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The sound of her saying ain, my real name, made that little pri the way that it always did whenever I was around the Fire eleed "It see to walk out of here alive, considering all thewith you Admit it, Mab You’re scared of me You always have been Deep down, there’s a part of you that realizes that I er than you That’s why you killed my mother and older sister That’s why you tried to kill me and Bria Because you’ve always been scared of us and e could do to you At the end of the day, you’re nothing but a bully and a fucking coward"

Rage flickered in Mab’s eyes, e than I had ever seen her show before I’d hit a little too close to home with my words, but the Fire elemental would never admit it Not even now, at the end

"I killed your mother because I wanted to," Mab snarled "Because she was an arrogant, po your father, Tristan"

I’d once heard Elliot Slater say that Mab had pursued ic on to any kids that they h that wouldn’t have been a certainty But my father had loved my mother and chosen her instead Tristan had died when I was a child, supposedly in a car accident, and I barely remembered him

"Our families have hated each other for years, Genevieve We’ve been at war for decades," Mab continued

"And why is that?" I asked, genuinely curious

Mab smiled "My fas in Ashland should be run And your faoodies that they inherently are Ice eleh toenough to take htful place as the head of the Ashland underworld But doing all that involved things that your weak, spineless mother didn’t approve of, and she felt it was her duty to try to stop me, just as her s like what? Murder? Extortion? Kidnappings? I wonder why Eira had such a proble tone

Mab waved her hand "Please Eira cared as little about a debt to me that he just couldn’t pay off So I killed hi theround"

I froze Owen She had to be talking about Owen’s family and how she’d killed them Somehow, my hting Mab because of their deaths Just when I thought that I knew everything there was to know aboutelse reared up to surprise uht she’d had Every tiain power after that, she countered it, undercutting me But I took care of her in the end"

Mab’s eyes darkened thather own flashbacks, reainst my mother I wondered if she was as haunted by them as I was by her But the moment passed, and the Fire eleer than htened "Jo-Jo Deveraux, for starters For years, the dwarf has been telling ic than any ele you, Mab"

So almost like uncertainty flickered in her face Around us, a few of her men shifted on their feet, the scrape of their shoes as loud as gunshots in the absolute quiet They didn’t knohat totheir boss-or the fact that she didn’t immediately disputeher features I wondered if this was how rown up as part of two opposing elemental families I wondered if this hat my mother had noticed in Mab that had made Eira stand up to her-the evil and hate that turned the Fire elely

Mab snapped her fingers I tensed, ready to reach forher to throw a ball of elemental Fire at me just like she had in the country club But instead, a small red dot popped up on my chest, just level with my heart

Well, well, well Someone had a sniper rifle handy I wondered if it was Sydney or one of the other bounty hunters Didn’ton one of my heavy silverstone vests before I’d walked into the courtyard No h the hard shell of the ical metal that shielded my chest

"As you can see," Mab sneered "I learned from my past mistakes As you said before, I didn’t coood this time"

I just smiled at Mab "Wow, you reallyyourself to use yourto have one of your boys do it instead, are you? I rong before You’re no bully You’re nothing but a cowardly bitch"

Mab’s eyes narrowed to slits, but she didn’t respond to ain, and a shot rang out, shattering the silence of the falling snow

Chapter 27

The bullet ripped through the air on its deadly course-but not at me

Instead, a sharp, startled cry sounded A second later, a man rolled down a pile of rubble that he’d been perched on top of about thirty feet off to my left His body came to rest in the base of the courtyard For a moment, everyone was stunned Just stunned

Then Mab turned back tooff her in palpable waves so hot that the snow under her stilettos started to ooze and melt from the constant, invisible drip of her elemental Fire power

"You didn’t really think that I came here alone, did you, Mab?" I mocked her "That’s one down Which one of your men wants to die next?"

Mab opened herretort at me, but I beat her to the punch

"Now, Finn!" I screa out, and one of the giants holding onto Bria collapsed in the snow, thanks to the bullets that Finn had just put through his eye One down, one to go

Then thehappened Ruth Gentry pulled out her revolver and shot the other giant in the back of the head three times He too dropped to the snow Gentry reached forward and jerked Bria back, putting ave ed sides Hell,Let me and Mab duke it out, then sell Bria back to whoever was left standing at the end Either way, she’d gotten Bria away froiants and that much closer to safety So this tile" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>