My hand trembled a bit, but I made myself clench my fingers around the hilt of the paring knife even tighter. The feel of the smooth steel handle digging into my cold skin steadied me. I drew in a breath. I could do this. I would do this. This was what Fletcher was training me for, so I could protect myself and the people I cared about. I didn’t know if that included some random kid, much less Sophia, but Fletcher and Jo-Jo loved her, and I loved them. And that was all that really mattered to me.
“All right, all right,” Zeke muttered. “Look at her. She ain’t no great beauty. I’d rather have the cash from the register than her, anyway.”
“C’mon, then,” Mason repeated. “Quit whining, and help me carry her. She looks heavy.”
Zeke rolled his eyes, but he rebuckled his belt and got back to his feet. Then both of the men leaned over. Mason grabbed Sophia’s ankles, while Zeke took hold of her shoulders.
“On three,” Mason said. “One, two—”
I didn’t wait for three. Instead, I rose from behind the table and raced across the restaurant. The giants were so focused on Sophia that they never even saw me coming.
I rammed my knife into Mason’s right side. He screamed with pain and surprise, but there was nothing that I could do to keep him quiet, so I yanked the knife out and stabbed it into his other side. The paring knife wasn’t quite as strong as I’d thought it would be, but I kept twisting and twisting it into his muscles, sawing through his ligaments and tendons.
Blood spattered all over the blue and pink pig tracks on the floor, turning them a rusty red.
Mason pitched face-first onto the floor and started crawling forward, trying to get away from me. This time, I plunged the knife square into his back. I used my weight to drive the blade in as deep as it would go. I must have hit something vital, because he let out a choked scream that quickly die downinto a raspy gurgle. He arched his back once, then slumped forward onto the floor, dead.
“You little bitch!” Zeke roared. “You’ll pay for that!”
Before I could crawl off the dead guy, Zeke stepped forward, dug his hand into my hair, and yanked me up. This time, I yelped in pain and surprise. He held me out in front of him and gave me a vicious shake. Then he started hitting me.Once, twice, three times, the giant backhanded me. My head snapped from side to side to side, and my world spun around and around and around from the blows. As a finishing touch, he rammed his fist into my stomach. He let go of my hair, and I dropped like a stone to the ground.
Zeke was strong, even for a giant, and the blows had hurt so much that I was having trouble fighting the black spots swimming at the edge of my vision. But I made myself focus and stay awake. Because if he knocked me out, he’d probably rape and kill me on the spot—if he didn’t decide to go ahead and simply beat me to death.
So I pushed back at the black spots and focused on breathing. It took me a moment to realize that I’d managed to hang on to the knife while he’d been hitting me, and I tightened my grip on the bright, shiny silver handle, ready to use it on him the second that I got a chance.
But Zeke didn’t give me one. He was in a rage now, and he drew back his boot to kick me in the ribs. I barely managed to reach for my Stone magic in time to keep him from caving in my chest with the vicious blow. And he didn’t stop.
Again and again, he lashed out at me.
I lay there and let him hit me, cradling the knife in my hand and trying to hide it as much as possible. I didn’t really have another option. I needed the knife to kill him, and if he realized that I still had it, he’d kick it out of my hand and keep on beating me until I ran out of magic.
Then he’d do the same to Sophia and the kid, and I couldn’t let that happen.
Finally, after about three minutes of whaling on me, Zeke ran out of steam. He gave me one more vicious kick to the side.“That’ll teach you, you little bitch,” he growled again.
I lay limp and still on the floor, as though he’d long ago knocked me out with his attack.
Zeke finally snapped back around to Sophia, who hadn’t stirred the whole time. He focused his angry glare on her for a moment before turning to the boy.
“As for you two,” he snarled, “you’re both turning out to be more trouble than you’re worth. And now I have to carry you all by myself.”
Zeke kept grumbling as he leaned down and grabbed Sophia’s shoulders again. Then he started dragging her around the counter and down the aisle. But he wasn’t taking her anywhere. Not if I could help it.
I waited until he had reached the end of the counter and was trying to figure out some way to keep the double doors open long enough to shove Sophia through to the other side.
Then I climbed to my feet and staggered after him. Every movement, every breath, hurt, but I put my hand against my ribs, gripped my knife even tighter, and hurried after Zeke as fast as I could. Lucky for me, he was having a hard time with Sophia’s dead weight and the doors, so he was moving slowly.
He’d just managed to prop her up against the side of the counter when I crept up on his blind side and stabbed my knife into his back. But he was even bigger and stronger than his partner, and his punches had weakened me. So the knife didn’t sink all that deeply into his muscles. I pulled it out, but before I could stab him again, he turned and punched me in the chest.
This time, I went down on the ground, and I didn’t get back up. It hurt too much to do that.
Zeke loomed over me. “You are one determined little bitch, aren’t you? Seems to me like someone should teach you some manners.”
He reached for me, and this time, I knew that he wouldn’t stop hitting me until I was dead. But the thought didn’t feel me with dread. If anything, I got a sense of peace. At least, this time, I’d tried to do something. At least, this time, I’d tried to help, instead of cowering on the stairs and watching Mom and Annabella disappear into balls of elemental Fire.
That was something, I supposed—
A hand clamped around Zeke’s ankle and yanked him down. I blinked, and it took me a moment to figure out what had happened. Sophia had finally woken up.
Zeke put his forearms out in front of him, breaking his fall, but he still went down on his hands and knees. Sophia scrambled to her feet, then threw herself onto his back, driving him into the floor. He arched back, trying to throw her off him, but she slapped his hands away, grabbed his head, and slammed it into the door on one of the stoves. The giant kept fighting, but Sophia kept her grip on his head and beat it into the oven—again and again and again—until the metal dented.
Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
She kept up a steady, furious rhythm, dashing his head against the oven door, as though she wanted to shove it right through the metal, each blow seeming a little harder and more brutal than the last.
Finally, after about the sixth or seventh time, something crunched, and the coppery stink of blood filled the restaurant. The giant quit struggling, and his muffled cries vanished altogether, although his arms and legs kept twitching with small, disjointed spasms.