She grinned. “Out of magic already, Gin? How disappointing. I thought that the legendary Spider would be tougher to beat than this. Why, I haven’t been hitting you more than three minutes now. Going to let me beat you to death after all? Pathetic. But I have to thank you. This will be so much more fun than simply smothering you.”

She drew back her fist and drove it into my chest.

Thwack.

One of my ribs cracked.

Thwack.

Another rib splintered.

Thwack.

She went for my shoulder that third time, and pain exploded in the socket and reverberated along my collarbone and down into my arm. Fuck. I hated having a broken collarbone.

The pain almost overwhelmed me, but I forced it to the back of my mind and concentrated on the cold, raw fury of my magic, drawing it up from the deepest, darkest, blackest part of me. I let the Ice power flood my body first, numbing me from head to toe, until I couldn’t feel the sharp, pulsing pain in my ribs or the fact that my collarbone felt like broken bits of confetti barely clinging together. I reached for more and more of my Ice magic until all I felt was cold—and the determination to end this bitch once and for all.

Clementine stopped hitting me long enough to throw back her head and laugh again. She didn’t notice me stretch my arms out to either side of my body and press my palms flat on the stone walkway. Looking past Clementine, I stared at the statue of the old man, my gaze narrowing in on the spear in his hand.

Finally, she quit laughing. “But as much as I’d love to break every single bone in your body, you were right before, Gin,” Clementine said. “I have a boat to catch and a fortune to spend. It’s a crying shame that Opal and Dixon won’t be around to help me use all that money, but I’ll toast to them—and your death—with the finest champagne. Good-bye, oh, great and not-so-mighty Spider.”

Clementine drew back her fist for the final, killing blow. Instead of trying to fight her off, I reached out with my Stone magic, pushing it toward the statue. The giant finally noticed that I wasn’t paying attention to her anymore. She hesitated, wondering what I was doing.

“You know what, Clem?” I mumbled through a mouthful of blood, my eyes still on the statue.

“What?”

“Don’t count your diamonds before they’re fenced,” I snarled.

And that’s when I finally unleashed my power.

Chapter 26

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