The Guard drops her flashlight. She whirls on me, throwing punches with both hands. My stitches pull with every block, and I miss a few in the dark. Her fist connects with the side of my head. I swing and miss twice before nailing one solid hit to her face. Cartilage snaps.

“Oh, you’re going to pay for that,” she says. The air grows thick with the smell of blood. Magic crackles in the room as a flame lights in her hand.

Lixue.

I duck, tackling her around the waist. Her breath rushes out of her as she crashes to the floor. I straddle her, pinning her hands flat.

Kai grabs the flashlight. She shines it over my shoulder.

Lixue glares up at me, her eyes watery and her upper lip glistening red.

“Where’s Fleur?” I demand.

“Why should I help you?” she growls. “You and your girlfriend were content to take a nice, long vacation in Mexico while my team was stuck in a cell, waiting to die.”

“Lyon would never have killed you.”

“He was going to strip our magic. You know as well as anyone, that’s the same damn thing! As far as I’m concerned, Doug saved my life. To hell with yours.” She spits blood at my face.

I tighten my grip. “Where is she? Where’d Doug take her?”

Lixue’s snow-white eyes roll back in her head, and her breath thickens like fog. Frost crackles over her face, and for the first time I understand why Amber used to get so freaked out by my Winter magic. Her skin burns my hands, blistering cold. I grip her tighter through the layer of ice.

A low groan starts in the bathroom walls. Tile cracks and a pipe bursts, shooting a plume of water into the bunk room. The stream spirals through the air toward Kai. She drops the flashlight as the water attacks her, forcing itself into her nostrils and between her lips.

“Call it off!” I shout at Lixue. Water rushes over the floor of my bunk room, splashing across the threshold toward me.

Blood stains Lixue’s smile. “Or you’ll what?”

Kai gags, water slithering in and out of her nose and mouth. Her knees give out.

“Tell me where he’s holding Fleur!”

Lixue laughs. “The one place you wish you could, Jack.”

“Where!”

She twists, throwing me off-balance. Twin sparks ignite her palms, and I roll away from the heat. Lixue rolls with me, reaching for my face as the water soaks my clothes. I clamp down on her wrist, shaking with the effort of holding her back, her skin suddenly hot enough to sear me. I shut my eyes, turning away as her fire licks my cheek.

Across the room, Kai gags and sputters.

This is it. We’re both going to die.