Bitter Bite (Elemental Assassin #14)(92)

could lie and tell you that I felt something. That you’re my son, and some

small, motherly part of me actually cares about you. But I’m just not wired

that way. I never was. Fletcher was so disappointed that I didn’t feel the

same way about him that he did about me. That he couldn’t wish me into the

person he wanted me to be. I think that’s the reason he didn’t ever try to

kill me. I think he was still hoping that I would change someday, even though

he knew deep down that it was never going to happen. He was a sentimental fool

that way. And so are you.”

“Yeah, I was a fool when it came to you. Like father, like son, I suppose.”

Finn barked out another laugh, but this one held no humor. “Do me a favor,

will you?”

“What?”

“When Gin tracks you down and kills you, tell her that I’m sorry I ever

doubted her.” He paused. “On second thought, forget it. You’ll be bleeding

out before she gives you the chance to sputter out so much as a single word.”

“You have far too much faith in your little friend.”

“Not my friend,” Finn said, his voice ringing with conviction. “My sister.

”

Deirdre stared at him, the blue-white flames of her Ice magic still flickering

on her fingertips. Finn lifted his chin, glaring defiantly into her eyes. In

that moment, they were almost mirror images of each other—both cold, calm,

and completely unwilling to crack, compromise, or give an inch.

“Forget him,” Santos growled. “You’ve been working on him for almost an

hour now and haven’t gotten anywhere. Let’s get this show on the road.

Unless you can’t hold up your end of the bargain?”

“I told you that I could get into the vault without the access code if

necessary,” Deirdre snapped.

“Then quit wasting time and do it already,” Santos growled again.

She shot him a sneering look, but she turned away from Finn and marched over

to the vault door. She stood in front of the tight, thick mesh of silverstone

bars, staring at them and the vault beyond for a moment. Then she stepped

forward, wrapped her hands around the bars, and blasted them with her Ice

magic.

In his file on her, Fletcher had said that Deirdre was a powerful elemental,

but the old man hadn’t fully communicated the depths of her magic. As soon as

she let loose with that first round of magic, the temperature in the basement

plummeted ten degrees, and the floor, walls, and ceiling began to frost over.

Not because she was targeting them but because her magic was that intense. I

shivered again, my breath steaming in the air. Beside me, Bria and Owen did

the same. Deirdre Shaw was definitely the strongest Ice elemental I’d ever

encountered, and I didn’t know how to kill her without getting frozen alive

by her magic.

Deirdre was completely focused on the vault door, and she blasted it over and

over again with her Ice power. At first, the bars soaked up all her magic,

like a sponge absorbing water, since silverstone had the unique property of

being able to hold and store elemental magic.

“What does she think she’s going to accomplish?” Owen whispered in my ear.

“She doesn’t actually think she can get through that much silverstone, does

she?”

I shook my head. Deirdre didn’t think it—she knew it.

Slowly, the silverstone began to soak up less and less of her power, and her

elemental Ice actually started to coat the bars themselves, like layers of

icing covering a cake. The blue-white crystals leaped from one piece of metal

to the next, getting colder and harder all the while, the bars taking on the

same pale, ugly blue color as the burns on Finn’s skin. That’s what Deirdre

was doing with her power, using the bitter bite of her Ice magic to burn right

through the metal.

Soon the entire mesh door was glowing with the blue-white light of her magic,

and the metal began to creak and groan from its exposure to the intense,

prolonged cold. Even the access keypad Iced over, the red light on the front

snuffed out by Deirdre’s deep freeze.

It seemed to go on forever, although Deirdre’s assault on the metal bars

couldn’t have lasted longer than a couple of minutes. Finally, she released

her hold on her magic and stepped back, admiring her handiwork. If I’d used

that much magic in such a short amount of time, I would have been huddled in a

ball on the floor, too tired to even whimper. But Deirdre wasn’t even

breathing hard. Santos gave her a sharp, approving nod. Bria’s and Owen’s

mouths were both gaping open, and even Finn looked impressed, despite himself.

Yeah. Me too.

Deirdre stepped forward again and flicked her long red fingernail against the

very center of the mesh.

Tink.

A single crack appeared in the metal and slowly spread out, forming more and

more cracks, until the pattern resembled a spider’s web that had been carved