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ou're describing, Slater would have to be doing one of two things. One, he'd have to be an Air elemental and using his magic to affect the gases in the air. Air has weight, you know, even though we don't usually realize that it does. Slater could be using his power to move the air, the molecules, out of his way so he has less resistance to go through when he swings his fists. Simple physics, really. "
"And two?" I asked.
"He'd have to be an Ice elemental and using his power to momentarily freeze his opponents. Using just enough magic to give himself that second's advantage, that seeming bit of speed," Jo-Jo said. "But I don't think he's an elemental. "
"Why not?"
Jo-Jo shrugged. "Because those are both very, very subtle skills that would take years to master. Elliot Slater doesn't strike me as having that much patience. Besides, given your high sensitivity to elemental magic, Gin, you'd still be able to feel him using his power, even if there was only a teaspoon of it in his whole body. More than likely, Slater's quickness is just a genetic quirk that he's honed over the years. There are very few people who can use elemental magic without others sensing it. "
For a moment, a distant light flashed in the dwarf's pale eyes, as though she was thinking about something that had happened a long time ago. Maybe it was the droop of her shoulders or the way Jo-Jo fingered her string of pearls, but something about the dwarf's last words bothered me-and her too.
"Do you know anybody who can completely hide their elemental magic from others, even while they're embracing or using it?" I asked in a soft voice.
Jo-Jo's eyes cleared, and she gave me a small, sad smile. "Just one person. Although, I think you could do it too, Gin, if you really needed to. "
I blinked. "Me?"
Jo-Jo nodded. "You. "
The dwarf looked at me, a knowing light in her eyes, and I shifted on my feet. Jo-Jo Deveraux claimed that I was one of the strongest elementals she'd ever met, a notion that always made me uncomfortable. My mother had been an extremely strong Ice elemental, and yet all her magic hadn't saved her from a horrible, fiery death at the hands of Mab Monroe. My sister Annabella's magic hadn't done her any good against Mab either. And Bria would have been dead, beaten to death by Elliot Slater, if Finn and I hadn't intervened tonight.
So while Jo-Jo might claim that I was strong enough that my Stone and Ice magic would never fail me, I didn't really believe the dwarf. Which is why I carried so many silverstone knives. Sure, blades might break, but they always left some sort of jagged edge behind that I could shove and twist into someone's flesh.
Once you were out of magic, you were done for. Especially if the person you were fighting still had some juice left. Hence the fact that so many elementals died in duels. Elementals fought by flinging raw magic at each other-Air, Fire, Ice, and Stone-until somebody ran out of power, strength, will. When that happened, the other elemental's magic washed over the loser. Lose an elemental duel, and you were going to get suffocated, burned, frozen, or perhaps even entombed in your own skin.
Either way, you got dead. Just like my mother and older sister had, thanks to Mab Monroe and her Fire power.
"Come on," I said, pushing away my troubling thoughts. "It's getting cold out here. Let's go back inside. "
Jo-Jo got to her feet, and I opened the door for her. We stepped into the living room, and I stopped short. A few minutes ago, large, sticky patches of blood had covered the hardwood floor like a new coat of varnish. But now the golden wood looked pristine. Sophia Deveraux was down on her hands and knees, gloves off, scrubbing at one last spot. But instead of using a rag or brush, the Goth dwarf slowly moved her bare finger back and forth over the bloodstain, staring at the spot as though she could burn it away with her mind or some hidden magic deep inside her.
And that's exactly what she was doing.
Sophia made one pass with her finger, and the blood under her hand dried. On the second pass, the stain looked brittle, as though it had been on the floor for years instead of just an hour. Sophia kept casting her finger back and forth over the stain with slow, precise movements. While I watched, the bloodstain underneath her hand turned a rusty brick color, then a pale pink. A minute later, the wood gleamed with its original golden hue as though the blood had never even been there at all.
I'd been right when I'd thought that the Goth dwarf had the same kind of Air elemental magic that her older sister Jo-Jo did. But instead of healing, instead of mending all those tiny molecules back together, Sophia used her power to tear them apart, to break them down and then slowly sandblast them away into nothingness. I imagined she could do the same to just about anything that crossed her path-blood, bones, bodies.
But the most amazing thing was that I didn't feel her using the slightest bit of elemental magic.
Sophia's black eyes didn't spark and flash with power the way that so many elementals' eyes did. The tip of her finger didn't glow. Her skin didn't become pale, chalky, or sweaty. Hell, she didn't look like she was exerting any effort at all. Sophia's Air elemental power was completely self-contained-and completely undetectable.
Sophia sat back on her heels and nodded, pleased by another job well done.
I looked at Sophia, then at Jo-Jo. "Just one person, huh?"
Jo-Jo's lips turned up in that sad smile again. "Just one. A skill she learned out of necessity rather than by choice. "
I thought about asking Jo-Jo what she meant by that cryptic remark, but she went over to Sophia and patted her sister on the shoulder. Sophia glanced up, smiled, and squeezed her big sister's hand. Some emotion passed between them that I couldn't quite identify. Pride perhaps, tinged with sorrow. Whatever it was, I wasn't going to interrupt it tonight.
The sisters always came when I needed them. That's all that mattered, and that's all I needed to know. They'd tell me the rest in time. When they were ready. Besides, I wasn't exactly the most forthcoming person, especially when it came to my emotions.
I glanced to my right. Finn paced back and forth in front of the fireplace, his cell phone stuck to his ear. Bria rested on the couch, sleeping off the effects of being healed by Jo-Jo. My sister looked like an angel relaxing there on the sofa-despite the clumps of blood that had matted in her shaggy hair.
"I see. I owe you one. Thanks. Bye. " Finn snapped his phone shut and turned toward me. "Good news. One of my sources says that Elliot Slater's gone home to lick his wounds for the rest of the night. "
"Wounds? The bastard didn't have any wounds, as far as I could tell," I muttered and rubbed my side. After she'd finished with Bria, Jo-Jo had used her Air magic to restore my ribs to their previously unbroken state.
Finn jerked his head at Bria. "Seems your sister winged him in the shoulder with her gun. Either way, he's not coming back here tonight, according to my source. "
