Heart of Venom

Chapter Twenty-nine

Crack!

Crack! Crack!

Crack!

Gunshots rang out from the woods to the left of the house. The first wave of shots took out two of Grimes’s men. The others saw their buddies hit the ground, then ducked down and scrambled back behind their cars for cover. They raised their own weapons and started firing toward the trees where the bullets were coming from, but I didn’t bother ducking or running for cover. The bullets weren’t meant for me. I’d let Grimes and his men follow me back to Fletcher’s so that I could lure them into my own trap, into my own sticky web of death, and Grimes had been arrogant enough to fall for it.

While I’d been sitting on the porch, drinking lemonade, Finn, Bria, Owen, and Phillip had been getting into position in the woods, ready to snipe at Grimes, Hazel, and their men when they showed up.

Crack!

Crack! Crack!

Crack!

My friends fired another hail of bullets at the gangsters, shattering the windshields and denting the car doors that they were crouched behind. But I kept my eyes fixed on Grimes and Hazel, who were staring right back at me, as unconcerned by the bullets as I was. I stayed where I was, because this was the moment I’d been waiting for, my chance to finally take them out.

For Sophia, for Jo-Jo, and for Fletcher.

“What did you do?” Hazel spat out.

“Just made sure that you all get what you so richly deserve,” I snarled back at her.

Hazel shrieked with rage, and the flames crackling in her palm intensified. I tensed, thinking that she might hurl her ball of elemental Fire at me, but instead, she turned and threw it into the woods. The Fire hit a tree and exploded, sending flames shooting into the air and licking at the leaves and grass along the ground.

In the distance, I could hear Finn yelling at Bria and the others to watch the Fire. He knew as well as I did that they couldn’t afford to let the flames get out of control, or the whole ridge might go up, along with Fletcher’s house—and then we’d all be dead.

Hazel laughed with dark delight when she realized that the flames were spreading. Bria left her hiding spot in the woods to rush over to the burning tree. Grimes’s men drew a bead on her, but Finn and the others laid down

another round of gunfire to cover her. A bluish-white light flared in Bria’s hand, and she sent out a blast of Ice magic that quickly turned the flames into thick, twisted icicles.

Hazel’s cackle cut off. Another ball of Fire popped into her hand, and she reared back, ready to throw it at Bria and roast my sister where she stood. I palmed my knives and charged at her, determined to keep that from happening.

Hazel saw me coming out of the corner of her eye. She waited until I was in range, then whirled in my direction and shoved her hand—and the flames flickering on her fingertips—right into my face.

I had just enough time to reach for my Stone magic and use it to harden my skin, head, hair, and eyes before the molten heat engulfed me, making me feel as though I was standing next to an open furnace. Hazel wasn’t as strong as Mab had been, but she was still a powerful elemental in her own right, and it took me a moment to push back and snuff out the flames of her power with my own Stone magic. Smoke drifted up from my body, and sparks and ash fell from my clothes.

Hazel’s eyes narrowed. “So it’s true. You do have Stone magic, along with all that Ice you threw around on the ridge.”

“You really should have listened to the rumors,” I hissed.

“Because now I’m going to kill you with it, just like I have all the others before you. Just like I will all the others after you who are stupid enough to mess with me and mine.”

Another ball of Fire popped into Hazel’s hand. “Not if I kill you first, bitch.”

Instead of answering, I threw myself at her.

I stabbed out with my knives, trying to end Hazel once and for all, but she reached for even more of her magic, turning her fists into two flaming torches. Every time I swung at her, she thrust the flames of her magic into my face, making me retreat. So I reached for my Stone magic, used it to harden my skin, and went after her again.

Hazel realized that I was coming after her through the flames, and she stepped up to meet me.

Slash-slash-slash.

Whoosh!

Slash-slash-slash.

Whoosh!

Every time I swiped at her with my knives, Hazel reached for even more of her magic and tossed it in my direction. Since I didn’t want to get burned alive on the spot, I kept my distance.

Finally, though, I grew sick of Hazel’s game and stepped through the flames toward her. One knife to the heart, and she’d forget all about using her Fire power on me. She’d forget about everything except how much I’d hurt her.

And I did so want to hurt her.

But Hazel was as good a fighter as I was. Strong, quick, decisive, ruthless. Every time I lashed out with a knife, she managed to block the blow. She punched out with her fist, flames shooting out from between her fingers, and made me duck to one side. I came back up on the left with a knife, but she was already there, anticipating the blow.

Slash.

Punch.

Slash-slash.

Punch-punch-punch.

And on and on it went, with neither one of us able to do any real damage to the other. All we were really doing was wearing each other out and using up all of our magic in the process.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Grimes watching us while we moved in circles around the yard. Every once in a while, he would turn and throw a ball of Fire at the woods, forcing Bria to use her Ice power to counter it, and keeping the others pinned down there, but mostly, he watched me battle Hazel.

Yeah, he’d be the kind who liked to watch. I wondered if this was another way he got his kicks, besides torturing people in his pit of death or hunting them down like deer in the woods. I hoped he enjoyed the show, because he was going to get a front-row seat for round two. I was killing him as soon as I finished with Hazel.

I shut Grimes out of my mind and focused all of my attention on Hazel once more. Back and forth, we fought, kicking up dust, dirt, grass, gravel, and everything else that was underfoot, as though we were in the center of some whirling dust storm.

Finally, though, I saw an opening, and I took it. I raised both of my knives high and went in for the kill.

Hazel caught one of my hands in hers, then the other one. We seesawed back and forth, with me trying to drive the blades into any place on her that they would go and her easily using her mix of giant and dwarven strength to keep me at arm’s length.

“What are you going to do now?” she hissed, the flames of her magic licking at my skin, trying to break through the protective shell of my Stone power.

“How about this?” I hissed back at her.

I head-butted the bitch as hard as I could.

I caught her square in the nose, the bone crunching like cereal under my forehead. Snap, crackle, pop. For the first time, one of my blows actually seemed to have an impact. Hazel staggered away, blood spraying all over her face, her eyes rolling up into the back of her head. The Fire dancing on her fingers dimmed down to a manage— able level. I twirled my knives in my hands and went after her, pressing my advantage.

Slice.

Whiff.

I drew a knife across Hazel’s right arm, making her yelp with pain. I ducked to one side, and her flaming fist sailed right on by my face.

Slice-slice.

Whiff-whiff.

A cut on her left arm this time, followed by a gash to her stomach. Hazel lurched forward, still swinging at me, but I easily sidestepped her blows.

Slice.

Whiff.

A deeper, more brutal strike went in and skittered off her collarbone before my knife slid free of her body. Hazel screamed and lurched forward again, but I ducked her awkward blows.

She shook off the rest of her daze and moved to block my next attack. I’d raised my knives as though I was going to try to stab her again, but it was a feint to disguise my real intention. Hazel stepped up to grab my arms once more, but I ducked down and lashed out with my foot, sweeping her legs out from under her. She let out a scream of surprise as she fell, and her head cracked against the ground.

Before she could recover, I threw myself on top of her.

I raised my knife, ready to plunge it into Hazel’s black, venomous heart— A blast of Fire knocked me off her.

I’d been so focused on Hazel that I’d lost track of Grimes during the fight. He might have liked to watch two chicks rough each other up, but apparently, he drew the line at me actually killing his sister. I tried to get up, but another wave of Fire washed over me, even hotter and more brutal than before. I sucked down a breath in surprise, and I could feel the flames trying to force their way down my throat, but I managed to use my own Stone magic to block the attack.

This time, I was the one who was dazed, but I staggered to my feet anyway and turned to face my enemies.

Crack!

Crack! Crack!

In the distance, Finn, Phillip, and Owen were still firing at what remained of Grimes’s men, while Bria worked to contain the bursts of Fire that Grimes had sent hurtling their way. But I pushed away all thoughts of my friends and the flames still licking at the edge of the woods. I couldn’t afford to be distracted by anything right now, or I was dead.

Which was still a distinct possibility.

It was a risk, taking on two elementals at once, but it was a chance that I had to take. I hadn’t wanted Sophia and Jo-Jo involved in this fight, but the truth was that I hadn’t wanted Finn, Bria, Owen, or Phillip in it either.

That’s why I had insisted that they stay in the woods, instead of Bria and Owen standing with me and using their magic like they’d wanted to. I’d felt how strong Grimes and Hazel were in their magic on the ridge, and I hadn’t wanted the others to be tortured with it if things went bad. This way, even if they used their combined power to kill me, my friends would still have a chance to snipe at them from the woods. I’d told Finn, especially, to kill Grimes—even if he had to sacrifice me to do it.

And it looked like that was what it had finally come down to.

“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Grimes said. “Tell me where Sophia is, and I’ll let you live, Gin. You and Sophia.

You can both come with me, stay with me. You’re both strong. You both belong with someone who can handle that strength, tame it, shape it—someone like me.”

He was so focused on me that he didn’t see the evil glare that Hazel shot him. She’d make sure that I wouldn’t live a week if I was stupid enough to take Grimes’s up on his offer.

“You’d better kill me now,” I rasped, my voice rough and raw from the elemental Fire that I’d inhaled. “Because you will never break me, and I will never, ever stop thinking of ways to kill you. And sooner or later, I’ll succeed.”

Grimes shook his head, as though my threats of death deeply saddened him. “As you wish, then.”

He held his hand out to the side. At first, I wondered why, but then Hazel stepped up and twined his fingers with hers. She gave me another evil grin, happy that her brother had reached for her. Elemental Fire hissed, sparked, and crackled where their hands met, and the flames there grew and grew. Grimes and Hazel lifted their free hands. Flames exploded there as well, burning as big and bright as twin bonfires. Once again, their magic was perfectly in sync, ebbing and flowing in time, yin and yang reunited. Or evil and more evil, in this case.

Separately, each of them was a strong elemental. But together, their combined magic rivaled Mab’s. Hell, they might have even surpassed her. I’d gotten stronger myself since I’d fought Mab, but the intensity of their magic made me snarl and grit my teeth like a rabid dog.

I reached for my Stone magic and used it to harden my skin once again.

Grimes and Hazel stretched their arms out in front of them. They let their Fire build and build.

Then they threw it at me—all their strength, all their power, all their hate.

Wave after wave of searing, smoking, unbelievable heat slammed into my body. I gritted my teeth much tighter to keep from screaming. It was all that I could do to use my power to block the combined strength of theirs.

I tried to get to them, tried to get close enough to cut just one of them with my knives, but every time I managed to stagger forward a few feet, another wave of Fire magic would send me sliding back. But I kept struggling, kept fighting, kept churning forward, even though all I was really doing was digging my heels into the burning grass underfoot. All I needed was to separate them, to stop them from sharing their magic and throwing the combined force of it at me, and then I could kill them.

At least, that’s what I told myself, even if I knew that it wasn’t true.

Because I’d already used up a fair amount of my magic fighting Hazel, and I didn’t have enough left in the tank to stop them both. Even with the power I’d put back into my spider-rune ring over the past two days and what was in the knives in my hands, I was still going to run out of magic before they did. Then their elemental Fire would wash over me and reduce me to soot and smoldering ashes on the spot.

And there wasn’t a damn thing that I could do about it.

“Gin!” I thought I heard Owen yell. “Hang on! I’m coming!”

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

My friends fired still more shots, but what was left of Grimes’s men returned their fire, holding them at bay.

They wouldn’t reach me in time, and we all knew it. Still, I was going to hold on for as long as I could. Because if I couldn’t kill Grimes and Hazel, then maybe they could.

Because, magic or not, if Finn and the others pumped them full of enough bullets, then their magic would wane, and Finn could step up and finish the job— Through the smoke and flames, I saw a figure slam

into Grimes and Hazel, and I realized that it was Owen.

He threw himself at the brother and sister, and all three of them went down like pins knocked over by a bowling ball. Even though he had shattered their concentration, Grimes and Hazel were still holding on to their magic, and the flames washed over Owen, as though he were the wick in the center of a burning candle. His hoarse screams echoed all the way around the ridge.

“Owen!” I screamed, staggering toward him. “Owen!”

The three of them were still rolling around on the grass, but they finally came to a stop. Grimes’s head snapped against the ground, stunning him, but Hazel positioned herself on top of Owen. She snapped her hand back and reached for her Fire magic once again.

I reached through the flames, dug my fingers into her hair, and yanked her off him. I tossed her aside as hard as I could, tearing clumps of black hair out by the roots.

Hazel shrieked with pain, but I didn’t give her time to recover. She hit the ground, and a second later, I was on top of her. Hazel reached for her Fire, throwing it into my face.

I ignored the flames searing my skin, raised my knife high, and buried it to the hilt in the bitch’s black, burning heart.

Hazel arched her back and let out a bloodcurdling scream. I ripped the knife out and drove it right back into her chest, twisting and twisting and twisting it in. Muscles ripped, tendons snapped, and one of her ribs cracked under my brutal assault. Hazel slapped at me, her blows getting weaker and weaker with every passing moment, the Fire on her fingers giving way to smoking red and orange sparks. I tore the knife out of her chest once again.

And this time, I slit her throat with the blade.

Blood gushed out of the wound, spattering onto me, as hot as the flames still licking at my skin. Hazel’s screams died down to gurgling wails, then were choked off altogether. She stared at me, the bright, shimmering Fire in her eyes slowly, stubbornly dimming and dulling as death crept up on her. Her head lolled to the side, and the last of the flames dancing on her fingertips vanished into smoke. After a moment, even that drifted up into the evening sky and dissipated.

When I was sure that she was dead, I crawled over to where Owen lay on his back on the grass. Deep, dark, ugly red burns and blisters covered every part of him that I could see—his chest, hands, arms, and face. His eyebrows had been singed off, and his scalp gleamed a baby pink in places where his black hair had been burned way.

Bile rose in my throat at his devastating injuries.

“Gin . . .” he rasped.

“It’s okay,” I whispered, trying not to let him see how worried I was. “You’re going to be okay—”

A shadow fell over me, blotting out the evening sun.

I looked up. Harley Grimes had shaken off his daze and now stood over me, more Fire pooling in the palm of his hand. He reared back his arm, ready to throw it at me, ready to end me. I reached for what little magic I had and hovered over Owen, determined to protect him as much as I could— A dark figure dressed all in black slammed into Grimes from behind. Sophia.

Sophia? What the hell was she doing there?

I blinked and blinked, wondering if my eyes and the clouds of smoke that filled the yard were playing tricks on me, but it was her. Sophia was there, and she was fighting Grimes.

With one hand, Sophia ground Grimes’s face into the dirt. With the other, she unleashed a series of sharp, brutal blows to his kidneys.

Grimes managed to raise his head and let out a delighted laugh. “Oh, Sophia,” he purred. “Still trying to kill me after all these years. When will you ever learn?”

Grimes reached around with one hand and blasted

Sophia with his Fire magic. She grunted with pain and rolled away from him, smothering the flames scorching her clothes and skin. A moment later, they were both back on their feet, fists clenched, staring each other down.

My gaze flicked past them. Sophia’s classic convertible sat in the driveway behind the vehicles that Grimes’s men had driven up here. I hadn’t heard the car pull up in all the commotion. But she wasn’t the only one who’d come.

Jo-Jo was leaning against the side of the car, holding on to cooper’s arm to steady herself. I hadn’t told them what was going down tonight, but they must have figured it out for themselves. That, or Finn had told them.

Finn, Bria, and Phillip came running up, having finally dispatched the last of Grimes’s men. Finn took aim at Grimes. He looked at me, but I shook my head. Finn nodded and lowered his gun.

Grimes stared at Finn, Bria, and Phillip, then at Owen and me, and finally, at cooper, Jo-Jo, and Sophia. For the first time, he seemed to realize that he was all alone and that Hazel and the rest of his men were dead.

But it didn’t faze or worry him in the slightest. Instead, he reached for his Fire magic once again, more of it than ever before, until his eyes burned like dark liquid gold with his own power, and flames sparked and crackled like fireworks exploding on his fingers.

“come with me now, Sophia,” he ordered. “And I won’t kill your friends.”

Another damn lie, and we all knew it.

Sophia shook her head. “No. You’re not killing anyone.”

Grimes threw back his head and laughed—a wild, loud, crazy laugh that told us all just how far off his rocker he was. His plan to hunt me down, find Sophia, and drag us both back to his mountain had completely unraveled, and Grimes was coming undone at the seams right along with it.

“Really? And who’s going to stop me, you?” He sneered. “Please. You’re not strong enough to stop me.

You never were. That’s why you had to get that assassin to protect you all these years. Because you weren’t strong enough to kill me yourself.”

Sophia shrugged. “Maybe not then. But strong enough now.”

Jo-Jo hobbled forward, helped along by cooper, and went to stand beside her sister.

“We both are,” Jo-Jo said in a clear, sharp voice. “My only regret is that we didn’t do this years ago.”

Grimes threw back his head and laughed again. Finally, when he realized that he was the only one who found it funny, he glared at Jo-Jo with pure hate in his eyes. “You won’t kill me. You don’t have enough magic to kill me.

None of you does. None of you is strong enough.”

Jo-Jo gave him a sweet smile. “That’s the funny thing about Fire,” she said. “No matter how strong it is, it simply can’t survive without Air—and neither can you.”

She reached for her Air magic, her eyes glowing a milky white. But instead of blasting Grimes with it, Jo-Jo did something even more clever and devious. She sucked all of the oxygen away from him.

The flames burning on his hand were immediately snuffed out. Grimes stared down at his hand in disbelief, then started snapping his fingers together, as though they were a cigarette lighter that he was trying to coax to life.

He reached and reached for his magic, but without all that precious oxygen, he couldn’t get so much as a single spark to flare to life.

Jo-Jo looked at Sophia, and the sisters nodded to each other. Sophia slowly approached him.

“Fine,” Grimes muttered, finally giving up on his power. “I don’t need magic to put you in your place, Sophia. I never did.”

He let out a loud roar and charged at her.

And then they danced.

Despite all the years that I’d known her, I hadn’t seen Sophia fight all that often. But she was as efficient and brutal with her blows as I was. More than that, she was motivated by all of the things that she’d suffered at Grimes’s hands.

For a while, Grimes was able to block her blows, and all they did was exchange punch after punch after punch.

But Sophia slowly wore him down. He missed a block, and she socked him square in the jaw. He missed the next block, and she slammed her hand into his sternum, cracking a rib, judging by the way he suddenly started gasping for air.

Grimes went on the attack, swinging, swinging, swinging, but Sophia swatted away his blows one after another after another. He overextended himself, and she slammed her boot into one of his knees. He howled with pain, but before he could stumble out of range, she clamped her hands on his arms and rammed her boot into his other knee. The cracking of his bones rattled through the entire yard.

Sophia let go, and Grimes dropped to the ground like a cement block. That’s when we all knew that it was over.

Sophia positioned herself on top of Grimes and started hitting him, over and over again, as though she were working a heavy bag at the gym.

Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack.

She pounded away at his chest, focusing on his ribs and driving all of the air out of his lungs, so that he couldn’t even scream at what was being done to him—just like she hadn’t been able to scream after he’d destroyed her vocal cords by making her breathe in elemental Fire.

Jo-Jo. cooper. Finn. Bria. Phillip. They all stood there and watched Sophia beat Grimes to death, while I huddled on the ground next to Owen. Nobody said a word, although Bria winced at the brutality that Sophia unleashed. But she hadn’t been up at the camp. She hadn’t seen the pit, so she didn’t fully understand his depravity.

But I did. More important, I understood Sophia’s response to it and why she had to do this herself.

I’d wanted to spare her and Jo-Jo from facing Grimes again, but they’d come anyway because they needed clo— sure. They needed to help defeat him. And most of all, they needed to know that the nightmare was truly, finally over.

Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack.

And Sophia was making sure that happened with every single blow she landed.

Eventually, cooper helped Jo-Jo over to Owen. The

two dwarves settled themselves on the scorched earth, took Owen’s hands in theirs, and reached for their Air magic, healing the horrible burns on his body. Then they used their power to heal me as well. Finn, Phillip, and Bria moved silently through the yard, their guns still drawn, checking on Grimes’s men to make sure that they were all dead.

I got to my feet and went to stand close to Sophia.

And I stayed right there, watching her, supporting her, through the whole thing.

I couldn’t tell exactly when Harley Grimes died. One moment, he was still rasping for breath. The next, I realized that his eyes were focused on Sophia but that he wasn’t seeing her anymore.

Sophia kept beating Grimes long after he was dead, but I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t try to stop her. She deserved all the time that she needed, for everything that he’d done to her and Jo-Jo.

Finally, though, her blows slowed, sputtered, then stopped altogether. Sophia sat back on her heels, breathing hard, covered in more blood than even I’d ever had on me. Her arms were completely coated with it, and it dripped off the ends of her fingertips like scarlet tear— drops.

I looked down at Grimes—at least, what was left

of him. It wasn’t pretty. Sophia had used her dwarven strength to its fullest. His face was a bloody, pulpy, bony mess; his chest had caved in; and his knees were sprawled out at awkward, impossible angles where Sophia had broken them. If I hadn’t known that it was the body of a man, I would have thought him no more than a pile of roadkill, bloated, bloody, and rotting on the side of some country road.

I stepped in front of Sophia where she could see me, then held out my hand, which was still covered with Hazel’s blood. After a moment, she took it and let me pull her to her feet. She started to let go, but I tightened my grip on her hand.

“Not alive,” I said. “Not anymore.”

Sophia looked at me with a somber expression. But

after a moment, she grinned, her smile wider, happier, and brighter than I’d ever remembered it being.

“No,” she rasped. “Dead—finally.”