But these run-of-the-mill goons were here instead of the man himself. Why? Had the Dollmaker sent them? Did they know who he really was? Or did they work for someone else entirely? Someone who had some other interest in the killer?

   I shook my head, trying to clear away all the questions that circled around and around and ultimately went nowhere. I felt like I was trying to solve two separate jigsaw puzzles at once, only I didn’t have enough pieces of either one to get a clear picture of anything—not one little thing.

   But the intruders were one problem that was easily solvable. Even better, I could wing one of them and then squeeze that man for answers. Normally, I didn’t hold back and take prisoners when my friends were in danger, but I’d make an exception, just this once, for Elissa’s sake.

   “I don’t believe you,” Ken growled. “There have to be more copies of this information. So where are they? Where are the files? And who have you told about them?”

   Jade glared at him, her mouth a flat line in her face. “I’ll tell you exactly where the copies of these files are—at the police station. Where did you think that I got them from in the first place? You idiot.”

   He glowered at her, but Jade lifted her chin, daring him to hit her again. After several seconds, he shrugged.

   “I’m not worried about getting into the police station. We’ll go right over there.” Ken grinned. “As soon as we finish burning this place to the ground—with you and your boyfriend inside.”

   Jade gasped, and Ryan reached over and grabbed her bound hands with his own.

   “It’s going to be okay, Jade,” he said. “You’ll see.”

   Ken chuckled. “Sure, it will be. Just as soon as the two of you are extra crispy.”

   Their faces both paled, making him chuckle again. He turned to the other three men, who were kicking through the mess of papers on the floor. “One of you go into the kitchen and see if you can find some matches. I’ll go siphon some gas out of the car to get things started in here—”

   I didn’t let him finish his gruesome sentence. Instead, I sprinted down the hallway, stepped into the office, drew my arm back, and let my first knife fly.

   Ken saw me out of the corner of his eye and turned in my direction, but it was too late, and the blade hit exactly where I wanted it to, sinking into his left forearm. The wound was deep enough to make him howl with pain and stagger away from Jade and Ryan. The other three goons whipped around, eyes wide, shocked that someone else was in the house, but I was already moving forward.

   The second dwarf raised his fists and lashed out at me; I ducked his slow, clumsy blow, came up inside his defenses, and stabbed him in the heart. He screamed and batted at his own chest, trying to dislodge the blade. I yanked it out and sliced it all the way across his throat in one smooth motion, cutting off his cries. He was dead before he even hit the floor.

   I whirled around to face the third dwarf, Henry, the one with the mustache. He pivoted on his left foot and raised his right leg, trying to do some sort of fancy roundhouse kick to my face, like you would in a video game. I put my head down, charged forward, and rammed my shoulder into the side of his body, shoving him off balance. He staggered back, hitting one of the walls, and I followed him, slashing my knife all the way across his stomach.

   Blood and guts sprayed everywhere, spattering all over the papers and photos still on the floor. Henry screamed and screamed, clutching his stomach and trying to hold his insides, well, inside, where they were supposed to be—

   A pair of thick, strong arms closed around me from behind, and the fourth and final dwarf lifted me off my feet. Since my legs were already off the ground, I kicked out, driving my boots into Henry’s bloody guts and making him scream again, even as his legs buckled and he crumpled to the ground.

   I propelled myself backward as hard as I could, and the last dwarf couldn’t hold me up in the air and keep his balance at the same time. He stumbled back, his foot slipped on some of the debris, and we both hit the floor. Since he was still holding on to me, I landed right on top of him. The dwarf yelped in pain and surprise, but he didn’t let go. Instead, he tightened his grip, his hands like steel vises pinning my arms in place.

   “Ken!” he yelled, his voice booming in my ear. “Kill this bitch!”

   Ken, the first dwarf I’d attacked, yanked my knife out of his own forearm and headed toward us, murder glinting in his dark eyes.

   I didn’t have the strength to break the dwarf’s grip, so I decided to make him wish that he’d never grabbed hold of me. I raised my knife and rammed it down into his right thigh, twisting and twisting the blade through all of his thick, hard layers of muscles. He bellowed with pain, right in my ear, but he still didn’t let go.

   Since my knife wasn’t working as well as I wanted, I decided on an even more direct, painful approach. I reached for my Ice magic, slapped my other hand down on his crotch, and let loose with a sharp, cold burst of my power, right on his family jewels.

   That really made him scream.

   The dwarf’s hands finally fell away from my arms. I rolled off him, ripped my knife out of his thigh, and stabbed it right back down into his chest. He screamed again, but he was a bleeding, half-frozen mess, out of the fight, and already closer to dead than alive.

   Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ken, the last dwarf standing, raise his foot back so he could kick me in the head. I yanked my knife out of his buddy’s chest, lurched forward, and rolled out of the way of Ken’s smashing wing tip. His shiny shoe slammed into his buddy’s side hard enough to lift the other man off the floor, but the guy was already dead, so he didn’t make a sound as he flopped back down to the ground again.

   I got back up onto my feet, sizing up my last opponent, wondering how I could put him down without actually killing him. Unlike his buddies, Ken didn’t rush blindly at me. Instead, he raised his fists, protecting his face, and rocked back on his heels, waiting for me to make the first move.

   But Jade beat me to it.