I dished up the last of the macaroni salad in my tin pan and turned to Sophia. "Can you handle things for a while? I see something I need to take care of."
The dwarf followed my gaze, frowned, and nodded. She didn't like the two girls being close to Kincaid any more than I did, especially since we still didn't know what he was plotting.
"Go," she rasped.
I undid my blue work apron, lifted the strings over my head, and tied them to the brass railing behind me. Then I skirted around the cooking station and headed for Kincaid. Antonio, who'd been leaning against the railing and idly ogling the pretty young girls who walked by, snapped to attention as I stalked past him.
"Down, boy," I drawled. "I just want to talk to your boss a second. I'm not going to kill him."
Yet.
The word wasn't spoken, but the threat must have shown in my cold face, because Antonio followed me over to where Kincaid was holding court with Eva and Violet.
Violet saw me first and winced, like the jig was up. She tapped Eva on the arm, trying to get her attention, but Eva was too interested in what Kincaid had to say to pay her friend any mind. That changed, though, the second I shouldered my way in between Eva and Kincaid, not so subtly bumping the casino boss away from her and making him take several steps back.
"Why, hello, Eva," I drawled again. "I had no idea you were going to be here tonight."
"Gin!" Eva sputtered, her blue eyes widening. "What - what are you doing here?"
"Catering. And you?"
It took her a second to recover, but when she did, she gestured at the other kids. "Overseeing the fund-raiser."
"Really? This is your fund-raiser? I don't remember you telling me anything about it when you and Violet had lunch at the Pork Pit yesterday. I'm surprised you wouldn't mention it to me, if the cause was so very important to you. But I'm guessing you told Owen all about it, right? And where you were going tonight?"
A guilty flush stained Eva's pale cheeks. Busted. Eva realized as well as I did that Owen wouldn't want her near anyone as dangerous as Kincaid, but here she was all the same. I couldn't help but wonder why. Was the fund-raiser being held on the riverboat just a coincidence? Or was there something else going on? Something between Eva and Kincaid, as unlikely as that seemed? I didn't know, but I was going to find out.
I had to hand it to her, Eva wasn't easily intimidated, not even by the likes of me, and she raised her chin. "I needed somewhere to host the fund-raiser, somewhere cooler and more interesting than the student center, so I called Philly and asked him if we could use the riverboat. He said yes."
"Philly?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.
Kincaid squared his shoulders and looked me in the eye. "Philly. It's an old nickname Eva gave me when we were kids."
This time, both my eyebrows shot up. According to Finn's sketchy file on him, Kincaid was my age, thirty, which made him about eleven years older than Eva. Even if you disregarded the age difference, they didn't exactly move in the same social circles. So what was going on here? How did they know each other? And more importantly, why was Eva being so nice to Kincaid? Cozying up to him like he was a long-lost friend?
I was opening my mouth to ask those very questions, when a scream ripped through the crowd.
Chapter 6
One second, everything was normal. Kids were laughing, talking, drinking, eating, and playing games. The next, everyone had stopped what they were doing, puzzled expressions on their faces as they tried to figure out why someone was interrupting their buzz. Then, when the screams didn't stop, panic rippled through the crowd, until all the kids were pushing, shoving, and lurching around the deck, trying to put some distance between themselves and whatever horrible thing was happening.
I immediately palmed one of my silverstone knives and turned toward the source of the disturbance, although I made sure to keep Kincaid in my line of sight as well, just in case this was some kind of trick to distract me. He might be the boss here, but I wouldn't have put it past him to pull a gun or knife on me and get his hands dirty himself.
"Back, back, back!" I yelled at Eva and Violet, pushing the two girls until they were up against the closed doors that led inside the riverboat.
Knife in hand, I put myself in front of them, protecting them from whatever the danger might be - and that's when I realized the screams were coming from Antonio.
Given their tall, strong, thick bodies, giants were tough to injure and even tougher to kill. Sure, you could take one down with a gun or knife, but you usually had to work to do it. But Antonio was bent over double in the middle of the deck, his hands clutched to his head as though he had the worst migraine imaginable. He just kept screaming and screaming, and I couldn't figure out why. He didn't appear to have been stabbed, and I hadn't heard any gunshots ring out. He didn't seem to have so much as a paper cut. So what the hell was wrong with him?
Antonio finally lifted his head and straightened up. Once again, I looked him over, searching for any injuries and what might have caused them. I didn't see any blood or wounds - not so much as a nick or a bruise - but wait . . . There was something wrong with his skin. It looked . . . wet.
And that's when I felt the first gust of magic swirl through the air.
The elemental power slid against my skin as cool, slick, and gentle as water dripping off waxed paper. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation - not at all - but I didn't welcome it either. Because magic most always meant trouble.
I focused, concentrating on the feel of the other elemental's magic, but I couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from or who in the panicked crowd was wielding it - just that it was concentrated on Antonio.
After a few more seconds, the giant's screams faded to garbled gasps. He was having trouble getting words out, and then his voice dried up altogether. He stood in the middle of the deck, his dark eyes empty, his body swaying from side to side like a tree about to topple over.
And he literally melted.
I watched as his skin, which had seemed damp before, took on a glossy sheen, as though he'd just run ten miles uphill and was sweating profusely. But it wasn't sweat slicking down Antonio's face, neck, and hands. It was water - all the water in his body, leaving.
"A water elemental," I muttered, although my voice was lost in the commotion of the crowd.
I knew there were elementals gifted with water magic, and I'd heard of the ways such people used their abilities for everything from sailing, skiing, and fishing to more serious matters like flood control. But I'd never seen anything like this.
The human body was mostly made of water, and giants' bodies were no different. More and more water beaded upon Antonio's skin until it dripped off the ends of his fingers, his chin, hell, even the tip of his nose. His soaked suit was plastered to his body, and water leaked out of his wing tips and slowly spread across the deck. Well, that explained his agonized cries. Having the water forced out of every single cell in your body would make anyone scream, even a giant.