"Sniper!" I yelled at Finn. "In the maple tree! Cover me!"
Finn nodded, rose to one knee, and trained his gun in that direction. I got to my feet and sprinted across the grass.
Crack! Crack!
Chapter Four
More shots rang out. I saw wood splinter on the tree ahead of me, and I knew that Finn was laying down the cover fire I'd asked him to, giving me a chance to get to the sniper.
Finn and the sniper exchanged a few more shots before the shooter pulled back behind a branch high up in the tree. He was probably reloading. I picked up my pace, leaping over the folks still cowering on the ground. Even the minister had taken cover, hunkering down behind Mab's coffin. He knew the score in Ashland just like the rest of us did.
I made it over to the tree, sucking wind the whole time. I hadn't sprinted that far, only several hundred feet, but my knees ached, my legs felt weak and wobbly, and my arms weren't much better. Damn. I hated not being a hundred percent. Still, I didn't have time to curse my lingering weakness. Instead, I snapped my head up and peered through the leaves.
The sniper was about thirty feet above me, standing on a couple of thick, sturdy boards he'd nailed into place. What had he done, built a fucking tree house up there before the funeral? The sniper had noticed my run across the grass. He leaned over to one side, peering down at me, and I realized he was a dwarf with dull brown hair that blended in with the branches around him.
The dwarf let out a curse, raised his rifle to his shoulder, and trained the weapon on me. My muscles may not have been fully recovered from my fight with Mab, but there was nothing wrong with my magic. As soon as he started swiveling in my direction, I reached for my Stone power, using it to harden my skin into an impenetrable shell.
Crack! Crack!
Two more shots came my way, making me stagger back, but thanks to my Stone power, the bullets hit my chest and then bounced right off, flying across the grass. The dwarf looked down at me, his mouth gaping, as if he couldn't believe I was still standing. Yeah, I got that reaction a lot.
Despite the fact that he'd just tried to kill me, I could tell a hired gun when I saw one, so I decided to see if he could be reasoned with, mainly because I didn't have any desire - much less the physical strength - to climb up into the tree and get him. Not today, anyway.
"You're going to run out of bullets sooner or later, so you might as well come on down," I said in a cold voice, peering up through the leaves and branches at him. "Because you do not want me to come up there after you. "
Apparently the dwarf decided to call my bluff, because he raised his rifle again.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
More bullets roared through the air, but the sniper wasn't as careful with his aim as before, so most of the shots just thumped into the grass at my feet. Still, it was enough to make most of the mourners scream and cower once more.
The shooting stopped, and the dwarf cursed again as he reloaded. Every movement made him jingle, like his pockets were full of bullets rattling around together. I sighed: it looked like he'd brought along more ammunition than I'd given him credit for. Well, at least he'd come prepared. I had to admire that. Now I just had to figure out how to get him to stop shooting and pry him out of the tree.
There was only one choice really: I had to use my magic.
Sure, I'd already reached for my Stone power, using it to protect myself; but what I had in mind now would be a much more obvious display of my elemental ability. Most folks here might have heard the rumors about my being the Spider, but I didn't want to give them any more hints about me or add any more fuel to the fires of speculation.
But I couldn't risk the dwarf pointing his rifle back out at the crowd and taking shots at everyone else. Sooner or later he was bound to hit someone, and it would be just my bad luck that an innocent person would get hurt. Or, worse, that the dwarf would target my family. No, I had to get that rifle out of his hands right now. At least, most of the crime bosses were still huddled on the grass underneath the bodies of their giant guards. Maybe they wouldn't see exactly what I was doing. I snorted. Right. Nobody was that lucky - especially not me.
I stepped forward and reached for my magic. But not my Stone power. No, this time, I grabbed hold of my Ice magic. For a moment I smiled, relishing the feel of the cool power flowing through my veins; then I pushed the magic outward. A cold silver light flickered on my palm, centered in the middle of the spider rune scar there. I leaned forward, placed my hand against the rough bark of the tree trunk, and let loose with my power.
Ice crystals spread out from my palm, climbing higher and higher into the maple, zipping from one branch, one leaf, to the next. If I wanted to, I could have frozen the entire tree in a matter of seconds with my elemental Ice, but that would have just been showing off, something I didn't need or even want to do. So I focused on the branches closest to the sniper, forcing the Ice crystals in that direction - and then out onto the boards the dwarf had nailed to the tree.
The sniper let out a surprised shout and backed up, trying to get away from the encroaching crystals, but there was no escaping them - or how slippery they were. The dwarf's boots skidded this way and that on the elemental Ice, and he held on to the rifle, his arms twirling around like he was a figure skater, but he couldn't stop the inevitable. One foot slipped over the side of the platform, then the other.
The dwarf screamed all the way down to the ground.
I let go of my magic, dropped my hand from the tree trunk, and stepped to one side. The sniper hit the ground with a satisfying thump. I had no illusions he was dead, though. The shooter's body didn't look as thick and strong as Sophia's, but he was still a dwarf, which meant that he could take a lot of damage before he was down for the count. A thirty-foot fall probably wouldn't even break any of the bastard's bones.
The drop stunned the dwarf for a second, but he recovered quickly. I'd just started to reach for him when he rolled over onto his side away from me and scrambled to his feet. His eyes dropped to the sniper rifle, which lay between us, and I could see him wondering whether it was worth it to try to lunge for the weapon and shoot me at point-blank range.
The dwarf made the right decision and decided not to go for the weapon. Instead, he bared his teeth at me, turned, and ran to the left, hurrying across the cemetery lawn as fast as he could. I sighed, hating the thought of having to chase after him. Why did they always have to run -
Crack!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Crack! Crack!