Widow's Web

32

I let out a shaky breath and ran my trembling hand through my hair. At least, I tried to, but my ponytail had frozen just like everything else had, including my clothes. Jo-Jo had always told me my magic would just keep growing and growing, but sometimes it still amazed me to realize the dwarf was right. Sure, there had been a lot of power stored in the staff, but most of this—most of this had been me.

“No!” a voice screamed. “No, no, no!”

Salina stood in the middle of the garden of elemental Ice, her gaze frantically searching the ground for any sign of free-flowing water that she could use against me. But there wasn’t any. I’d frozen it all with my Ice magic—every last fucking drop.

Salina saw me staring at her, and rage filled her features once more. I thought she might reach for her magic to try to pull the water out of my body, but her eyes caught on something black that was half-buried in the Ice, and she bent down and yanked it free. Too late I realized it was a gun, one that the giants or her guests must have dropped in their rush to escape.

I put myself in front of Finn and instinctively reached for my Stone magic to harden my skin—only this time, I was all out of juice. I’d used up all my magic, and there just wasn’t time to try grab one of my knives and use the Ice magic stored there to form some sort of shield. My spider rune ring was empty too, gone since the battle at the creek yesterday.

I still had on my silverstone vest, but Salina was aiming the gun at my head.

I’d finally beaten Salina, finally used my elemental magic to overpower hers, and now she was going to kill me with a simple gun. Ah, the irony. Going to be the death of me—right now.

Behind me, Finn noticed what was happening. “Gin!” He yelled. “Get out of the way!”

He tried to shove me to one side, but Salina was quicker. She must have realized I was out of magic because she smiled—a smile that was just as crazy as the mermaid’s was.

Crack! Crack!

Gunshots reverberated through the air. I stiffened, waiting for the bullets to slam into my skull and put my lights out for good—but two red splotches blossomed on Salina’s chest instead of mine. My head snapped to the left, and I realized why.

Eva.

She ran around Finn’s car, a gun clutched in her hands. Salina crumpled to the ground, and Eva rushed over and kicked the water elemental’s gun from her hand, almost falling on the Ice as she did so. Then, Eva stood over Salina, a grim, tortured expression on her face. Finn started forward, but I put my arm out.

“No,” I said. “Let me handle it. You go check on Owen. Salina used her magic to knock him around before I could stop her.”

He nodded and hurried across the Ice as fast as he could to where Owen lay. Kincaid was there too, tending to my lover, but I pushed my worry for Owen out of my mind.

“Eva,” I said in a soft voice, walking toward her, “it’s over now. You can put the gun down.”

A dazed look filled her blue eyes, and it took a few seconds before she actually seemed to hear my words. Eva shook her head, and her hand tightened around the gun. “No, it’s not over yet. I haven’t killed her yet.”

I glanced down. I’d thought Eva had hit Salina square in the chest, but she’d only winged her in the shoulder and arm instead. One wound looked like a through-and-through in her upper left bicep, while the other had punched into her skin just below her collarbone. Painful wounds—but not fatal ones.

I looked at Salina a second longer, making sure the water elemental wasn’t going to get up, but she only moaned, clutched her shoulder, and rocked back and forth on the ground. So I reached over and put my frozen fingers on top of Eva’s hand, the one that was still holding the gun.

“It’s okay, Eva,” I said in that soft, soothing voice again. “You did it. You got her. You saved me and Finn. It’s over now.”

Eva shook her head, mutely telling me that it wasn’t over, but this time she let me lower the gun, slip it out of her hand, and tuck it against the small of my back right next to my knife. I put my arm around Eva, carefully hugging her to my chest, despite the fact my clothes were as cold, stiff, and frozen as everything else was.

A sob escaped her throat, then another one, then another one. Her whole body trembled with emotion—so much emotion—as wave after wave of it lashed through her. All the terror, all the helplessness, all the rage she’d felt because of what Salina had done to her and how she’d threatened to hurt Owen and Kincaid.

I held her and let her cry, let her scream, let her beat her fists against my back, even as I stroked her hair and murmured nonsense words to her, telling her it was okay. Sometimes there was more comfort in lies than the truth.

Finally, Eva’s sobs died down, and she drew back and looked at me. Tears kept streaming down her face.

“Please, Gin,” she whispered. “Please.”

I nodded and stepped away from her. By this point, Bria and Xavier had worked their way over to us. Xavier grabbed Eva’s shoulders and pulled her away from me and Salina. Bria helped him. Looking at me as she passed, my sister tilted her head the tiniest bit. I nodded back and grabbed the silverstone knife from against the small of my back, ready to end this once and for all.

Footsteps shuffled behind me. I turned to see Finn and Kincaid helping Owen walk toward me. Owen held a hand to his side, as though he had some broken ribs. A bloody gash marred his forehead and his face was swollen from the giants’ blows, but other than that, he looked okay. Some of the tightness in my chest eased. He was okay.

Salina caught sight of him too, and she stretched out her bloody hand toward him.

“Owen,” she rasped. “Help me. Please. You were right, and I was wrong. I’m sorry. So sorry. I’ll do whatever you want me to. I promise I will.”

I bit back a bitter laugh. She wasn’t sorry—she wasn’t sorry for one damn bit of it, except that I’d stopped her and she hadn’t gotten the revenge she wanted.

But Salina’s plea had the desired effect on Owen. My lover turned to me, aching pain, regret, and sadness in his eyes.

“Gin . . .” he said. “Don’t. Let Bria take her away. She’s sick. You know she’s sick.”

I did know that Salina was sick and that it could have just as easily been me lying there on top of the Ice instead of her. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on me—not at all. Mab had murdered my family; I’d felt the same pain, loss, and rage that Salina had. Maybe it would have consumed me the way it had her if Fletcher hadn’t helped me channel my anger, if he hadn’t taught me his code, if he hadn’t trained me how to control my emotions and do what was necessary no matter what.

For a moment, I considered walking away. Just turning, walking away across the Ice, and letting Bria, Xavier, and the other cops haul Salina off to Ashland Asylum. But that wouldn’t end things. It would just postpone them—and someone else would get hurt when Salina escaped or was finally cut loose.

I looked at Owen and then my gaze went over to the cops and Eva, who was still crying. Across the field of Ice, her eyes met mine, blue on gray, and I saw all the innocence she’d lost tonight—all the innocence she’d lost all those years ago to Salina. I saw the worry and the fear and the waking nightmare that just wouldn’t end as long as Salina was alive.

And I made my choice.

Maybe I’d made it the night Eva had first told me about Salina, the night she’d compared her to Mab. Maybe I’d known what I would do even back then—and what it would cost me. I didn’t know if it was right or if it was wrong, but it was my choice, and I made it, the way I had so many other hard, ugly ones over the years.

“Gin,” Owen said again, an edge in his voice now. “Don’t.”

I drew in a breath, knowing there was no going back. This time, I looked at Finn instead of my lover.

“Keep him back however you have to,” I said, not quite echoing the orders Salina had issued to her guards earlier tonight.

Owen let out a curse and started forward, but Kincaid held on to his arm. A second later, a distinctive click cut through the night air. Owen looked down in disbelief at the gun Finn had pressed to his side.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Owen,” Finn said in a regretful tone. “But we both know I will. So why don’t you just stand still while Gin does her thing.”

“Gin,” Owen said a final time, that same plea in his voice.

I stared at my lover a moment, looking into his beautiful violet eyes. Then I turned away.

Behind me, I heard Owen let out another curse and start struggling with Finn and Kincaid, but I shut the sounds out of my mind.

I dropped to a knee beside Salina. The water elemental drew in short, ragged breaths, her exhalations turning to frost given how cold the air was from my blast of magic. Blood had already frozen on the Ice beneath her body, and her blond hair fanned out around her in lovely waves, as though she were underwater.

Salina looked at me, then turned her head to stare at Owen. She smiled at him, that crazy, crazy love still shining in her eyes, before she looked at me once more.

“I won’t stop,” Salina rasped in a low voice only I could hear, as the blood continued to pump out of her gunshot wounds. “I can’t stop—ever.”

“I know, sweetheart,” I said softly. “I know.”

And then I leaned over and cut her throat.

“No!” Owen shouted. “No! No! No!”

But it was too late, and the cut I’d made in Salina’s neck was too deep. She gasped, arched her back, and clawed at the wound, but she knew it was over, just like I did. Salina looked at me, something almost like relief flashing in her blue-green eyes, then lolled her head to the side to stare at Owen. She smiled at him a final time and held out a bloody hand, reaching for him—still reaching for him, despite everything that had happened, everything she’d done, everything that had passed between them.

Then the light went out of her eyes, her hand fluttered to the Ice, and she was still, as cold and dead and still as the shattered, frozen mermaid that loomed over us.