Elemental Assassin 05 - Spider's Revenge

had healed the worst of the burns and blisters, but the ointment had done little to stop the mental and physical exhaustion creeping up on me. I gritted my teeth, shoved the weakness away, and hurried on. Every second I delayed was another second that the Fire elemental had to mobilize her troops and send them here.
    Still, I paused every so often, looking, listening, and peering into the gray shadows that cloaked the uneven landscape. Nothing moved in the woods but me, and only the rasp of my breath broke the silence. I reached out with my magic, but the frosty stones buried underneath the layers of snow only sleepily murmured of the ice and cold that had seeped into them, threatening to crack their solid forms. Satisfied, I moved on.
    I’d climbed about halfway up the ridge when gunshots shattered the silence.
    Crack! Crack! Crack!
    The sounds boomed down the slope toward me, each one hammering at my heart and confirming my worst fears. I forced myself to move even faster, to plow even quicker through the snow drifts, until my feet and legs were soaked from the sprays that I kicked up. More shots rang out as I moved, along with hoarse shouts. Bothechoed down the ridge to me, making it easy to pinpoint the source. Whatever bad thing was going on, it was happening at the house, which meant that Finn and Bria were in serious trouble.
    After about thirty seconds, the gunshots and shouts died down, but the silence didn’t soothe me—because the quiet meant that Finn and Bria could already be dead. Once again, I could be too fucking late to save the people that I loved, just as I hadn’t been able to reach Fletcher in time to prevent the old man from being tortured and murdered inside the Pork Pit. A fist of fear punched me in the stomach, hitting me hard and stealing my breath, but I kept moving.
    It took me another ten minutes to reach the top of the ridge and slide to the edge of the woods. What I saw there in the clearing before me made my heart stop in my chest in a way that nothing else like it had before.
    Because bounty hunters surrounded Fletcher’s house.

I’d been expecting the bounty hunters to show up here now that the word was out about who the Spider really was. I just hadn’t thought they’d get here so quickly—or that there would be so damn many of them.
    A dozen vehicles were haphazardly parked in front of the sprawling structure. The multitude of lights burning inside the house let me see exactly what I was up against. Several of the bounty hunters crouched behind their vehicles, using the open doors as shields. Every single one had their guns out and pointed at the house—or at each other. Half a dozen bodies littered the snowy landscape like forgotten Christmas decorations, blood spilling out from wounds instead of holiday cheer.
    There had been one hell of a fight already, probably with the various bounty hunters gunning it out in front of the house to see who got to go inside and capture whatever prize was in there waiting for them. I was grateful forthe crowd. The bounty hunters slugging it out with each other in the yard was probably the only reason that they hadn’t collectively stormed the house yet and either captured or killed Finn and Bria.
    My eyes scanned the ranks. Men, women, young, old, dwarves, giants, even a vampire or two—all with a hard, hungry, predatory set to their shadowy features. I recognized a few of the faces from Mab’s dinner party. I couldn’t tell if any of the bounty hunters had elemental power, though. No one’s eyes glowed in the semidarkness, and I didn’t feel any kind of magic stirring in the night air. Some elementals, especially those with considerable juice like Mab, continuously gave off waves of power, like heat radiating off a fire. As an elemental myself, I could sense that constant surge of magic. Even if there had been another elemental in the mix, it didn’t much matter. I was going to do whatever the hell I had to in order to save Finn and Bria—if they were even still alive.
    One of the bounty hunters let out a low curse and started creeping around the hood of his pickup. He paused and looked over his shoulder. Three more men had taken refuge behind the vehicle. I couldn’t tell if they were all part of the same group, but the other three leveled their guns at him, a clear indication that he should go forward—or else. Looked like he’d drawn the short straw tonight.
    The man eased out from behind the front of the truck and