24

   It didn’t take me long to find the second team of giants. They were only two walkways over, checking the shadows around a series of food carts, just like the first team of men had done. But they were far more cautious than the others, staying together, with one man constantly looking behind them, watching their backs. I wouldn’t be able to sneak up on them like I had the first set.

   So I glanced around, thinking about where we were in the park in relation to the traps that I’d set. The lassos were the closest. Those would work. I slid my knife up my sleeve and grabbed one of the silenced guns out of its holster on my belt. I made sure the weapon was ready to fire, then got to my feet and sprinted from the shadows, across the walkway and over to one of the alleys, all in plain sight of the giant serving as the rear guard.

   “Hey!” he yelled. “There she is! Heading into that alley! Come on!”

   The three men abandoned their search and raced after me. I risked a glance over my shoulder, wondering if one of them might rush past his buddies in his eagerness to get me, but they stayed together in their tight pack formation. I grinned. Perfect.

   I veered into the alley. Halfway down the corridor, I stopped running and crouched down behind a barrel that had been pushed up against the wall. The gun was in my right hand, and I reached down with my left and snatched up three long, thick, heavy lassos that I’d attached to a hook in the opposite wall and snaked across the ground to this side of the alley. I used my Stone magic to protect my palm from the rough ropes, braced myself up against the barrel, and peered around the side, waiting for the men to get close enough.

   A second later, the three of them sprinted into the alley, running as fast as they could.

   “Hurry up!” one of the giants yelled. “Don’t lose her—”

   Zip!

   I yanked the lassos tight, and all three of them sprang up off the alley floor, creating a trip-wire right at ankle height.

   The three giants stumbled over the lassos, landing in a heap in the middle of the alley. Their heavy weight yanked the ropes out of my hand and pulled me off balance, but I recovered before they did. Even as they yelled and scrambled around, trying to get back up, I got to my feet and emptied my gun into them.

   Pfft!

   Pfft! Pfft!

   Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

   When that first gun clicked empty, I pulled out the second one from the holster on my belt and fired it as well.

   Pfft!

   Pfft! Pfft!

   Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

   The giants’ screams dissolved into wheezing rasps and gurgles. Then, even those noises stopped.

   Six down, seven to go. Not quite halfway done.

   Since my guns were equipped with silencers, the shots were fairly quiet, but, of course, the giants’ panicked cries rang out, echoing through the theme park like claps of thunder, and I knew that it wouldn’t be long before the other two teams came running. So I tossed my two empty guns away, darted forward, and scooped up two new ones from the dead giants. All the while, I kept glancing around, realizing how exposed I was. But maybe my luck would hold, and I could slip back into the shadows before the other two teams of giants converged on my position—

   Crack! Crack! Crack!

   Bullets slammed into the wall beside me, making wood chips fly in all directions. I really needed to quit jinxing myself like that.

   I snapped my head around to see three more giants sprinting down the alley toward me.

   “There she is!” one of the giants yelled. “Get her!”

   Crack! Crack! Crack!

   More and more bullets zinged through the air toward me, but none of them exploded with Roxy’s elemental Fire. Looked like she’d kept all those burning babies for herself. But bullets were still bullets, so I reached for my Stone magic, using it to harden my skin, even as I snapped up my own stolen guns and started firing back.

   Crack! Crack! Crack!

   My shots made the giants hunker down behind a couple of water troughs for cover, but I wasn’t as good a shot as Finn was, and I was too far away to take them all down the way that he would have. Still, I kept firing as I backpedaled away from the giants, just trying to buy myself a few seconds’ head start. But all too soon my guns click-click-clicked empty, so I threw them away just like I had the others.

   The giants peered around the water troughs and surged to their feet, realizing that I was out of ammo, but I had already turned and started running away.

   Well, I wasn’t running away from the giants so much as I was running toward something—the water tower.

   Crack!

   Crack! Crack!

   Crack!

   Bullets chased me down the alley, tearing holes through barrels, pinging off metal signs, and blasting apart balls of tumbleweed. The giants had recovered quicker and were moving faster than I’d anticipated. Good thing I’d already done my prep work.

   I skidded around the corner and stopped, since this was where I’d left that water hose running. The steady gush of water had already coated this part of the walkway, making it gleam like polished jet underneath the soft white glows from the holiday lights. I crouched down, slapped my hand against the wet asphalt, and blasted it with my magic, turning all of that water into a solid sheet of elemental Ice. The second that was done, I ran over to the water tower, the one with two wobbly legs, thanks to yours truly.

   I wrapped both my hands around the first sawn-through post and let loose with another blast of my Ice magic, driving the shards of my power deep down into the cut I’d already made. The wood creaked and groaned at the sudden blast of cold, but it didn’t snap. And it wouldn’t—not until I wanted it to.

   Once I finished with the first post, I went over and repeated the process on the second. Then I backed up far enough so that I could see both posts at the same time and waited for the giants to get in range.

   Sure enough, the three men who’d been shooting at me raced around the corner, never even stopping to think that I might have set a trap for them. Cowboy boots might look cool, but they don’t have great traction. The second the giants stepped onto the Iced-over asphalt, their boots slipped, propelling them forward, and they all shouted and threw their hands up into the air, like three skaters stepping out onto a rink for the very first time. One after another, they all fell on their asses in the middle of the walkway, right in the shadow of the water tower. Perfect.