Sharpest Sting: An Elemental Assassin Book

by Jennifer Estep

  Mason snapped up his hands and unleashed his power. This time, instead of targeting another tombstone, he focused his magic on the pavilion, and once again, there was nothing I could do to stop him.

  With a thunderous roar, the stone roof over my head shattered into a thousand pieces.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The pavilion roof started to fall, but my gaze darted back to Mason. A satisfied sneer twisted his face, and he lifted his hand again, probably to turn the chunky rubble into stone daggers raining down on me. But Liam grabbed my uncle’s arm again, spoiling his aim, and the invisible wave of his magic shot harmlessly through the center of the pavilion.

  Liam yanked Mason out of my line of sight, but Bria, Finn, and Owen appeared in the cemetery in the distance. With one hand, Bria unloaded her gun at Emery and the other giants. With her other hand, she flung out spray after spray of Ice daggers at them. Finn was clutching guns in both hands, coolly dropping giant after giant, while Owen was swinging his blacksmith hammer at anyone who got in his way, slowly but surely moving closer to me.

  But they weren’t going to reach me in time.

  “Gin!” Bria screamed. “Get out of there!”

  But there was no time for that either, not with Tucker still lying on top of me, his back and most of his body stiff and frozen from my Ice magic. So I raised my arms straight up, with my palms facing the collapsing ceiling, and reached for my Ice magic, pulling every last scrap of it out of my body, along with the reserves stored in my spider-rune jewelry. I sent all that cold power spewing up and out of my hands and then down to the floor, creating a lopsided dome that arched over me and Tucker.

  The first chunk of rubble hit my Ice dome and almost punched it to pieces, but I gritted my teeth and shoved even more magic into the shape, making it as thick and hard as possible. But the rubble was too large and heavy, and my Ice wasn’t strong enough to hold it all back. It was just a matter of time before I ran out of power and the stones smashed through the Ice and flattened me and Tucker like pancakes.

  Smack!

  Smack! Smack!

  Smack! Smack! Smack!

  Chunk after chunk of rubble dropped down from the shattered ceiling and slammed into my barrier. Through the silvery sheen of Ice, I could see the dark pieces of stone hammering at my protective dome like broken fists. But I couldn’t stop the rubble. I could barely protect myself right now.

  I could already feel myself weakening as I used up the natural magic in my body, and soon I would exhaust the reserves in my spider-rune pendant and ring too. Once that happened, the rubble would quickly punch through my Ice and crash down into my body.

  And then I would die.

  I sent out another wave of Ice magic, using up what was left in my body. A second wave drained the power out of my ring. And a third and final wave exhausted what was left in my spider-rune pendant.

  Smack!

  Smack! Smack!

  Smack! Smack! Smack!

  The rubble kept hitting my dome, and a tiny crack appeared in the Ice above my head. Then a second crack. Then a third. Then a dozen, all at once. The dome dipped, and I held my breath, knowing that I was about to be crushed to death—

  At the last instant, right before the dome would have collapsed under the force and weight of the falling rubble, another wave of magic zipped through the elemental Ice, filling in all the jagged cracks. The magic kept coming and coming, and the Ice kept growing and growing, becoming thicker and harder, turning my pitiful dome into a much larger, stronger barrier.

  “Bria,” I rasped in relief, although she couldn’t hear me.

  My sister kept feeding her magic into the Ice dome. I was out of power, so all I could do was lie there and watch.

  I don’t know how much time passed. A minute, maybe two. But the last of the ruined roof fell, and the final bits and chunks of rubble slammed into the top of the Ice dome.

  By this point, so many broken stones covered the dome that they blocked the light, leaving me in complete darkness. All I could do was lie there, with Tucker’s body still draped over mine. My arms and legs trembled from exertion, exhaustion, and adrenaline, and sweat dripped off my face. The salty moisture added to the sharp sting of the dozens and dozens of cuts that crisscrossed my body.

  I must have blacked out for a minute. The next thing I knew, light had returned to my world, and a man was peering at me through the Ice. His features were distorted, as though I was staring at him in some weird fun-house mirror, but my heart still lifted at the sight.

  “Owen,” I croaked.

  I didn’t think he heard me, but I could have sworn his eyes widened.

  “She’s alive!” Owen yelled. “Finn! Silvio! Sophia! Help me!”

  More voices sounded, and everyone started yelling and shouting, although the Ice dome muffled their words, and I couldn’t tell what they were saying. Several scrape-scrape-scrapes rang out, as though my friends were dragging chunks of rubble off the dome. Then, a few seconds later, Owen’s face appeared on the other side of the Ice again.

  “Gin!” he yelled. “Cover your head! I’m going to use my hammer to get you out!”

  Somehow, despite my exhausted muscles and still-trembling body, I found the strength to cross my arms over my face.

  Crack!

  Crack! Crack!

  Crack!

  Owen hit the Ice over and over again with his blacksmith hammer, and cold chunks of the dome started to rain down on me, just like the roof rubble had.

  CRACK!

  The dome shattered with a loud roar. In an instant, I was covered in elemental Ice, as though I were taking a bath in the crystallized chunks. The cold was another shock to my system, and the heavy weight made it hard to breathe. I kept my arms over my face, trying to suck down as much air as I could.

  More shouts rang out, and I could feel pieces of Ice being lifted up and off my body. My breathing became easier, although the cold had seeped into my bones, making me shiver. A few seconds later, the Ice was removed from around my head. I let my arms fall to my sides and sucked down breath after breath, not quite believing I was still alive.

  Owen’s face appeared above mine again. “Gin!”

  I tried to tell him that I was okay, but it just felt so good to breathe that I couldn’t manage it.

  Owen dropped to his knees in the rubble, clawing through the Ice and shoving it off me as fast as he could. Beside him, Finn, Silvio, and Sophia did the same.

  My friends made quick work of the Ice, and Owen leaned over and cupped my face in his hands. His skin was cold, and his fingers were bleeding from where the Ice and stones had cut his skin.

  “Gin?” he whispered. “Are you okay?”

  “Still alive,” I rasped. “Tucker?”

  To my surprise, Lorelei appeared on my other side. The vampire was still sprawled on top of me, and she leaned down and put her fingers up against his neck. After a moment, something flickered in her eyes. Relief, maybe.

  “Still alive,” she said. “Although his heartbeat seems very faint, weak, and slow.”

  “Forget about Tucker,” Owen growled. “Jo-Jo! Jo-Jo! Where are you?”

  “Coming, darling!” Jo-Jo’s voice drifted over to me.

  Owen started to shove Tucker off me, but I reached out and grabbed his hand.

  “No,” I rasped. “Tucker saved me. Tell Jo-Jo to work on him first.”

  Owen frowned. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. Save Tucker. Promise me.”

  I could tell that he didn’t want to do it. That he wanted to grab his blacksmith hammer, raise it up, and cave in Tucker’s skull for everything the vampire had done to me, to us. Part of me wanted that too—but I wanted Mason dead more.

  Owen gave me a reluctant nod. “Okay. We’ll try to save the bastard—if only so that you can kill him yourself later.”

  I smiled and squeezed his hand. “Thank you.” I drew in a breath. “And thank you for coming for me.”

  Owen squeezed my hand back, tears g
leaming in his violet eyes. “I will always come for you, Gin,” he growled in a fierce voice. “Always.”

  I opened my mouth to say how much I loved him and that I would always come for him too, but the pain and exhaustion swept over me, and I couldn’t hold them back any longer. In an instant, they had sucked me under, drowning me in the darkness.

  * * *

  Sometime later, I was aware of this pricking sensation working its way up and down my body, like a thousand tiny electric needles were relentlessly stabbing their way deeper and deeper into my skin. I grunted with pain, and a warm, soothing hand landed on my forehead.

  I opened my eyes to find Jo-Jo leaning over me. She was still wearing her blue dress and gray pearls from the wedding, but her white-blond curls were flying every which way around her head, and her pink lipstick was smeared across her face, along with the rest of her makeup. Jo-Jo looked tired, but another wave of her Air magic surged into my body, and those electric needles returned, healing my many cuts and bruises. This time, I managed to swallow down the snarl in my throat.

  I looked around. My friends had moved me out of the pavilion, and I was lying on a rubble-free patch of grass in the cemetery—with Hugh Tucker right next to me. The vampire’s eyes were closed, and his face was deathly pale, but his chest rose and fell in slow, steady rhythm.

  “Tucker?” I rasped.

  “Still alive—for now,” Jo-Jo said. “I did my best, but his wounds were bad. Real bad. I fixed his body as best I could, but he wasn’t breathing for a few minutes. We’ll just have to wait and see if he wakes up.”

  Worry rippled through her voice. I could hear what she wasn’t saying—that my wounds were bad too, and we’d just have to wait and see.

  “I don’t have any magic left to feed you,” Bria said, a sob rising in her voice. “I don’t have any way to help you heal her.”

  “It’s okay, Bria.” Lorelei spoke up. “I still have magic left. I can help Jo-Jo.”

  “Me too,” Owen chimed in.

  “And me,” Sophia rasped.

  I blinked, and I realized that my friends were gathered around, forming a circle around me. Owen, Finn, Silvio, Bria, Lorelei, Sophia. They’d all come to rescue me. Tears gathered in my eyes, and I opened my mouth to tell them how much their love and friendship meant, but I didn’t get the chance.

  “All right,” Jo-Jo said in a low, tired voice. “Let’s see what we can do.”

  She leaned down and looked into my eyes. “I’m sorry, darling, but this is going to hurt. A lot.”

  I tried to nod, but another wave of her Air magic washed over me, stronger than before. Then Lorelei’s Ice and metal. Then Sophia’s Air. And finally, Owen’s metal. All mixing and mingling together in my body.

  I screamed once, but the pain was too much to bear, and the blackness swept me away again.

  * * *

  Sometime later, the pain finally faded away, and I drifted in and out of consciousness, seeing little snapshots of what was happening. Owen carrying me out of the cemetery. Finn and Silvio laying me on a bed in one of Jo-Jo’s guest rooms. Jo-Jo and Sophia approaching me with bowls full of warm water and washcloths. Bria gripping my hand in hers.

  “Sweet dreams, Gin,” my sister whispered, and kissed my forehead.

  I didn’t have sweet dreams, but I didn’t have any more nightmarish memories. There was just more blackness, but I welcomed the void.

  Sunlight streaming in through the windows woke me the next morning. The rest of the house was quiet, so I lay in bed, thinking about everything that had happened and how close Mason had come to killing me. He would have killed me, if not for Hugh Tucker. I didn’t know how I felt about the vampire saving my life again. I just hoped Tucker was still breathing so I could figure it out.

  Eventually, I started hearing people moving around downstairs. Time to get up and face the new day and all the new problems it would bring along with it.

  I threw back the covers and got out of bed. Despite Jo-Jo healing me, every single part of my body still felt stiff and sore from Mason’s pummeling, but I put on a fresh set of clothes, trudged downstairs, and headed into the salon.

  Owen, Finn, and Bria were sprawled on couches around the room, checking their phones, while Silvio was standing at the long counter, typing away on his laptop.

  Jo-Jo was perched in a seat next to Hugh Tucker, who was lying back in a salon chair. Like me, the vampire had also been cleaned up and was now wearing a black fleece robe patterned with white pirate skulls. I made a mental note to buy Sophia a new robe to replace this one. Tucker’s eyes were still closed, but his face wasn’t quite as deathly pale as it had been last night, and his breathing seemed easier.

  “So I take it the bastard’s going to live?” I drawled.

  Everyone snapped around to me.

  “Gin!” They all shouted in unison.

  In an instant, I was swarmed, and Owen, Finn, and Bria tackled me for a group hug that almost sent me tumbling to the floor. Even Silvio joined in, giving me a very firm pat on the shoulder.

  “All right, guys, all right,” I said with a laugh. “I’m okay. Really.”

  Finn, Bria, and Silvio retreated, but Owen threaded his fingers through mine and sat down next to me on one of the couches.

  “What happened?” I asked. “After Emery Slater marched me out of the wedding?”

  Finn gestured at my sister. “Bria and Lorelei used their Ice magic to disable the rune bombs that Liam Carter and his men left behind at the country club.”

  Bria snorted. “Those weren’t bombs. They were more like weak firecrackers. All Lorelei and I had to do was Ice them over, and they fizzled right out. Even if the bombs had gone off, they wouldn’t have hurt anyone.”

  “Either way, you were magnificent.” Finn winked at her, and Bria grinned back at him.

  Finn looked at me again. “As soon as we escaped the ballroom, we jumped into our cars and went over to the historical association mansion, since that seemed like the most logical place for Emery to take you. We heard the noise of the fight, and we had just reached the cemetery when Tucker played hero and Mason collapsed that roof on top of you both.”

  My brother shivered, telling me how worried he’d been.

  “We managed to drive off Emery and the giants and make it over to the pavilion,” Bria said. “I could feel how you were using your Ice magic to protect yourself against the falling stones, so I got as close to the pavilion as I could and tried to feed you my power.”

  “Well, it worked. I could sense your magic mixing with mine. You saved me, Bria.”

  My sister smiled, but, like Finn, she still looked troubled.

  “Of course, the only problem with the Ice dome was that it cut off your air,” Bria continued. “I thought you were going to suffocate before we got you out of it, but Owen smashed through it with his blacksmith hammer.”

  I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “My hero.”

  Owen grinned and hugged me close, but he couldn’t quite hide the concern in his eyes. He too realized just how close Mason had come to killing me.

  “What happened in the cemetery?” Owen asked. “Why was Mason so angry with you?”

  I told the others about the fake ledger. When I finished, they looked even more worried than before.

  “Now what, darling?” Jo-Jo asked. “Do you have any idea where the real ledger is?”

  I shrugged, not really answering her question. “Now we regroup. Where are the others?”

  “Sophia is at the Pork Pit, keeping an eye on things there,” Finn said. “Most everyone else is hunkered down in their respective homes, although Phillip Kincaid took Eva, Violet, and Catalina over to the Delta Queen.”

  The Delta Queen was Phillip’s riverboat casino and full of giant guards who were loyal to him. The girls would be safe there.

  Then another thought occurred to me, and I grimaced. “What about Mallory and Mosley? And their guests?” I sighed. “I totally ruined their wedding.”

 
“You didn’t ruin anything, Gin,” a voice called out.

  Mallory stepped into the salon, followed by Mosley and Lorelei. I let out a quiet sigh of relief that the dwarves were in one piece, then got to my feet and went over to them.

  “Can you ever forgive me?” I asked.

  Mallory hugged me tight, cracking my back in the process. “There’s nothing to forgive. Stuey and I got married, and everyone was okay, except for a few cuts and bruises. That’s the most important thing.”

  Tears stung my eyes at her easy forgiveness, and I hugged her back.

  “So now what?” Finn asked. “Because I don’t know about you, but I’ve run out of ideas where to look for this stupid ledger.”

  “Forget the ledger. What are you going to do with him?” Bria jerked her thumb over her shoulder at Tucker, who was still unconscious on the salon chair.

  I eyed the vampire. Part of me wanted to grab a pair of Jo-Jo’s scissors, march over, and stab him through the heart. But I couldn’t do that. Not now, after he had saved my life—again. Not when he had been willing to sacrifice himself for me. Like it or not, Hugh Tucker and I were in this thing together.

  I turned to Lorelei. “If we take him to my shipping container, will you keep an eye on him?”

  The container was my secret hideout, the place where I had stashed much of the information I had on the Circle. It was currently located in Lorelei’s shipping yard on the bank of the Aneirin River.

  Surprise filled Lorelei’s face, along with something else I couldn’t quite put a name to. After a few seconds, she nodded. “Yeah, I can watch him. But why do you want to take him to your shipping container?”

  “Because I want him out of sight while he heals.”

  Understanding flashed in her eyes. “You want Mason to think Tucker is dead.”

  I shot my thumb and forefinger at her. “Bingo. Bria’s right. Forget the missing ledger for right now. We have something even better—Tucker. He has worked for Mason and the Circle practically his entire life, so he knows all about how Mason and the other members operate.”