His pale blue eyes narrowed. "I'm listening."

"You let me go, and I tell you who wants you dead. How does that sound?"

The dwarf nodded. "All right. You have a deal."

Lying bastard. He wasn't going to let me go, and we both knew it. But this was how the game was played when you were sloppy enough to get captured. Dragging things out to the bitter end. I'd only get one shot to try to take out Dawson. I knew what I was going to do, but whether I had the strength for it was another matter. Still, it was best to keep him talking as long as possible.

I backed up a few steps from the dwarf so that I was clear of the stalactites and the water dripping down from the ceiling. He didn't follow me. His first mistake. "So you've figured out what I am, what I do."

"You're an assassin," Dawson said. "That's the only explanation for all those silverstone knives you had on you and the way you threw yourself at me at the party."

Well, at least he wasn't stupid enough to think I'd really been attracted to him. That would have been rather sad on his part. I gave him a thin smile. "Actually, I was enjoying my retirement, if you can believe that. But then, as the old story goes, I got one last job offer, and the money, well, it was just too good to pass up."

Another assassin, Brutus, had said those words to me once - right before I'd killed him. Of course, they were a complete fabrication on my part now. But it was just the sort of fairy tale Tobias Dawson wanted to hear, the story he'd already sold himself on. I could see the suspicion in his eyes. All I had to do was fill in the name for him. And even if I didn't make it out of here alive, I still planned on causing as much trouble as I could for one certain individual.

"Who hired you? Why? Tell me right now, or I'll let my boys have some fun with you." Dawson jerked his thumb over his shoulder at his two men.

Behind him, one of the giants rubbed his crotch and rocked his hips forward. His buddy laughed at him and gave me a slow wink. Their casual mockery made my anger ratchet up from a slow simmer to a boil. Those bastards weren't laying another hand on me.

But I still had my part to play for Tobias Dawson, so I took another step back from the jagged stalactites and threw my hands out wide. "Isn't it obvious who I'm working for? Who else knows about this little diamond mine you've stumbled upon? Who else have you told about it? Why don't you think about that for a few seconds and get back to me."

The dwarf frowned and spit out another stream of tobacco juice. His blue eyes turned inward as he reviewed the list of folks he'd shared his underground discovery with. I was willing to bet it was a real short list - with only one woman's name on it.

"Mab," he muttered. "Mab Monroe. That's who you're working for?"

I shot my thumb and forefinger at him. "Give the man a prize."

Dawson frowned. "But why would she hire an assassin to kill me?"

Despite my broken jaw, I managed a laugh. A loud, mocking laugh that echoed off the walls. "Because, you idiot, she wants all this for herself. All these lovely, lovely diamonds, and the money that's going to come along with them."

"No way." Dawson shook his head. "There's no fucking way you're working for Mab. She wouldn't turn on me like that."

I snorted. "Take your head out of your ass. Of course Mab would turn on you like that. It's what she does. She's made a career out of it, as a friend of mine would say. You're just the latest casualty in her ever-expanding empire."

Dawson paced back and forth in front of me as he thought about it. I took another small step back. Ten feet now separated me from the dwarf. Not as much as I would have liked, but it was going to have to do. After a few seconds, the dwarf stopped pacing. The doubt in his eyes faded away, replaced by sparking anger. I'd sold him on the lie. Even if I didn't make it out of this cavern alive, Dawson might do something stupid and go after Mab Monroe himself. She'd probably kill him, but at least he'd feel her wrath before he died. And he might inconvenience her slightly. Either way, it was the best I could do, given my current situation.

"Although I am curious about one thing," I said.

"What?" Dawson asked.

"The old man at the store. Why did you brace him like that? Why do you need his land so badly? We're in this cavern right now with all these gorgeous stones. I know you don't own the mineral rights to the diamonds, but why not just quietly take them out of the walls yourself and be done with it?"

Dawson shook his head. "All that Stone magic you have, and you don't really know anything about your own element, do you?"

I shrugged. "Geology isn't my strong suit."

The dwarf pointed to the ceiling, where water dripped off one of the stalactites. "This whole cavern is directly underneath a creek that runs through Fox's property. The ceiling's strong enough as it is, but if I start digging diamonds out of here, there's a good chance the whole thing will collapse in, leaving a giant sinkhole right in the middle of his backyard - even bigger than the one that's there right now."

He wasn't telling me anything I hadn't already guessed, but it was nice to have some confirmation.

"And you couldn't risk that," I said in a soft voice. "You couldn't risk him finding out about the diamonds that are on his own land."

"Smart and pretty. A shame you're going to die so young," Dawson mocked.

"I thought we had a deal," I said, although there was no real protest in my voice. I'd expected the double cross.

The dwarf laughed. "Ah, the foolishness of youth. But I'm a sporting man. I'll give you a chance to get out of here."

"Really? And how would I do that?"

Dawson stared at me. "All you have to do is beat me -  in an elemental duel."

Chapter Thirty

"A duel?" I asked.

He nodded. "A duel. That's how I take care of my problems. Haven't lost one yet in more than two hundred years." He looked over his shoulder. "You boys might want to step out of the way for this."

The giants moved off to either side of the cavern, leaving Dawson standing by himself in the middle.

The two men looked bored, as though they'd seen their boss do this a dozen times before. They probably had.

The dwarf stood relaxed with his knees slightly bent.

He tipped his cowboy hat back on his head to give himself a clearer look at me, and his hands hung down by his sides, fingers flexing and unflexing. He reminded me of some Old West gunfighter who'd just called the town sheriff out into the dusty street for a noon showdown.

Yeah, I could see how elemental dueling would fit right in with Dawson's cowboy fetish. Too bad it was going to be the death of him.

"A duel, huh?" I asked again.

"A duel," he repeated. "You and me. Right here, right now. Think about it, how strong your magic is. You might beat me."

But Dawson didn't sound too concerned by the possibility.

Bastard was trying to goad me into making the first move. Into doing something sloppy. Oh, I was going to do something all right, but it wasn't going to be what he expected.

Still, I had to play this out to its inevitable conclusion, so I reached for the cool power deep inside me. Gathering it up, letting it fill every part of my being. Although I couldn't see them, I knew my eyes were glowing a bright silver with my elemental power. All around me, the stones' murmurs intensified, sensing my command over them.

But the dwarf wasn't worried. If anything, my reaching for my magic amused him. Tobias Dawson grabbed hold of his own Stone magic. Power poured off him like the water sliding down the cavern wall, and his eyes glowed a dull, slate blue. The dwarf was strong, and his magic felt old and well-worn, like a horse he'd broken in over the years. No wonder he wanted to duel. One burst of magic from him would be enough to take down most elementals.

Maybe even me.

The dwarf let out a low laugh. "You have power, bitch, I'll give you that. A lot of raw power. I'm going to enjoy this."

"So why give me this chance, if I'm so strong? If I could beat you?"

"Because I like challenges." Dawson grinned and spit out another stream of tobacco juice. The foul brown mixture landed at my feet.

"Do you know what I like, Tobias?" I asked.

"What?"

"Playing dirty."

I smiled at him and threw my magic at the cavern ceiling.

There was no time for finesse, restraint, or even patience. One shot was all I had, and I took it. I threw everything I had at the cavern ceiling. All my Stone magic and all my Ice power, weak though it was. The water that had been dripping off the formations and sluicing down the cavern wall immediately froze. The resulting crystal droplets glistened like the diamonds embedded in the walls. The sudden surge of Ice caused bits and pieces of the cavern to crack and sheer off from the rest of the walls and ceiling.

Dust and dirt puffed up into the air.

Jo-Jo Deveraux had always told me I had more Stone magic than anyone she'd ever seen before. I hoped that meant Tobias Dawson too. But I'd been weakened by Dawson's punches, and I wasn't at full strength. Even if I had been, I was still hammering at stone that had been around long before I'd been born - and would be around long after I was gone. Layers and layers and layers of it. But I used my magic, my Stone power, like a hammer, smashing at everything I could feel with raw, brute force.

Across from me, Tobias Dawson frowned, not sure what the hell I was doing, why I wasn't attacking him. I had maybe another two or three seconds before he figured it out and hit me with everything he had.

I drew in a breath and threw another blast of Stone magic at the ceiling, even as I reached for my Ice power, making the frozen droplets and stream of water expand in size. I forced the Ice into the stone like a chisel. Ice, stone.

Chisel, hammer.

My vision became a field of silver. Sweat dripped into my eyes, my knees trembled, and my whole body felt weak. It felt like I'd been toiling away for years, decades, even though only a second, two tops, had passed. I wanted to let go of my magic, wanted to rest. Every part of my aching body screamed at me to just let go and fall into the blackness that was threatening to overwhelm me.

But if I did that, if I gave Dawson a second of opportunity, he'd throw his own magic at me, and I didn't have the strength to ward him off. Not now. So I gritted my teeth, pushed the pain away, and kept hammering at the stone. Bringing the ceiling down might be the last thing I'd ever do, but the fucker was going to fall.

Crack! Crack-crack!

It started to work. A large stalactite broke off from the ceiling. It plummeted down like a knife and speared one of the giants in his shoulder. He howled in pain and fell to the cavern floor. Crimson blood splashed everywhere, and the stone underneath my feet took on a darker vibration.

Dawson's head snapped around at the giant's screams. Sloppy, sloppy of him to get distracted like that.

I kept working. Ice, stone. Chisel, hammer.

Another second passed. Another piece of the roof broke off, this time above Dawson's head. His Stone magic gave him enough of a warning for him to leap forward to get out of its way. The dwarf hit the ground hard.

It didn't even daze him.

"Kill her!" Dawson screamed at the other giant even as he scrambled to his feet. "Kill her before she collapses the whole ceiling - "

Too late.

I felt a weakness in the stone, a little sliver of vulnerability caused by years of water seeping into it. I gathered my strength a final time and forced all the magic I had left into that pocket of air. It wasn't as wide as a needle, but it was big enough.

CRACK!

The bottom of the cavern ceiling blew out with an enormous roar, as though a bucket full of grenades had just exploded next to it. The trickles of water became a rushing torrent that cascaded everywhere, and violet tremors shook the ground under my feet. Dust and dirt and rock zipped through the air like shrapnel. I dived to the ground and rolled back, back, back - away from Dawson, the two giants, and the stalactites that ringed the ceiling over their heads. My eyes latched onto a recess in the cavern wall, and I scrabbled over and into it. The space was just barely big enough to shield my body, but the rock here was harder than that above, which had been weakened by the water.

The stalactites that had been hanging overhead dropped to the ground like pointed guillotine blades. The first wave skewered the giant who'd been injured before, until he resembled some sort of oversize voodoo doll with a mass of rocky pins stuck in it. The second man got half a dozen steps back toward the mine entrance before one of the rock spears split his head open. I saw his blood hit the wall even through the spray of water, dust, and falling rock.

Tobias Dawson was smarter than his minions. Tougher too. Like me, he dived forward, avoiding most of the deadly stalactites. The dwarf bounced up onto his feet.

He saw me cowering in the recess, and his blue eyes narrowed in hate.

"I'll kill you for this, bitch!" His roar echoed through the cavern even above the hiss of water and thunder of the splintered stones.

The dwarf ran in my direction, still dodging the falling rocks and cascading water. His blue eyes burned with magic. He stretched out his hands, ready to throw his power at me or to drag me out of the recess and into the falling debris. Probably both. The dwarf might survive the punishment of the ceiling collapse, but I wouldn't.

My body wasn't as tough and strong as his. I didn't have my knives, so there was only one thing left I could do to fight him off.

This time, I threw my magic at him.

My Ice magic. It was all I had left. I'd exhausted the Stone to collapse the ceiling. So I focused on the water droplets flicking through the air in front of the charging dwarf, freezing and flinging them at Dawson. I was already weakened from the effort of drawing on so much magic, so instead of the knives I'd imagined, the droplets turned to shards of Ice that did little more than prick the dwarf 's thick skin. It didn't slow him down. Another few feet, and he'd be able to reach me. And then I'd get dead.