I reached for my Stone magic, using it to harden my skin again, but she’d already frozen part of me, and I didn’t have the strength to fend off more of her magic.
Deirdre smirked at me a final time, then drew her hands back to unload on me—
Crack!
A black bullet hole appeared in the middle of Deirdre’s hand, snuffing out her Ice magic and making her scream.
Crack!
Another hole appeared in her shoulder, driving her away from me.
Crack!
And a final kill shot, straight through her cold, cold heart.
Finn was here.
My brother was the only one who could make those kinds of shots, especially on a snowy, moonlit night.
And he’d just killed his own mother so that I could live.
Deirdre toppled to the ground, her blood turning the snow a startling scarlet. I scrambled forward on my hands and knees and yanked her icicle-heart rune necklace from her throat. It was a foolish risk, but I wanted Finn to have it.
“Kill her!” Tucker ordered, ducking behind his own man for cover. “Kill her now!”
The other giant stepped forward and snapped up his gun. I tensed, ready to throw myself at his legs and try to spoil his shot—
Crack!
Finn put a bullet in the shooter’s head, and the man dropped to the ground beside Deirdre. I snatched up his gun, scrambled to my feet, and fired off shot after shot at Tucker and his other guard. I was backpedaling toward the shipping containers the whole time, so my aim was lousy, but my wild shots had them ducking down and running in the opposite direction.
Drawn by the gunfire, other giants sprinted from the warehouse in my direction. I fired at them until my gun ran out of bullets, and I tossed the weapon aside in disgust. I darted forward, grabbed the stolen phone and the gun that I’d dropped earlier, and quickly emptied that weapon too.
The guards realized that I was out of ammo, and they quickened their pace, trying to catch me before I could disappear into the shadows.
Crack!
Crack! Crack!
Finn put the guards down before any of them could get close to me. I sprinted through the rows of shipping containers, looking right and left. Another giant stepped out from behind a container ten feet in front of me, already raising his weapon. I skidded to a stop and reached for my Stone magic again, wondering if I could harden my skin before he pulled the trigger—
Crack!
The giant crumpled to the snow.
That shot had been much closer than any of the others, and my head snapped up.
Finnegan Lane stood on top of one of the shipping containers.
My brother was wearing a long gray trench coat over a gray suit. The fabric glimmered like pure silver in the moonlight, which also frosted the tips of his dark hair and brought out the hard planes of his handsome face. He looked like a ghost come back for vengeance.
He waved me over, and I sprinted in his direction. He swung his legs over the side of the container and dropped to the ground, then popped right back up, slinging his rifle on top of his shoulder and grinning widely, his green eyes glinting in his handsome face. In that moment, he looked so much like Fletcher that it made my heart squeeze tight. He’d come to my rescue, just like the old man had done so many times in the past.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I got your text about coming over to the Pork Pit,” Finn said, still grinning. “I pulled up right as those giants were carrying you out of the front of the restaurant. Looked like you could use a little help.”
He frowned, snatched his rifle off his shoulder, and fired off another round, dropping two more giants who’d been heading this way.
“You’re awfully popular tonight,” he drawled. “I think we should go and leave them wanting more.”
Crack! Crack! Crack!
More giants caught sight of us and starting firing, the bullets pinging off the metal containers all around us.
“Good idea,” I said.
Finn fired off another round of shots, then held his hand out. “Ladies first.”
I laughed and disappeared into the shadows, with him right beside me.
31
Finn and I made it out of the container maze and back to his car. He threw it into drive, and we zoomed away from the shipping yard. We didn’t speak for several blocks.
“Jo-Jo’s?” he asked.
“Yeah.” I winced. “My back is burned and frozen solid from Deirdre’s Ice magic. Double the fun, double the pain.”
He nodded and turned onto the highway that would eventually take us to Jo-Jo’s salon, and we both fell silent again.
Finally, I cleared my throat and gently placed Deirdre’s icicle-heart necklace on the console between us. I’d managed to hold on to it through the fight in the shipping yard. For a moment, Finn stared at the blood—Deirdre’s blood—that coated the diamond icicles. Then his lips pressed into a harsh line, and he looked away from the rune.
I’d spent the last few days tiptoeing around, trying to give him the time and space he needed to come to terms with everything, but I couldn’t do that anymore. Not after what happened tonight. Not after he’d shot his own mother to save me.