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Her eyes narrowed as she glared at me, the color shifting from blue to green and back again, the orbs glowing with her water magic - along with more than a touch of madness. For the first time, I saw what Owen did when he looked at her - someone who needed help.
Salina might need help, but she wasn't going to get it from me.
Chapter 31
The water continued to rain down all around Salina and me, like the two of us were standing in the middle of a thunderstorm. We faced each other in the midst of the downpour. Her eyes flicked around, scanning the overturned tables, the broken dishes, the crushed chairs, the shattered Ice bars. Then, her gaze swung back to me, hurt and accusing.
"This is your fault," she muttered. "All your fault. You've ruined everything! Owen! My revenge! Everything!"
I grinned. "I have a way of doing that. "
Salina smiled, baring her teeth at me. "Well, this is going to be the last thing you ever ruin, you assassin whore. And once you're gone, Owen will come back to me. I know he will. "
I looked at her, wondering if she really believed that, if she really believed Owen would come back to her after everything that had happened, after everything that she'd done to the people he cared about. But her conviction filled her face, making her eyes burn that much brighter. For a moment, I almost felt sorry for her.
Then the bitch blasted me with her water magic, and I got over it.
Salina raised up her hands, and the water droplets that had been clinging to her skin began to move and writhe like kudzu vines sprouting and growing all around her. I realized we were in a different kind of garden now - a water garden in which Salina was the queen and I was just her unfortunate victim.
"You really should have drowned in the creek while you had the chance," she hissed. "Because now, I'm going to tear you limb from limb. "
She waved her hands again, and the water vines shot out from her skin and slammed into mine. It was the same sensation I'd had when she'd tried to drown me in the creek - all of these tight, tiny vines wrapping around my whole body.
Only this time, instead of pulling me under the water, they were ripping me apart.
I watched in horror as the water vines began to sprout long, sharp, curved thorns. For a moment, the vines arced out away from my body before shooting forward, the thorns ripping into my skin. I screamed, but the thorns continued to burrow deeper and deeper into my body with every breath I took. It felt like my skin, my muscles, even my bones were on fire, and I could feel the blood gushing out of the hundreds of tiny pricks the thorns had made in me. I had no doubt Salina could do exactly what she claimed - she would tear my arms, legs, hell, even my head from my body. I wondered if she'd go that extra step and pop my eyes out of my skull like she'd done to Antonio. Either way, it would be a horrible, painful way to die.
I reached for my Stone magic, hardening my skin against the thorns' intrusion. But that only slowed the onslaught - it didn't stop it.
I stood there, pushing back against Salina's water magic with my Stone power. She let out a frustrated scream that I'd stalled her initial attack and she wasn't going to immediately kill me the way she wanted to.
"Fine," she snarled. "If I can't rip you to pieces, I'll just drown you like the rat you are. "
Using her left hand, Salina grabbed the silverstone cuff bracelet on her right wrist and made a twisting motion, tapping into the power stored there. The water vines wrapped around me started pulling me over to the closest fountain, the one shaped like a mermaid. I dug my boot heels into the ground, but since it had turned to mud, it didn't slow down the vines - not even for a second.
I couldn't let go of my Stone magic or Salina would rip me apart with her water thorns, and I couldn't fight back against the vines that held me tight. The vines had trapped my arms by my sides, making it impossible for me to reach for one of the knives still left on me. So I skidded along in the mud, the mermaid fountain getting closer and closer with every second. I knew that if she got me in there I was dead. Salina would just keep pouring more and more water on top of me until I either drowned or was crushed, or she broke through my Stone magic and could tear me to pieces like she'd promised.
I only had one chance left - the staff.
My eyes landed on the weapon, which had slid over to the base of the mermaid fountain. It was covered with mud, like everything else was, but I could still see the long, distinctive shape of it. The staff was the only shot I had left to get out of this alive and turn the tables on Salina. It wasn't the weapon itself so much that mattered - it was the Ice magic it contained.
My Ice magic.
I didn't have enough Ice magic on my own to stop Salina. There was just too much water puddled on the ground and spewing up in the air for me to do that. Besides, she was using the extra power stored in her cuff bracelet to augment her already strong magic. But the staff had soaked up a fair amount of my power when I'd been battling Dekes, power that I'd added to over the past few weeks, just in case I ever needed it - which I desperately did tonight.
Now all I had to do was be very, very good - and very, very lucky.
I quit struggling against the water as it dragged me closer to my death. Instead, I started calculating distances and angles. I also reached for my Ice magic, bringing it to bear, right along with my Stone power. I'd only get one shot at this, and I had to make it count.
"I can't believe you're the one who killed Mab," Salina said, walking through the mud right beside me as if we were out for an evening stroll instead of marching toward my waterlogged demise. "She was so strong. But you? You're not strong at all, are you, Gin? Or at least not strong enough. Not to keep Owen, and not to keep me from killing you. "
I didn't bother answering her. There was no point in it. I doubted she'd hear me through her own ego anyway. Instead, my eyes locked on the staff lying in the mud. I was only ten feet away from it now.
Nine . . . seven . . . five . . . three . . . one . . . go!
The vines dragged me right by the staff. I let go of my Stone magic for one precious second, letting the water thorns rip into my skin again, and reached for my Ice power instead, using it to freeze the vines that trapped my right hand down by my side. The water froze, and I sent out another blast, shattering some of the vines - just enough of them.
Beside me, Salina stopped. "What do you think you're doing? That won't save you - "
