I reached for my Ice magic again. It was harder this time, so fucking hard, like trying to scoop up water with wide fingers. Every time I gathered up enough power, it slipped away. So I reached for it again, clenching my hands around the trickle of magic inside me. It tried to slip away, but I held on tight and pulled, yanking it to me, bending it to my will.

And something inside me wrenched.

For a moment, I felt like a raw egg that had been dropped on the floor—broken, messy, oozing. But then magic filled me. More Ice magic than I’d ever felt before.

I didn’t stop to think about where it had come from or whether this was all some sort of deathbed hallucination on my part. I used the magic to freeze more of the water rushing through the air and threw it at Dawson.

This time, the droplets formed long, slender icicles that zipped through the dusty air like daggers. The dwarf saw them coming. He stopped in his tracks about five feet away from me and brought his own Stone magic to bear, trying to block my attack, trying to use his elemental power to harden his skin against the crude weapons, as I’d done so many times before.

But it didn’t work.

Maybe he was too distracted by the chaos around him.

Maybe I’d wrecked his concentration with my initial sneak attack. Maybe I’d upset the order of his perfectly arranged duel, and he just didn’t know how to recover from the unfairness of it all.

Whatever the reason, my icicles slammed into Dawson’s chest with all the force of one of my silverstone knives. The blue glow of magic snuffed out of the dwarf ’s bulging eyes, and he opened his mouth to scream. The rest of the ceiling began to collapse, drowning out his hoarse cries.

It should have been dark in the cavern, which was choked by dust, debris, mud, and water. But it wasn’t.

There was a light on—me. I stared down at my hands.

The spider rune scars on my palms, the ones that had been caused by the silverstone metal burning into my flesh all those years ago, were on fire—with icy flames.

And I felt the power surge through me again, greater than before. Ice magic that felt almost as strong as my Stone power did.

Not good.