One thing was clear: Cressida couldn’t harm him.
Setting his beloved down gently, Gideon rose to his feet.
Cressida fired four more rounds. Each one ricocheted off him.
She stumbled back.
Cressida screamed, slicing her arm, making more spellmarks with the blood gushing out. The wind picked up, howling in Gideon’s ears. The whirlpool churned faster, the water risinglike a hurricane, swirling around them. Cressida lifted her hand, flinging her arm toward Gideon, hurling the whirlpool at him.
Several tons of water descended on Gideon. He braced himself for the crush, ready to be swept out into a watery vortex and dashed against the rocks.
Only it never hit.
The water crashed, slamming against Rune’s invisible dome-like shield, falling around him and Rune like a waterfall before rushing back toward the whirlpool, nearly sweeping Cressida out with it.
Leaving him completely dry.
When the witch queen regained her footing and saw he was still standing, utterly untouched, her eyes blazed with fury. She drew more spellmarks, readying a new spell.
The casting knives of every witch standing on the shore flew upward, out of their sheaths. Like arrows, they shot in unison toward Gideon, glittering in the vanishing sunlight, their lethal edges aimed at his throat.
But they, too, failed to meet their mark.
One by one, they came up against Rune’s spell, their tips bending, chipping, then clattering to the stones around him.
This time, Cressida’s eyes widened in fear.
“Fire, you imbeciles!” she screamed at the soldiers standing on the bank. “Shoot him!”
Their bullets soared like comets. Coming straight for Gideon.
Every single shot bounced off.
Gideon thought of his Crimson Moth and smiled through his sorrow.
Even in death, my love, you are a wonder.
The gunfire abruptly stopped as soldiers took cover from the rebounding bullets. In the chaos, Gideon saw Juniper knockher captor to the ground and steal her gun. His heart thrilled further as Harrow wrapped her restraints around an enemy soldier’s neck until he passed out beside her. She grabbed his gun and started firing.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The witches who’d crossed the bridge were backing away, returning the way they’d come, trying to escape the line of fire.
Gideon stared down Cressida.
The wind whipped around them. It was only the two of them now.
“My brother showed you mercy once,” Gideon shouted over the whirlpool’s roar. “I won’t make the same mistake.” He closed the gap between them. “On your knees.”
Cressida slashed her casting knife at him. “Never.”
Gideon huffed a laugh. “You can’t hurt me anymore, Cress. You’ll never hurt me again.”
Rune had done that: reduced this powerful queen to a pathetic creature when met by Gideon Sharpe.
He grabbed the wrist of her hand—the one that wielded the knife—as she tried to cut him down. His hand tightened, crushing, until her grip loosened.
It fell to the ground.
