Elemental Assassin 05 - Spider's Revenge

it. Fingers, toes, torso, I couldn’t even feel them anymore. My magic was the only thing I was aware of, surging through me, building and building and building toward something spectacular—
    My body burst into silver flames.
    I didn’t know how I did it or why it happened or even that it was possible in the first place. But something ripped open deep inside me, and a second later, silver flames engulfed me from head to toe, dancing around my body like all the ghosts of my past come back to life to haunt me one final time. But the curious thing was that the flames weren’t hot—they were cold. Colder than Ice. And that’s when I realized what they were. My Ice magic come to life, manifesting itself just the way that Mab’s Fire magic did. A new quirk, a new extension of my elemental power in my most desperate hour. Jo-Jo had always claimed that one day my Ice magic would be the equal of my Stone power.
    The dwarf had just never told me that the Ice would get
stronger
.
    “Nice trick,” Mab hissed, eyeing the silver flames flashing around my body with obvious disgust. “But it’s not going to be enough to save you.”
    “We’ll see about that,” I muttered back.
    And then we danced.
    The two of us stood there in the courtyard, our hands outstretched, magic pulsing out of our fingertips in bright, continuous waves. Mab’s magic burned red and orange and yellow and black, spitting, hissing, and crackling with ash and heat. My magic glinted like a stream of silver stars all strung together, whistling and whispering with cold and frost.
    Fire and Ice.
    Opposing elements in so many ways.
    And now, the two of us finally engaging in this battle that had been so many years in the making.
    Our magic crashed together, sending up sizzling sprays of red and silver sparks, fireworks of an impressive and most deadly sort. Steam rose in the air between us, wrapping around us like fog. Sweat poured down my face, until I could barely see what I was doing, but I didn’t wipe it away—I didn’t dare do anything to interrupt my concentration. I didn’t move, I didn’t blink, I didn’t even breathe.
    I don’t know how long we stood there, the two of us just throwing our magic at each other, pushing, straining, and fighting with everything that we had.
    But eventually, I realized that I was going to lose.
    Despite all the magic I was holding on to, despiteall the raw power coursing through my veins, hell, despite the silver flames that coated my body, it still wasn’t enough. Not enough to drive back Mab’s Fire magic, not enough for my power to overtake hers and engulf her in Ice. All the rumors that I’d heard over the years were true. Mab did have more raw power than any elemental born in the last five hundred years—including me.
    Now that we were dueling, I could sense the full extent of her power, and I knew that it was greater than my own. Not by much, but just enough to end me. Another minute, two tops, and I’d run out of juice. Then Mab’s Fire would cut through my Ice, and she’d burn me to death, just like she had my mother and older sister. The fact that I was going to die the way they had wasn’t lost on me. Hell, I would have laughed at the bitter, bitter irony, if I hadn’t needed every bit of my strength right now just to keep standing.
    Once again, I thought of Fletcher and what the old man might do in this situation. The truth was that he wouldn’t have put himself in such a spot to start with. He would have found another way to kill Mab, something that didn’t involve a face-to-face confrontation and an elemental duel. It was far too late for that now, of course, but what really irked me was that I was so close to finally beating her. All I needed was another burst of power, just another sliver, hell, another
fingernail
of magic—
    And then I remembered.
    My ring—the one Bria had given to me. A thin silver-stone band with my spider rune stamped into the middle of it. She had poured her Ice magic into the silverstone last night before I’d gone to the country club to confrontMab. With everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, I’d forgotten about the ring and the power that it contained—and that I was still wearing it on my right index finger. I concentrated, focusing on that sliver of power. Somehow, despite the magic that numbed my body, I could feel the silverstone resting against my skin, a cold, solid band of Ice wrapped around my finger.
    And I knew what I