Lily laughed. “So the guys who are supposed to be figuring out the truth are ignoring it because they don’t want to admit they were wrong?”
Shay grinned. “Funny how that works, isn’t it?” She continued strolling to a pit at the other edge of the fenced area and slowed as she approached the edge, a frown building. She dropped her shovel.
There was freshly disturbed soil near the pit, along with a huge hole in the center of the pile of dirt. From the even spread of the dirt, it looked as if someone had brought a massive drill and dug into the ground beside the existing pit.
The tomb raider hurried over to the hole and pulled out her phone to verify her coordinates. “Shit.”
The new hole extended several yards, and there was a puddle of water at the bottom of it.
Lily jogged over. “I’m guessing that was where we were supposed to dig?” She sighed.
Shay’s face tightened. “Someone got here first.”
The teen’s eyes widened, and she jerked her head around. “Something’s coming.”
Peyton cleared his throat. It took the tomb raider a few seconds to realize it was him and not Lily.
“There’s a problem,” he declared.
“Problem?”
Shay unholstered her gun. “Besides the fact that someone beat us to the super-deadly artifact?”
Lily dropped her shovel and pulled out her gun as well.
“All my cameras are frosting over on the drone,” Peyton explained.
She looked up. The black dot floated high in the sky, nowhere near high enough that temperature should be such an issue, especially in Montana during the summer.
“Crap,” Peyton shouted. “The drone just stopped transmitting.”
A few seconds passed before Shay realized the drone was falling from the sky, something glinting around it. It smashed into the ground in the distance with a surprisingly loud crash given its small size.
“Peyton?” Shay crouched low, her gun ready. She looked back and forth for an enemy. “Peyton?”
Nothing but static.
Lily swallowed. “That was definitely magic. I’m not getting any visions, but I can sense the magic.”
A loud pop ripped through the air, and the two women spun toward the source. Something was zooming right toward them: a semi-translucent blue sphere.
Shay pushed Lily into a pit and threw herself in right after. The sphere smashed right where they’d been standing, shattering into hundreds of pieces. The tomb raider covered Lily’s body with hers. Several pieces of debris slammed into her, a few ripping through her shirt and back and burning.
Shit. This hurts, but wait…it’s not too hot. It’s too cold. Oh fuck.
The tomb raider gritted her teeth at the pain and hopped back to her feet as she spun toward the site of impact. Lily stood and shook her head.
Yulia Solokova stood there, clad all in white, her wand in hand, a dozen small blue stones orbiting her and her wand at the ready. “Convenient that you’re both here. Convenient indeed. I don’t believe in luck, but this might change my mind.”
There are a lot more of those blue stones than I’ve seen her have before. What does that mean? She’s more powerful now? And what the hell? Was she in that ball of ice?
Shay glared at Yulia. “This isn’t Antarctica. It’s Montana in the summer. You’re at a disadvantage here, bitch.”
At a minimum, Shay hoped the witch couldn’t pull off summoning ice hands and walls as easily.
“Keep telling yourself that, Aletheia.” Yulia shot Lily a cold smile. “You have something that belongs to me, little Gray Elf.”
Lily lifted her gun. “For my father, bitch.” She opened fire. The bullet dropped to the ground inches in front of the witch, encased in ice. The girl kept pulling the trigger until the gun clicked empty, but none of the bullets made it through. It took several clicks before she stopped. She ejected the magazine and reloaded but didn’t fire again.
The Ice Witch watched with an amused smirk. “I allowed you two to live in Antarctica so you would have time to reflect on your defeat and know fear.” She grinned. “There’s been enough time.”
Shay hopped out of the pit opposite the witch. “Come on, Lily.”
The girl narrowed her gray eyes on Yulia and jumped out of the pit. “You’re not leaving here alive, bitch. I don’t care what it takes.”
Yulia shook her head, chuckling. The blonde patted a pocket in her white leather jacket. “I just came here for the artifact, but killing you both will be such a wonderful bonus.” She whipped up her wand and disturbingly familiar blue hexagonal patterns formed in the front.
Here it comes.
Shay and Lily jumped out of the way when sharp ice lances emerged and flew toward them. The pair ran toward the SUV.
The tomb raider blasted a few quick shots off at Yulia but didn’t do any better than her protégé at hurting her. “You’ve wounded her before, Lily, which means the damned shield is at least partially about concentration or angle or some shit.”
Lily ducked as an ice lance flew right over her, her expression dark. “I don’t just want to wound her. I want to kill her.”
Shay grabbed a frag grenade from her belt and pulled the pin. She waited before throwing it. The grenade exploded a couple yards away from the witch. There was a bright blue flash, and dozens of pieces of icy shrapnel fell to the ground, but Yulia didn’t even look to have been scratched.
Need a better strategy, and fast.
The wounds in Shay’s back continued to throb, but she ignored them.
The tomb raider’s major advantage this time was that she hadn’t decided to fight an Ice Witch in the middle of Antarctica. The dry environment and summer conditions should be enough to somewhat even the playing field. She just needed a weapon that could pierce the woman’s defenses.
Shay’s eyes widened, and her gaze shot to the still-open SUV. “Lily, I’m gonna make a break for the Masamune. That should be able to cut through her—"
Agony shot
