“If you were a true fan, then you would know that no one does my job better than me,” I hissed.
Celeste let out a strangled scream, almost as if she was agreeing with me. Then her eyes rolled up in the back of her head, and she crumpled to the ground with my Ice knife still stuck in her neck. Blood started pooling under her body. The scarlet sheen matched her fancy costume.
The pirate queen was dead.
“Celeste!” Darrell shouted. “No!”
He had finally managed to scramble away from Owen, who was now battling the two giants. Owen had gotten his hands on someone’s sword, and one of the giants already lay dead at his feet. Owen snarled and engaged the second giant, swinging his stolen sword like it was his more familiar blacksmith hammer.
“Celeste!” Darrell shouted again.“Celeste!”
He raced in my direction. I reached for my Ice magic again, but before I could make another knife, he plowed into me. My legs hit something, and Darrell bent me backward. An instant later, my head snapped back against a hard surface, making me lose my grip on my Stone magic. White stars flashed in front of my eyes, and my skin reverted to its normal vulnerable texture.
It took mea moment to realize that I was now sprawled across the table with the fancy medieval diorama. Judging from the hard lumps poking into my back, I’d just flattened a couple of mountains and several legions of dwarves and giants.
I tried to rise, but Darrell shoved me right back down again, then grabbed one of the gray stone castles off the table.
“You bitch!” he screamed, his voice teetering ona plaintive wail. “You killed Celeste! You killed my pirate queen!”
He snapped the castle down, aiming for my nose, but I managed to catch his wrist in my hand and stop him from hitting me. But that was only part of the problem. The castle also featured a flag pole with a very long, very sharp point. Darrell snarled and pressed down, trying to drive the needlelike tip into my right eye.
My headwas still spinning, and I was having trouble grabbing hold of my magic so I could blast him with my Ice power. He might be an amateur, but he could still kill me if he hit me in just the right spot—
Something silver glinted behind Darrell, who suddenly screamed and arched back. The miniature castle slipped from his hand, hit the side of the table, and bounced off, dropping to the floor. A handgrabbed Darrell’s shoulder, yanking him away from me.
Owen was here.
I rolled off the table, landing hard on my knees on the floor. The fall rattled my brain again, making a few more white stars wink on and off in front of my eyes. I forced myself to scoot away from Darrell, but I didn’t have to worry about him any longer.
Owen spun Darrell around, then stepped up and rammed his sword intothe other man’s stomach.
Darrell screamed again and clutched at Owen’s costume, his face white with shock and pain.
“That’s for hurting Gin,” Owen growled. “And this is for hurting me.”
He shoved the sword in even deeper, then yanked it out and pushed the other man away.
Darrell screamed again and stumbled back against the table hard enough to jostle the remaining castles, mountains, and figurineson the diorama. Het let out another strangled cry, then his legs went out from under him, and he sank to the floor. He tried to clamp his hands down over the wound, but he didn’t have the strength for it, and he slowly pitched over onto his side.
Darrell landed right next to that gray stone castle he’d tried to stab into my face, and he lifted his arm, as though he was going to reach for it.But he was even weaker than before, and his hand flopped to the floor well short of the castle. He didn’t move after that.
The Black Rook was dead.
Owen stood overDarrell, wheezing for breath and still clutching his stolen sword. He kicked Darrell in the ribs to make sure he was dead, then staggered over and dropped to his knees besideme.
“Gin! Are you okay?”
I blinked the last few stars out of my eyes and focused on him. Owen’s face was a mess of cuts, blood, and bruises from fighting Darrell, and his broken nose had swelled up to almost twice its normal size, but he was as handsome as ever to me.
Owen leaned forward and cupped my cheek with his bloody hand, gently stroking his thumb across my skin. “Gin? Are you okay?”he repeated.
I reached up and grabbed his hand, squeezing it in my equally bloody one. “I’m okay. Thanks to you.”
Owen grinned, his eyes glowing like beautiful violet moons. His grin widened, and he leaned down to kiss me—
The main barn doors burst open, and Finn, Bria, and Sophia charged inside. Finn and Bria were both clutching swords, while Sophia was holding her silver cutlass.
My friendsskidded to a stop, their heads snapping from side to side as they took in the four dead giants, along with Celeste and Darrell and the fantasy diorama I’d flattened during the fight.
