Perfect.
I stepped forward, the ground shifting under my feet and making enough clack-clack-clacks to let Pike know exactly where I was. But it didn’t much matter. I couldn’t touch Pike with his metal armor, but he couldn’t touch me now either. As I trudged forward, I pressed my hand against my side and fed a small stream of my Ice magic into my stab wound, replicating Lorelei’s trick. I winced at the cold, biting sensation, but the wound froze over, stopping the blood loss—for now.
I let go of my power, staggered to a halt, and turned around.
Pike was about thirty feet behind me. He was so confident that he’d already beaten me that he was whistling a jaunty tune. Fool. He hadn’t won anything but a cold, quick death, courtesy of the Spider.
He seemed surprised that I was standing upright instead of hiding in the shadows, but it didn’t stop him from smirking at me again.
“What’s wrong?” Pike crooned. “Too tired to keep running away?”
“Nah. Just catching my second wind.”
He laughed again, but then he noticed the grin on my face, and his chuckles cut off into uneasy silence. “What are you up to?”
“Me? Nothing much. You’re the one who fucked up, sugar, just by following me over here.”
Pike scanned the landscape, looking at the bonsai and cherry trees and the hedge maze beyond them. He was probably searching for my friends, since they would find us sooner or later. But I didn’t need them. Not for this.
When Pike didn’t see any obvious threats, he started walking toward me again.
Come on, you bastard, I thought. Come to Mama.
Pike knew that something was up, but he couldn’t figure out what. And in the end, he was too arrogant to really care. Fool.
He left the path behind and stepped into this section of the garden, stopping about five feet away from me. He was still holding on to his magic, the iron wrapped around his body making him look like some horrible abstract sculpture—a nightmarish metal monster come to life.
He was a monster, all right, inside and out, through and through to the core of his black, rotten heart. But unfortunately for him, I was the more clever monster here tonight.
“Tell me,” I said, “what did your mysterious contact, the one who’s been such a fount of knowledge, say about my magic?”
Pike shrugged. “She said that you were a very strong elemental. One of the most powerful she’d ever seen. Apparently, you killing Mab and then Madeline Monroe only reinforced her opinion. But I told her that I could handle you. After all, metal is everywhere, and that’s my element, my specialty.”
“Very true. And you are very clever with it. Even I have to admit that your makeshift armor is pretty snazzy.”
Pike puffed up at my compliment, but I was about to pop the overinflated balloon of his ego.
“But I’m clever too—clever enough to win.”
“And why would you think that when I’m so close to killing you?”
I smiled, but it was a cold, heartless expression. “Because you’re in my killing fields now, bitch.”
I spread my arms out wide, gesturing at the landscape around us. The one that seemed so benign, so innocent, so harmless. It was anything but. Because there were different kinds of gardens besides those with pretty trees and flowers.
Like the rock garden we were standing in.
White, gray, and black stones stretched out all around us, arranged in elaborate floral patterns. A small stone platform perched at the edge of the garden, offering visitors a better view of the patterns.
Of course, I’d ruined the pretty designs by hobbling out into the center of them, dripping blood everywhere, and sending loose rocks skittering sideways with my slow, clumsy feet. And now I was going to ruin Raymond Pike with all the lovely stones around me.
He finally realized what I was up to and let out a loud, vicious curse, even as he surged forward to try to stab me to death. But this time, I was the one who waved my hand and stopped him dead in his tracks.
Rocks exploded all around him, as though he were standing in the middle of a minefield.
Despite all the metal wrapped around his body, Pike instinctively ducked. He started forward again, and I sent out another wave of Stone magic, making more of the rocks explode and then using my power to force all the bits and pieces right back at him until he was standing in the middle of a stone tornado. Shrapnel zipped through the air, pelting his body, the jagged fragments small enough to slide through the gaps in his makeshift armor but still plenty sharp enough to tear through his clothes and rip into his skin.
“What’s the matter, Ray?” I called out above the din. “Don’t like someone using your own tricks against you? It’s not a metal box filled with nails, but I think it’s pretty damn effective, don’t you?”
Pike was too busy ducking shrapnel to answer. But he realized that he couldn’t endure my stone bombs forever, and he reached down, peeled one of the spikes off his arm, and threw it at me.
I ducked, but the motion sent a hot rush of pain shooting through my injured side, making me double over and lose my grip on my Stone magic. Pike used the opportunity to surge forward and slam his body into mine.
I landed on my back—hard—my head snapping against the ground. I had to work hard to blink the spots out of my eyes.
Pike loomed over me, that smug smirk stretching across his face again. “Now what are you going to do?”
One of the metal bands around his arms snaked down his hand and latched onto my throat, forming a circle there—one that slowly started to tighten.
More of Pike’s metal magic blasted over me, cold, hard, and unyielding, the sensation eerily similar to my own Stone power, even though he was killing me with it.
Pike put his knees on my chest, cutting off even more of my air. I kicked and flailed and thrashed, but he was stronger and heavier, and I couldn’t buck him off. My hands clenched, digging through the stone shards that littered the ground like crushed bones. I searched and searched through the stones, but I’d done too good a job, and nothing but fragments remained.
The white, gray, and black spots flickering in front of my eyes grew darker and darker. I was seconds away from blacking out. The end would be quick after that.
Desperate, I threw my hand out to the side, making an Ice dagger, which I slammed into Pike’s chest. But the Ice shattered against his metal armor. He chuckled, amused by my pitiful attempts to hurt him, but he relaxed his concentration on his magic, just for a moment. I pushed back with my own power and managed to hook my fingers underneath the metal band around my throat.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Pike asked. “That’s not going to help you.”
I didn’t bother answering him. I was too busy coating the metal band with all the Ice magic I could bring to bear.
“Enough of this,” Pike growled. “I’ll choke you to death with my bare hands if I have to—”
He reached forward to do just that, but I let loose with another blast of Ice magic, combining it with my Stone power and focusing them both on breaking the metal ring around my neck. There weren’t enough stones left for me to kill Pike, but maybe I didn’t have to use my element to end him.
Maybe all I had to use was his.
The iron didn’t want to bend, much less break, but the extreme temperature swing of my Ice coating it and then being cracked away was enough to get the metal to creak and groan around my neck. With one hand, I slapped away Pike’s grasping, choking fingers as best I could. With the other, I kept hold of the band around my neck, freezing and shattering my Ice and Stone magic on it over and over again.
But I couldn’t hold off Pike forever, and he managed to dig his thumbs into my windpipe, right above where the metal was wrapped around my throat. He pressed down as hard as he could, putting all his weight into choking me to death.
I ke
pt hammering at the metal band with my magic. That was all I could do.
And finally, at last, it was enough.
The iron gave up, and the metal squealed as it finally cracked open and fell away from my throat. A metal shard broke off in my hand and threatened to fly away, but I tightened my grip on it, using my Ice magic to freeze it to the spider rune scar in my palm before it could skitter out of range.
Then I snapped my hand up and slammed the metal into Pike’s throat.
I got the angle just right, and the shard sank deep into the tender flesh of his neck above his makeshift armor. I helped it along, driving it through his muscles and tendons, twisting it in as deep as it would go.
Pike choked out a scream and arched back. I managed to bring my knee up and get my foot in between us. Gritting my teeth against the pain in my side, I kicked the bastard off me.
For a moment, I lay there panting, sucking down all the sweet, sweet air I could. Then I rolled over and gingerly pushed myself up into a seated position. The Ice that I’d used to seal my stab wound had cracked away during our fight, and blood streamed out of the deep gash again.
Pike had managed to get back up onto his knees, blood dripping out of his neck and spattering onto the crushed stones.
“Bless your heart. You’re going die in another minute, two tops,” I said, my voice hoarse and raspy from where he’d bruised my throat. “Just like your father. His own mace was the end of him. And you? You’re choking to death on the precious metal that you love so fucking much.”
Pike looked at me, clutching at the broken shard in his windpipe. He didn’t try to yank it out, but I must have nicked his carotid artery, given the dark color and copious amounts of blood that were pouring out of the wound. He could leave the metal in there as long as he wanted, and it still wouldn’t save him. Nothing would do that now.
But that didn’t mean he still wasn’t going to try.
Pike sent another surge of magic blasting over his body, and all the iron bands detached themselves, crawled up his arms and chest, and clamped around his throat. He was tightening the metal around his own neck to try to cut off the blood loss.
And it was working.
The blood slowed to a trickle, then stopped altogether. Pike gave me an evil look and stretched his hand out toward me, ready for another round.
“Oh, come on,” I muttered. “You have got to be kidding me.”
Pike gurgled some unintelligible curse and dragged himself a little closer to me.
I shook my head, reached for my Ice magic again, and created a dagger with it. Maybe Pike was more zombie than I’d given him credit for. Either way, if I had to kill him again, so be it. And I’d keep right on killing him until he was good and dead.
“Seriously, sugar, just give it up and die already—”
Crack!
A black, bloody hole appeared in the middle of Pike’s forehead.
He blinked, and his head lolled to one side, as he looked at his killer. He focused on her a moment, anger and bitterness flashing in his eyes, and then he toppled over to the ground.
I waited, still holding on to my Ice dagger, but Pike didn’t move or stir. Blood gushed out of his head wound, mixing with the stone shards, and slowly, the bands of metal around his body relaxed and dropped away, the iron clanking to the ground all around him. That’s when I knew that he was finally dead.
I looked to my right.
Lorelei stood at the edge of the rock garden, dusting the shattered remains of her elemental Ice gun off her hands. She walked over to Pike and stared down at him, her mouth a determined slash. Then she grabbed another Ice gun from one of her holsters and shot him in the head again, just to make sure. She tossed the remains of that gun away, grabbed a third one, and repeated the process.
I approved of her thoroughness. She didn’t want him coming back to life any more than I did.
Finally, when the sharp retorts of the shots had faded away, Lorelei dusted the Ice off her hands a final time.
“I had him, you know,” I rasped.
“Sorry to steal your thunder. But I waited a long time for that.”
“And how does it feel?”
Lorelei looked down at Pike’s body, her hands clenched into fists, her face tight with grim satisfaction. But slowly, her hands relaxed, and her features smoothed out, her bitter emotions melting into weary relief, mixed with more than a little pain.
“Finished.”
She stared at her dead brother a moment longer, then turned and left him behind.
31
“Gin! Gin! Gin!”
Owen’s, Finn’s, and Bria’s voices rose above the hedge maze, floating through the branches and creating strange echoes in the night.
“Over here!” I rasped, the effort searing my bruised throat.
The three of them ran into the Japanese garden. I was still sitting in the middle of the ruined rocks, too tired to move, so they hurried over to me.
Jo-Jo was with them, and she quickly sank down onto her knees beside me, her clear eyes sweeping over my body and focusing on the gash in my side, which was still leaking blood. She shook her head, making her white-blond curls dance around her head before settling back into place.
“That’s a nasty wound,” she said. “You’re lucky he didn’t slice right through your kidney.”
“What can I say?” I drawled. “I always seem to bring out the best in people.”
Jo-Jo laughed, but relief echoed in her chuckles.
“Anyway, I lived, and he didn’t, and that’s all that really matters.”
Owen threaded his fingers through mine. “I’ll second that,” he murmured.
I grinned, and he leaned over and kissed me, despite what a bruised, bloody mess I was.
Jo-Jo reached for her Air magic, and the pins-and-needles of her power started tugging at my skin, stitching everything back together that Raymond Pike had torn apart. Owen held my hand while she healed me.
Finn and Bria went over to make sure that Pike was dead. The metal elemental lay where he had fallen in the middle of the shattered stone garden, his sightless eyes glaring up at the moon and stars, as if he were wondering how he had wound up in such a sorry state. He really should have known better. Bloody was how things always ended in Ashland.
Especially when the Spider was involved.
While Jo-Jo worked on me, Xavier entered the garden, along with Silvio and Sophia. Corbin shuffled along behind them, looking even more beaten-up and bedraggled than ever before, urged on by the Ice gun Mallory kept poking into his back. Lorelei walked alongside her grandmother, telling her everything that had happened.
Xavier and Sophia made sure that I was okay, then went over to where Finn and Bria were still examining Pike’s body. Jo-Jo finished healing me, but I still felt a little wobbly on my feet, so Owen put his arm around my waist and helped me over to Lorelei. Silvio joined us.
Mallory pushed Corbin down onto his knees in a patch of leaves. A surly expression twisted his face as he glared up at the petite, elderly dwarf.
Lorelei nodded at me as I came to stand beside her. I nodded back.
Then she looked at Corbin. “Start talking. Or I’ll let Gin ask the questions. I doubt that she’ll ask as nicely as I will.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Getting me to do your dirty work again?”
A faint grin curved her lips. “I thought you wouldn’t mind in this case.”
I pretended to think about it. “You’re right. I don’t mind. Although you’ll have to let me go get one of my silverstone knives. If I use the ceramic ones you gave me, the blade will probably break off while I’m cutting through something vital—”
“All right! All right!” Corbin yelled. “I’ll tell you what you want to know. Just keep Blanco away from me.”
“Talk. Now,” Lorelei hissed. “Before I change
my mind.”
For the next ten minutes, Corbin spilled his guts about how Pike had approached him in a Southtown bar about a week ago and had told him all about his plans to terrorize Lorelei. Naturally, Pike had offered Corbin enough money to make it worth his while to report all of Lorelei’s plans and movements back to her half brother. Betrayal, greed, double crosses. It was all pretty standard stuff. But there was one thing that still bothered me.
“And what about Pike’s source?” I asked. “The one who told him where to find Lorelei in the first place?”
Corbin gave me another surly look.
I took a step forward.
“I don’t know! Okay? I don’t know. Pike never told me how he found Lorelei. Just that someone tipped him off. He never told me who it was.”
Unfortunately, his panicked words rang with truth. Besides, Pike hadn’t struck me as the kind of guy to share important info with his minions.
Lorelei looked at me. “Are you satisfied?”
“I’m good. I didn’t really expect him to know anyway.”
“All right, then. Questioning’s over.”
Lorelei snapped up her last elemental Ice gun and shot Corbin in the head.
Crack!
The shot echoed through the gardens, even as Corbin toppled over to the ground—dead.
I stared at Silvio. “And you think my managerial style needs improvement.”
The vampire shrugged his lean shoulders, then gave Lorelei an admiring look. “Actually, it was a rather quick and effective solution to deal with a spy like Corbin.”
“Yeah,” Lorelei sniped. “That’s me. Quick and effective.”
“You’re going to have to be,” Bria chimed in, walking over and waving her phone. “Someone’s reported hearing several gunshots near the gardens. A patrol car is on its way to check things out.”