One sunny afternoon, Owen carried me downstairs, since I was still too weak to stand on my own. Jo-Jo, Finn, and Bria waited for us in the kitchen. Sophia would have been here too, but the Goth dwarf was busy keeping an eye on the Pork Pit until I could get back on my feet.
Since I was still under the weather, Jo-Jo cooked, whipping up homemade tomato soup loaded with sour cream and cilantro, along with ooey, gooey grilled cheese sandwiches on some of Sophia's soft, thick sourdough bread. It was one of my favorite comfort-food meals, and I felt my strength pick back up with every warm, cheesy bite.
While I stuffed my face, the others filled me in on what had happened on their end during the fight in the courtyard. I'd heard bits and pieces of it before, but Finn launched into a blow-by-blow account. My foster brother told me in bombastic, exquisite, and somewhat excruciating detail how Xavier, Sophia, and Owen had managed to heroically fight their way through the swarm of giants and bounty hunters and make it to Bria's side, while Finn and Warren had laid down cover fire for them.
"I, of course, never had any doubt that we'd rescue fair Bria, but I thought we'd have to go through Gentry to do it," Finn said. "But she handed Bria off to Xavier without a word, then vanished into the snow. She didn't put up any fight at all. I was still going to put a couple of bullets through her head, though, just for all the trouble she'd caused, but that's when I got winged in the shoulder by some sniper fire."
Even though Jo-Jo had healed his injury too, Finn rotated his arm, wincing with imaginary pain. He looked at Bria to see if she'd noticed, but she hadn't. Instead, my baby sister stared down into her half-eaten soup, a distant look in her eyes.
"I imagine it was Sydney who shot you, protecting the old woman's back just as usual," I said. "She might be young, but that girl knows what she's doing when it comes to guns."
"Why do you think Gentry helped us, Gin?" Owen asked. "Why do you think that she killed Mab's giant and turned on the Fire elemental?"
I thought of what the bounty hunter had said to me that night in the woods outside Fletcher's house. How she'd promised to take care of Bria for me until I could rescue my sister. And then how Gentry had nodded to me when I'd stepped into the courtyard. For whatever reason, the bounty hunter had felt she'd owed me something-
"She said it was because Gin gave the girl some cookies," Bria said in a soft voice. "That's why she helped me, not just in the courtyard, but with Mab too."
I stared at my baby sister, waiting, just waiting. After a moment, she looked up, meeting my eyes. Pain flickered in her blue gaze-pain at everything Mab had done to her that long, long night. Once again, my heart ached for my sister, for everything that she'd endured because of my failure to keep her safe. But there was no blame in her eyes, no angry accusation directed at me, which made it hurt all the worse.
"Mab tortured me, you know," Bria said. "She tied me down to a chair and used her magic on me-used her elemental Fire to burn my skin. She said she wanted to practice and make sure that she was ready to take on the Spider. And, of course, she enjoyed every second of it."
Bria stopped and stared down into her soup for several seconds. Finally, she continued with her story. "But Gentry was there too, the whole time, all through the night. And when Mab was really hurting me, when she was getting close to killing me, when I thought that I couldn't take any more, Gentry would distract her. Come up with some excuse to get the Fire elemental to back off, even if it was just for a few minutes. Mab left the room once, and I was able to ask her why she was still here. After all, Mab had paid her the bounty on me by that point. Gentry just looked at me. And then she said that she owed you for some cookies you'd given to her apprentice, Sydney. I didn't really understand what she meant. Do you, Gin?"
I thought of the hunger and the delight that had filled Sydney's eyes when I'd handed her the cookies-and the sadness that had etched Gentry's face at my small act of kindness. Whatever had happened to Sydney or maybe even to Gentry herself, I'd helped alleviate it, just for that brief moment at the Pork Pit. It had meant enough to the bounty hunter for her to return the favor.
"Yeah," I said. "I know exactly what Gentry meant."
We were all silent for a moment, before Finn launched into the second half of his grandiose story, which focused on watching the end of the elemental duel between Mab and me from a safe distance. According to Finn, several of the bounty hunters and giants hadn't been so smart. They'd gotten caught up in the elemental crossfire and had been killed instantly. Finn wrapped up his tale by telling how he and the others had retrieved my burned, melted body from the rubble and whisked me off to safety. He didn't linger on that part. Couldn't blame him for that. I didn't want to think too much about it myself.
"Anyway, the next time you go off and kill the ultimate evil, remind me to wear sunglasses," Finn quipped, taking a sip of his latest cup of coffee. "Because that elemental light show of yours almost burned out my eyes, Gin."
"Sure," I said. "I'll stop and do that very thing the next time I'm fighting for my life against a Fire elemental with unimaginable power."
"Well, that shouldn't be anytime soon," he drawled. "Considering that you killed Mab. Your Ice flames or magic or whatever they were did just as much damage to her as her Fire did to you. Once you were in Jo-Jo's hands, Owen and I went back to the courtyard to make sure that she was dead. All that was left of Mab were a few bones-and this."
Finn got up and retrieved something wrapped in a thick towel off one of the counters. He placed it on the table in front of me, and I carefully unwound the thick fabric, revealing Mab's sunburst necklace. The symbol for fire.
Somehow, the necklace had survived Mab's elemental Fire and had come through unscathed. The wavy golden rays looked as bright and polished as ever, and the ruby set into the middle of the design gleamed like fresh blood. But more disturbing than that I could hear the gemstone's murmurs-its whispers of fire, heat, death, and destruction that were the essence of Mab herself. Enemy, enemy, enemy... that primal voice in the back of my head started muttering.
Emotion filled me then, terrible, terrible emotion that this piece of the Fire elemental had survived. I snatched up the golden rays and reached for my Ice magic. It took only a second for me to coat the necklace in elemental Ice.
And then I smashed it to pieces.
I slammed the frozen necklace down onto the table again and again and again, happily watching the rays snap off one by one, their golden glow choked to death by my Ice. Finally, all that was left of the design was the ruby. I grabbed the gemstone in my right hand, wrapped my fist around it, and blasted it with all the Ice magic that I could bring to bear.