Bitter Bite (Elemental Assassin #14)(117)

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

More and more shots sounded behind me, but the giants weren’t aiming at me

anymore. Phillip must have gotten into the fight. He could take care of

himself, so I focused all my energy on sprinting across the lawn, trying to

get to the mansion, even though it was already too late.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Sure enough, gunfire flashed inside the office, as bright as the holiday

lights had been earlier. Someone had just been shot.

A second later, Fedora stepped through the doors and out onto the stone patio.

I squinted, but the office lights were behind her, and all I could really see

in the darkness was the pale glitter of her eyes. She gave me a mocking salute

with her gun before ducking back inside the mansion. Now that her mission was

accomplished, no doubt she’d leave through one of the back doors and

disappear into the woods. All without my even getting a look at her face.

I cursed. Even though I wanted to rush inside the mansion, I forced myself to

slow down and approach the patio doors with caution, just in case she might be

lying in wait to try to kill me too. I also grabbed hold of even more of my

Stone power, hardening my skin as much as possible on the off chance that she

decided to blast me with elemental magic and bullets. As a final touch, I

reached out with my magic, listening to all the emotional vibrations that had

sunk into the stone walls of the mansion.

Harsh, shocked mutters echoed back to me, from the shots the woman had just

fired. Alongside that was a high, whiny chorus of worry, fear, and paranoia.

But there were no sly whispers or dark murmurs of evil intent that would have

signaled that she was hiding in the office, ready to put a bullet in my head

the second I stepped inside. Whoever the woman was, she was long gone.

Still, I was careful as I eased my way into the office, my knife still in my

hand, my other hand up and lightly glowing with Ice magic, ready to blast

whoever might challenge me.

But only one person was in the office: the man I’d been watching.

Jonah McAllister, my old nemesis, lay sprawled across the floor.