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"Men Inside the mansion," Annabella said "They’ve already killed some of the servants"

My eyes widened "Men? Why? What do they want? Money?"

Annabella shook her head Either she didn’t know or she just didn’t want to tell h to scare me Whoever the ood Not now, not this late at night

"Mo in," Annabella said "She toldto try to stop the-the strongest eleh to protect her Still, I reached for the spider rune that dangled fro with the s to break The silverstone medallion felt cold, s it always coh the air

The giant sla on the floor The force of his body hitting the fireplace caused the snow globes on the mantel above to wobble and fall One by one, they slipped off their high, lofty perch and shattered on the stone below, a horrible syht have cared about all the shards of glass shredding his skin-if he’d still been alive I didn’t need Annabella to tell me that he was dead-and that our ic Elemental Ice coated thehis features a strange, bluish tinge Even his teeth were blue, his mouth open in a silent screaic to flash-freeze hih, but I couldn’t help but wonder why there were giants in the house in the first place What was going on? What could they possibly want from us?

A second later,just inside the far doorway My mother whirled around, and I realized that there was another figure behind her The person was standing in the next rooht, burning, flae-red flames twitched and danced like ertips I hissed in a breath and shrank back against Annabella, pressing ic users, of all the eleic was hot, hungry, and cruel, and nothing at all like the soft, soothinglow blue-white with her Ice th, her power, her ele ball so cold that it made my teeth chatter, even here, thirty feet above her

The Fire ele the fla out her own intense heat I could feel it up here too-the hot, pulsing power And that scaredelse had so far The Fire ele asto duel

To the death

They faced each other,hands Then, with one thought, they threw their ether Steam, smoke, and colorful sparks filled the rooic flickered againstacross ue to keep fro they stood there, locked in this deadly battle, their ainst each other’s

But the Fire eleic one slow, agonizing inch at a tietting closer and closer to Eira, evaporating all of the eleed to form Sweat and soot covered htened her slender neck Eira wavered just for a second, just for an instant, and her blue eyes flicked up to the banister, first to Annabella, then to ht I saw her ic, left her, and the elemental Fire swept over her

One moment, my mother was there The next, the blackened shell that had been her body crumpled to the floor Bits of ash flaked off her charred remains at the impact and drifted up to me Horrid, macabre confetti that settled on my face, my hands, my hair

I started to scream-and scream-and scream, but Annabella clamped her cold hand over mypanic

"Don’t scream," she whispered "Don’t you dare screaet Bria and slip out of the house Run as fast as you can I’ll slon the Fire elemental"

"No, Annabella! She’ll kill you too!"

I tried to grab my sister’s arm, but she evaded me and pounded down the stairs She made it all the way to our mother’s body Annabella crouched down and started to touch her but thought better of it Then her head snapped up, and she raised her hands, for hands Annabella wasn’t as strong as oursister tried to defend herself, tried to forh her ic like it wasn’t even there, slaown For a ht, blond And then she was gone As dead and charred as my mother

I sed ht Bria I had to get Bria We had to get out of the house We had to hide-hide or die

"Gin! Gin! Wake up!"

I gasped in a breath and sat straight up in bed, like I was Frankenstein’s monster that had just been electrified back to life It tookoverto shake me awake I shuddered out an exhalation and came the rest of the way back tothe cold sweat froo now"

She did as I asked, and I flopped down onto the bed, every part of , and exhausted Bria didn’t say anything, but I could feel her eyes on me in the darkness

"So," I h to wake ht that maybe someone had broken into the house That maybe some of the bounty hunters had tracked us here"

"No, it was just me and my psychosis I’m sorry that I woke you Usually, there’s no one around to hear me scream"

She was silent for a ed "The usual The night that our mother and Annabella died I always see different parts of it, different bits and pieces"

"What did you see tonight?"

I grih she couldn’t see it in the darkness "Oh, tonight was a real doozy I drea them both disappear into balls of flames as Mab’s elele" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>