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"Annabella?" I whispered.
Her head snapped around to me. "Get back in your room, Genevieve!"
Her sharp, hissed tone made the dread in my stomach swell up, as though I'd somehow swallowed one of the muttering stones. But instead of doing as she asked, I hurried toward her. A sudden crack made my heart slam up into my throat. Was that a gunshot?
My legs wobbled, and I fell to my knees beside Annabella. She had the same beautiful blond hair and blue eyes as our mother, Eira, and resembled an icy angel in her long, white nightgown.
"What's wrong?" I whispered.
"Men. Inside the mansion," Annabella said. "They've already killed some of the servants. "
My eyes widened. "Men? Why? What do they want? Money?"
Annabella shook her head. Either she didn't know or she just didn't want to tell me. But the worry pinching her face was more than enough to scare me. Whoever the men were, whatever they wanted, it couldn't be anything good. Not now, not this late at night.
"Mom heard them breaking in," Annabella said. "She told me to wait here until she came back. She's going to try to stop them. "
I nodded, feeling better. Our mother was strong-the strongest elemental that I knew. Her Ice magic would be enough to protect her. Still, I reached for the spider rune that dangled from the chain around my throat. Toying with the small circle was a nervous habit of mine, one that I was trying to break. The silverstone medallion felt cold, smooth, and hard in my hand. I don't know why touching it always comforted me, but it did.
Until the body flew through the air.
The giant slammed into the stone fireplace before rolling off and landing on the floor. The force of his body hitting the fireplace caused the snow globes on the mantel above to wobble and fall. One by one, they slipped off their high, lofty perch and shattered on t
he stone below, a horrible symphony of sound.
The giant might have cared about all the shards of glass shredding his skin-if he'd still been alive. I didn't need Annabella to tell me that he was dead-and that our mother had killed him with her magic. Elemental Ice coated the man's face, an inch thick in some places, giving his features a strange, bluish tinge. Even his teeth were blue, his mouth open in a silent scream.
Our mother had used her Ice magic to flash-freeze him. That was bad enough, but I couldn't help but wonder why there were giants in the house in the first place. What was going on? What could they possibly want from us?
A second later, my mother ran into the downstairs room, stopping just inside the far doorway. My mother whirled around, and I realized that there was another figure behind her. The person was standing in the next room over, so all I could see of her were her hands.
Her bright, burning, flaming hands.
Orange-red flames twitched and danced like merry puppets on the mystery woman's fingertips. I hissed in a breath and shrank back against Annabella, pressing my body into hers. A Fire elemental. Of all the magic users, of all the elementals, they were the ones who scared me the most. Their magic was hot, hungry, and cruel, and nothing at all like the soft, soothing murmurs of the stones as they sang me to sleep.
My mother's hands began to glow blue-white with her Ice magic. Eira gathered her strength, her power, her elemental magic, until it formed a shimmering ball so cold that it made my teeth chatter, even here, thirty feet above her.
The Fire elemental countered by increasing the flames on her hands, shooting out her own intense heat. I could feel it up here too-the hot, pulsing power. And that scared me more than anything else had so far. The Fire elemental was strong-just as strong as my mother was-and now they were going to duel.
To the death.
They faced each other, my mother and this abstract pair of burning hands. Then, with one thought, they threw their magic at each other.
The elemental Fire and Ice crashed together. Steam, smoke, and colorful sparks filled the room, the whole house even, making it hard to breathe. Their magic flickered against my skin, each one cracking across my flesh like hot and cold whips. I bit my tongue to keep from screaming at the sensation. I don't know how long they stood there, locked in this deadly battle, their magic warring against each other's.
But the Fire elemental was stronger.
She overcame my mother's magic one slow, agonizing inch at a time. The Fire burning on the ends of her fingertips expanded, getting closer and closer to Eira, evaporating all of the elemental Ice that she managed to form. Sweat and soot covered my mother's beautiful face, and strain tightened her slender neck. Eira wavered just for a second, just for an instant, and her blue eyes flicked up to the banister, first to Annabella, then to me.
"I'm sorry," I thought I saw her mouth to us.
Then her strength, her Ice, her magic, left her, and the elemental Fire swept over her.
One moment, my mother was there. The next, the blackened shell that had been her body crumpled to the floor. Bits of ash flaked off her charred remains at the impact and drifted up to me. Horrid, macabre confetti that settled on my face, my hands, my hair.
I started to scream-and scream-and scream, but Annabella clamped her cold hand over my mouth and shook me. The sharp motion penetrated my shrieking panic.
"Don't scream," she whispered. "Don't you dare scream. Don't make any noise at all. Go get Bria and slip out of the house. Run as fast as you can. I'll slow down the Fire elemental. "
