and despair. Behind Odessa, I saw Becca drawing her foot up at the same time she tried to slide her arm down. She was going for the backup gun.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said as loudly as I could. It was still barely more than a whisper, but it got Odessa’s face to cloud over with rage, so I pushed on. “You’re a rich, spoiled brat who’s wasting her potential because her feelings got hurt.”
Odessa let out a nasty laugh. “I’m wasting my potential? You’re so focused on not letting your darkness out, you’re stuffing down the purest part of yourself. You were handed all this power and you squander it.” She reached into the top of her boot and pulled out something long and thin. It took me a second to realize it was my mother’s bloodstone. “I’ve been looking at this lump under your shirt for two days. It’s powerful, isn’t it?”
“Give it back,” I whispered, hating that I sounded like a little kid.
She hefted it in her hand for a second, and when she spoke, her voice was filled with contempt. “Why? You don’t use it. You don’t deserve it.” She made a show of putting the cord over her own head and tucking the stone into her shirt, arranging it next to the witch bag she was still wearing. Then she raised the gun, pointing it right at my head. “I thought you’d be different.”
“And I thought you’d be smarter,” I hurried to say. I didn’t dare look at how Becca was doing. “I don’t know how you found out about spirit bombs, but you blew the element of surprise when you missed Beau. Now he’ll know about you.”
“No, he won’t,” she snapped. “Beau has no idea what’s happening under his own roof. The book with the history of spirit bottles? That was on a shelf in his fucking office.”
“He’ll smell that we were in here.”
She scoffed. “Now who’s being an idiot? Beau doesn’t come near this barn. He’d never risk the horses, and I’m betting your little werewolf buddy wouldn’t either. I could walk away right now and the mad honey might still kill you.” She let out a laugh. “From what I’ve read, this shit was used to destroy entire armies who invaded Turkey, and with a lot lower dose.”
“Yeah, and a much more experienced beekeeper.” I was flagging again—I kept trying to move my limbs, but even talking was burning through my energy. “What’s your endgame here? Kill Beau and inherit his money?”
“Oh, God,” she said with complete disdain. “I’m going to kill him, of course, but this was never about money. While we’re on the subject, though, you know what’s pretty fucking valuable? Those spirit bottles. I can sell them to skinners for a half mil each.”
Shit. It hadn’t even occurred to me that she’d put the spirit bottles on the open market. God, if skinners got ahold of them, that’d be like mercenaries getting their own undetectable hydrogen bombs.
There was a bit more movement from Becca, and I scrambled to think of anything else to stall Odessa. “You can’t just walk away, y’know,” I slurred. “People’ll come after you.” I don’t ordinarily throw Maven’s name around, but even my thoughts felt blurry, and it was all I could come up with. “My boss will hunt you down if I don’t come back.”
Odessa’s eyes narrowed. “You know what, Lex? You’re right. I better not take any chances.” The barrel of the Glock had lowered while she was talking, but she raised it again. “You’ll die of a gunshot wound—to the head, of course. I’ll dump you downtown somewhere. Just another crime victim in Atlan—”
Becca shot her through the left bicep.
Everything happened in seconds. The horses went wild, whinnying in loud, frantic cries. Odessa screamed too, as she wheeled around to shoot at Becca—who fired a second round that hit Odessa in the right forearm, forcing her to drop the gun.
There was a moment where I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but Becca lifted the shaking gun again, and Odessa turned and sprinted out of the barn.
“Thank you,” I began, struggling to raise my head so I could see Becca. “Are you—”
I broke off, because Becca was curled up just past my feet, her arm wrapped around her stomach. The blood was already trickling through her fingers.
Chapter 33
“No!” I threw everything I had into moving toward her, and managed to sort of flop like a fish out of