registered Domenic chasing her, but a single snarled command from the President's son-"Stay out of it!"-froze them just long enough for her to slip through the arched doorway

of the decorative pool. It was a secluded spot, just outside the direct line of si

stop

om suit was rumpled from the sprint. His fac

, aiming to grab her shoulder

k, rippling water. The moment his hand c

ngers grabbe

t the wet, freezing stone at the edge of the pool. He flailed his ar

f the pool and crossed her arms. She looked him up and down, her eyes fil

face tur

r inches from her nose. "I will use the power of th

r lau

ompletely devoid of fear. It echoe

nvading his space. She lowered

letely clueless about the sickening p

ontracted into tiny pinpricks. The deepest, darkest inse

ead of his s

and. The veins in his hand bulged. He swung his

flinch. She di

n of an inch. The wind from his palm

to his right side as he missed. His

cond, Hester's r

just to survive. She knew exactly where the human body was most vulnerable, though she never expected to use those lethal lesson

t leg buckled instantly, completely dead. His

rror. She looked like she was trying to catch him. Instead,

went a

a massive, violent splash. The icy

His lungs spasmed. He thrashed wildly in the dark water

im. Her eyes were completely empty of pity. She watched hi

the scene t

ands fall in a tangled mess. She grabbed the neckline of her dress and tore it downward

t, pale skin of her forearms, dragging t

ears, forced out by the physic

ue from the cold, slapped onto the marble rim. He tried to pull his

ce blank. She lift

rectly onto the knuckles of his freezing fingers. She didn't

curdling scream. His fin

th the freezing surface again, swal

wig echoed from the

napped up. Some

s away from the pool. She threw her hands over her face

ad poisoned her in her past life-came running ou

ed at the President's son drowning in the pool, and then a

at Nora throug

her throat flared in Hester's mind.