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.