept my gaze on the other elemental, waiting—just waiting—for her to reach for her magic and try to blast me with it the way she had Cooper. I was ready
for her, ready to reach for my own Stone magic and use it to harden my skin to protect the water in my body. Then I’d strike back at her with all the Ice magic I could summon and freeze her where she stood. I discreetly tucked my knife back up my sleeve and got ready to raise my hands up and throw my power at her.

Instead of being scared by me and the magic shimmering in my gray eyes, Salina still seemed amused. I was getting real tired of her laughing at me.

“You should have driven back to Ashland while you had the chance,” she said. “I was going to be considerate and let you live a few more days. At least until after I finished my other business in town and could devote my full attention to Owen.”

Once again, I wondered what she was plotting, but I pushed my questions aside. All that mattered was killing her before she could hurt anyone else.

“And you should have known better than to come up here,” I snarled. “I warned you to leave Ashland. You really should have taken my advice. What did you think would happen? That you could just kill Cooper and go on your merry way? Fat chance of that now.”

“Who said Cooper was the only one I wanted to kill?”

Then she smiled at me—smiled and smiled like she’d just won the lottery. My eyes narrowed. What was she grinning at? Salina wasn’t in the clear—far from it. I wasn’t going to be stupid enough to step into the water, and all I had to do was blast her with my Ice magic from this side of the creek—

My eyes dropped to the water that rushed in between us. Too late, I realized what Salina’s plan really was. I tried
to back away from the edge of the water, but I was too slow—too damn slow.

With a twisting motion of Salina’s hand, water exploded out of the creek like a geyser. Even as I tried to lunge back out of its range, I could see the water arcing through the air, writhing and twisting into long, slender tentacles.

That happened in the first second. In the next one, the liquid tentacles wrapped around my legs. And by the third, they’d pulled me down into middle of the creek.

23

So this is what it’s like to drown.

That was the thought that filled my mind as the cool creek water closed over my head. Oh, I struggled, of course, struggled with all my strength against the tentacles wrapped around my body. But it was like a hundred, cold, wet hands were twisting me around and around underwater, and I just couldn’t get a sense of what direction was up.

Finally, I managed to break the surface of the water long enough to suck down a breath. Then the tentacles were around me again, dragging me under once more.

Over and over, the tentacles let me rise up just long enough to draw in precious oxygen. I knew what Salina was doing—the bitch was playing with me. She’d thought she’d already won, that she’d already killed me, and she was savoring the moment, savoring her victory over the Spider.

And I couldn’t figure out a way to stop her. Cooper had warned me that her magic was wet, wild, and slippery. Every time I tried to pry off one of the tentacles wrapped around me, my fingers harmlessly slid through it like the water it was. Plus, she was strong in her magic, maybe even as strong as I was in mine, and now she had a whole creek full of water to use against me. I was in her element now—and it was going to be the death of me.