More snow started to fall, turning into a steady shower. I stepped away from the edge, looking right and left through the thick, swirling flakes, but this spot was as good as any to make my last stand, so I turned around and faced the woods again. And then I stood there and waited, just waited for Porter to find me.

   It didn’t take him long, since he knew the area a lot better than I did. Three minutes later, he ran out of the woods into the snow-dusted clearing in front of me.

   “Maria, there you are,” he called out. “I knew that you couldn’t get away from me.”

   Instead of offering up some fresh, cruel taunt, I shook my head, so that my dyed blond hair fell forward, covering most of my face, including my smeared, runny makeup. I also reached up and started curling a strand of it around my finger over and over again, playing along with Porter’s fantasy and giving him something to fixate on.

   “Why would I run away from you, Bruce?” I crooned. “I was waiting here for you. It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen you.”

   I had no idea what Maria Rivera’s voice had sounded like, so I made my tone low and breathy, without a trace of malice or sarcasm. It was the same tone that I’d heard Finn use when he was wooing a new client. And it actually seemed to work, because Porter nodded his head, agreeing with me.

   “I know now that we belong together,” I said in that same breathy voice. “I’m sorry that it took me so long to realize it. I’ve been such a fool.”

   For a moment, confusion filled Porter’s face, and I wondered if I’d gone too far, if I’d deviated too much from his memories of Maria and how she’d rejected him. But then his bloody, dusty face split into a wide smile, and he walked forward.

   “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear you say that,” he said, his voice taking on the same high, giddy note that he’d had in the cottage earlier.

   I smiled back at him and slowly raised my arms out to my sides, as if I was inviting him to come over and give me a hug. That was exactly what I wanted him to do.

   “I know, baby,” I crooned again. “And I’m so sorry. I’ve been wrong about so many things, including you. Especially you.”

   Porter nodded. “That you have, Maria. That you have.”

   “Well, why don’t you come over here and let me make it up to you? I promise that I’ll make it worth your while.” I let out a soft giggle and batted my gunky eyelashes at him, as though I really were trying to seduce him. The thought made me sick, and I had to grind my teeth to hold a fake smile on my face.

   He walked a little closer to me and then a little closer still, his shoes crunching through the snow. The sounds reminded me of bones breaking, but I forced myself to keep smiling and keep my arms raised, even though I was leaving myself totally open and exposed to him.

   Porter stopped right in front of me, and I peered at him through the screen of blond hair that still hid most of my face. He smiled at me for a second longer, then lunged forward and locked his hands around my throat.

   “Did you really think that I would ever mistake you for her?” he snarled, tightening his grip. “She was the love of my life. You? You’re nothing but a damn nuisance.”

   I laughed in his face, although it came out as more of a choking, wheezing sound.

   “What’s so funny?” he growled. “Why are you laughing at me again? Why?”

   Instead of trying to pry his fingers off my neck, I reached down and pulled him even closer. “I might be a nuisance, but I’m the nuisance who’s just killed you, you sick son of a bitch.”

   He frowned, wondering what I was getting at, but I threw my head back and screamed as loudly as I could. The sharp, sudden sound made him flinch, and he shifted on his feet, just the slightest bit. I slammed my boot into his ankle, pulling him off balance. Porter staggered forward, and I used his own momentum to help me backpedal, dragging him along with me. He cursed, realizing what I was up to, but it was already too late.

   Gravity is a bitch, and so am I.

   With one final burst of strength, I kicked us both over the edge of the cliffs.

27

   As we fell, I grabbed hold of every single scrap of Stone magic that I had left, every ounce of power that was still inside my body, plus what was stored in my spider rune pendant and ring. In an instant, I sent that magic surging out through my entire body, using it to harden every single part of me, from my dyed blond hair to my head to my arms, chest, legs, and feet. I also flipped us over in midair, so that Porter was on the bottom of our free fall.

   “Wha—wha—aaah!” The dwarf’s words dissolved into one solid, unending scream.

   I grinned and held on to him even tighter.

   We seemed to fall forever, but less than five seconds later, we hit bottom.

   Crunch-crunch.

   Porter hit the ground first. An instant later, I slammed into him. The weight of my body, made much heavier by my Stone magic, drove his that much deeper into the ground—right on top of all those sharp, jagged rocks that lined the riverbank.

   Porter punched into the rocks like a water balloon. Splat. I heard the crunch-crunch-crunch of his bones breaking, along with a loud series of snap-snap-snaps, as though all the vertebrae in his spine were exploding one after another.

   I also felt every bit of the brutal impact, and the sudden sharp ache in my chest told me that I probably had a couple of cracked ribs. My brain rattled around inside my skull, meaning that I probably also had a serious concussion. But still, I’d take that over trading places with Porter any day.

   I might not have had my knives, but I’d made my own body into a weapon, and Porter was dying as a result.

   For a minute, maybe two, both of us were too stunned to move, so we lay where we had landed, him on the rocks and me on top of him, my fingers still fisted in his tattered suit jacket. Finally, Porter coughed, spraying blood everywhere. The drops stung my face with their wet, shocking warmth, and still more of them soaked into my fake blond hair. The sharp, coppery stench drowned out the chemical odor of the hair dye.