Web of Lies

by Jennifer Estep

  spatters on the floor. After a moment, his gaze moved on When Eva finished her story, her big brother turned and settled on the two girls, who were packing up their his attention to me. For the first time, I felt the full force books to leave.

  of his gaze. Sharp, shrewd, calculating. Like looking into

  “Eva,” he said in a voice that rumbled like thunder. my own eyes. He walked forward and held out his hand.

  “Are you all right?”

  “owen Grayson.”

  Eva zipped up her backpack. “I’m fine, owen.”

  Well, the hits just kept on coming. First, Jake McAlThe man moved to stand beside her. He walked stiffly lister decided to grace my restaurant with his presence, but with purpose, like a bulldozer plowing through danand now owen Grayson had come to collect his sister. delions. “Tell me what happened.”

  I’d heard of him, of course. Grayson was one of the city’s

  “I said I was fine,” she repeated in an irritated voice, wealthiest businessmen. Mining, timber, metal manuas though they’d had this argument many times before. “I facturing. He had his fingers in a lot of money-making also told you there was no need to come down here. You pies. With his subdued suit and chiseled features, Graynever listen to me.”

  son didn’t have the ostentatious, deadly, in-your-face flash

  “I’m your big brother,” he said. “I’m supposed to of Mab Monroe, who enjoyed flaunting her status as the watch out for you.”

  city’s golden girl. Still, I knew power when I saw it—

  Big brother? Yeah, I could see that. Eva had the same elemental or otherwise. And owen Grayson had plenty. coloring as the thirtysomething man. Blue-black hair, Definitely someone worth watching.

  pale eyes, milky skin. It made her beautiful. Him too, in

  “Gin Blanco.”

  a cold sort of way.

  “Gin?” he asked.

  “Now, tell me what happened,” the man demanded

  “Like the liquor,” I quipped.

  again.

  owen Grayson’s eyes glittered at my wry tone, but I Eva rolled her eyes and launched into a recount of the still put my hand in his. Grayson’s fingers curled around Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 32-33

  12/17/09 9:32 PM

  34 JENNIFER ESTEP

  Web of Lies 35

  my skin like thick ropes of kudzu. Hard, sturdy, and aloff her like water. Looked like something she ignored a most unbreakable. He might not be a dwarf, but there lot. Instead, Eva gave him a calm, calculating look. had to be some of the blood in his veins. only way to ex“You want me to have a bodyguard? Then hire her.”

  plain that kind of grip. Grayson glanced down at our enThe girl stabbed her finger at me. “Because she took out a twined hands and frowned, as though I’d static-shocked Fire elemental like it was nothing. And she cooks.”

  him or something. Maybe I had, because I felt a brief owen’s pale eyes swept over my body. Probably wonprick on my palm. dering how I’d had the strength, balls, or dumb luck to The sensation vanished, and I tightened my own grip, do that.

  just to show him I wasn’t easily intimidated. A small smile I’d taken a lot of dirty jobs in my time, but be a bodytugged up Grayson’s lips, as though he found my show of guard to a know-it-all college girl? I might have retired strength amusing. I gave him a cool stare. The hostility from being an assassin, but I hadn’t gone insane. “Sorry. must have flickered in my gray eyes because owen GrayMy dance card’s already full.”

  son let go first.

  owen nodded. “Job offer notwithstanding, you saved Eva Grayson watched the exchange with interest. So my sister’s life. I owe you. Name your price.”

  did her friend Cassidy. Sophia Deveraux had already reMy turn to roll my eyes. “I don’t want your money, treated to the back of the Pork Pit to start closing up the and I don’t need it.”

  restaurant for the night.

  His violet gaze flicked around the restaurant, taking in owen Grayson stared at me a moment more before the faded pig tracks on the floor and the well-worn booths, turning to his sister. “If nothing else, tonight has proven chairs, and tables. Disbelief filled his features, but he was my point about Southtown. From now on, someone will enough of a Southern gentleman not to call me a liar to be with you during school hours.”

  my face. Little did he know I was telling the truth. I’d Eva rolled her eyes again. Looked like something she salted away a lot of money—a lot of money—from my did a lot when her big brother was around. “No. No more assassin jobs over the years, and Fletcher had left me an exbodyguards. I’m nineteen years old, owen. I’m in college. ceptionally healthy bequest in his will. I could hemorrhage I can take care of myself.”

  C-notes for years, decades even, and it wouldn’t hurt a bit.

  “Like you did tonight?” he replied.

  But instead of offering his money to me again, owen

  “Tonight was a freak event, and you know it,” she rereached into his suit and drew out a small white card. I torted. “I’m not going to let you use it as an excuse. Betook it from him. Along with his name and a cell phone sides, I was perfectly safe the whole time.”

  number, a hammer was embossed in silver foil on the

  “That bruise on your cheek tells me otherwise.”

  card. Grayson’s rune. A large, heavy hammer, symbolizing owen glowered at his sister, but the hostile gaze slid strength, power, hard work.

  Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 34-35

  12/17/09 9:32 PM

  36 JENNIFER ESTEP

  Web of Lies 37

  “If you ever need anything, please, don’t hesitate to moved in the cold, quiet night, not even the rats and call, day or night,” he said.

  alley cats searching for garbage. Still, I brushed my finMy finger traced over the hammer rune, and I memgers against the hard brick of the restaurant, using my orized the number. Might not be a bad thing having elemental magic to listen to the stone.

  someone like owen Grayson owe me a favor. Besides, The brick’s slow murmur was one of muted, clogged Finnegan Lane, my foster brother and general partner in contentment—just the way the stomachs and arteries of crime, would kill me if I turned him down. “All right.”

  the Pork Pit’s customers felt after eating a hot, thick, juicy We locked gazes. Cool, calculating, and shrewd, on barbecue sandwich. over time, emotions, feelings, and both sides. Grayson tipped his head at me. I did the same, actions sink into the earth and especially stone, where and we had an agreement.

  they can linger indefinitely until something else, some owen turned to the two women. “Come on, girls. other action, comes along to add to, change, or overTime to go.”

  power them. My elemental Stone magic let me sense He held the door open for them, and they headed outthese vibrations, analyze, interpret, and even tap into side. owen Grayson paused, looking over his shoulder. them if I wanted to. But the brief bit of violence that The businessman stared at me a moment more before had happened earlier tonight hadn’t lasted long enough stepping out into the dark night.

  or been brutal enough for the brick to permanently pick up its vibrations. Good.

  I locked the front door behind the three of them and Still, I looked and listened a moment more, searchturned the sign over to Closed. It was barely after seven, ing for the telltale shape of a half giant or some sort of but we weren’t going to have any more customers tonight. fire flickering in the shadows. But Jake McAllister wasn’t This close to Southtown, people could sniff out violence waiting for me. Daddy was probably bailing him out of better than bloodhounds. Besides, I didn’t feel like mopjail right now. McAllister would be here sooner or later, ping up Jake McAllister’s blood just yet.

  though. I’d gotten the better of him, and he knew it. He I went into the back and said my good nights to Sowouldn’t be satisfied until he’d returned the favor. I hoped phia. The Goth dwarf grunted, gathered up her glass he tried. Might alleviate some of the boredom that had Mason jars full
of baked beans, and headed out the back settled over me these last two months during my retiredoor to go home to her sister, Jo-Jo. After I made sure the ment. For a few minutes, anyway. Guys like Jake McAlstoves, french fryer, and lights were off, I followed her out lister always thought they were tougher than they actually into the alley that ran behind the restaurant. were.

  I stood in the ink-black shadows next to one of the Satisfied the Fire elemental wasn’t going to come gunDumpsters, looking, listening, searching. But nothing ning for me tonight, I dropped my hand from the cold Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 36-37

  12/17/09 9:32 PM

  38 JENNIFER ESTEP

  Web of Lies 39

  brick and headed home. I walked three blocks in the driztrash. Most of them lived in run-down row houses and zling rain, cut through twice as many alleys, and doubled public housing units that resembled fallout shelters. The back five times before I was positive no one was following Pork Pit lay close to the Southtown border. me. Sure, I was a retired assassin, but that didn’t mean While Southtown resembled the dregs in the bottom there weren’t people out there who didn’t want me dead. of a coffee cup, Northtown was the whipped meringue on As the Spider, I’d killed my share of powerful men and top of a chocolate pie. You had to have money to live in women over the years, and I wasn’t taking any chances Northtown. Lots of it, to afford one of the plantation-style with my safety—retirement or not.

  mansions. Connections and a bloodline that went back a Twenty minutes later, I retrieved my car—a sturdy, few hundred years didn’t hurt either. But for all their polsilver Benz that I’d recently purchased—from one of ish, the folks in Northtown weren’t any better than those the parking garages near the restaurant and headed for in Southtown. They were all dangerous. The only differFletcher’s. ence was the people in Northtown would serve you tea Traffic was light on the downtown streets that ringed and cucumber sandwiches before they fucked you over. the Pork Pit. The bankers, businessmen, and other corpoThe Southtown hoods were much more efficient. They’d rate sharks had long since fled the city’s spindly skyscrapslit your throat, take your wallet, and be ready to do it ers for the comfort of their posh homes in Northtown. again to someone else before you even hit the alley floor. Their secretaries and junior staff lived out in the suburbs It took me about twenty minutes to wind my way that clustered around the heart of the city, while the janifrom the downtown district out into the suburbs that tors, maids, and other menial workers made their homes lay northwest of the city. I drove past gated communities on the rough streets of Southtown.

  with cutesy names like Davis Square and Peachtree Acres The city of Ashland spread over three states—Tennesand eventually turned onto a rutted, gravel road that see, Virginia, and North Carolina. The official borders wound up one of the ridges that slashed through the city. might have shown it to be one cohesive city, but the area I rode over the lumps and bumps in the road, used to the was really divided into two distinct sections—Northtown teeth-rattling sensation by now. Fletcher Lane had liked and Southtown. A holdover from the Civil War days his privacy, which was why his house squatted on the side that had just never faded away. The sprawling, circular of a cliff so steep a mountain goat couldn’t climb up it. confines of the downtown area joined the two halves of I steered the car through the skeletal remains of the the city together, but they bore little resemblance to each trees that flanked what passed for the driveway. Thirty other. The working poor and blue-collar folks populated seconds later, the Benz left the bare, clutching branches Southtown, along with vampire hookers, gangbangers, behind. I crested a hill, and the house popped into sight. junkies, and all other manner of rednecks and white In addition to leaving me the Pork Pit in his last will Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 38-39

  12/17/09 9:32 PM

  40 JENNIFER ESTEP

  Web of Lies 41

  and testament, Fletcher Lane had also bequeathed me his once I’d assured myself everything was as it should be, house—a three-story clapboard structure that had been I grabbed my purse and headed for the house. But before built before the Civil War. Various improvements and adI slid my key into the front door lock, I brushed my finditions had been made to the house over the years, none gertips against the stone that framed and composed it. of which matched. Gray stone, red clay, brown brick. All Deep, rich, black granite so hard and solid even a giant that and more could be seen on the house, along with a would have a tough time pounding through it. Thin veins tin roof, black shutters, and blue eaves. The whole thing of silverstone glistened in the granite, adding to its dark reminded me of a pincushion someone had haphazardly beauty. But the magical metal served another purpose bestuck a variety of implements into, with no thought for sides mere decoration. Silverstone could absorb any kind whether they actually belonged together or not. of elemental magic that came its way—Stone, Air, Fire, or I parked the Benz and ran my eyes over what I could Ice—as well as offshoots of the elements. Instead of being see of the yard. It stretched out a hundred feet in front true elementals and being able to tap into one of the big of the house before falling away in a series of jagged four, as they were called, some folks were gifted in other cliffs. Beyond the dropoff, the surrounding Appalachian areas, like metal, water, electricity, or even acid. Mountains were coal smudges in a night sky covered with Regardless, the silverstone in the door would absorb a blanket of diamond stars and the gleaming crown of a quite a bit of power should anyone decide to use magic to half moon. Hell of a view, especially at night. force their way inside. I’d spent a fortune having the granI got out of the car and stooped down behind the ite installed here and in other strategic places throughout Benz, keeping it between myself and the sprawling house. the house, but it was worth it to make sure I was secure. To a casual observer, it probably looked like I was tying Helped me sleep easier.

  my shoe. You would have had to look hard to see the glint The granite’s hum was low and muted, just like the of magic in my gray eyes or realize I had my hands pressed gravel in the driveway. Nobody had been near the door all against the cold, wet gravel of the driveway. day. Good. I’d had enough excitement already. The sounds of the trees, wind, and small, scurrying I unlocked the door and stepped inside. Given its unanimals ran through the stones. Soft, comforting murusual construction, the interior of the house resembled a murs as familiar to me as a lullaby. No visitors today. I rabbit’s warren. Small rooms, short hallways, odd spaces hadn’t expected any, but it never hurt to double-check. I’d here and there that doubled back and opened up into stayed alive this long, despite all the incredible odds and completely new areas. When I was living here as a kid, job hazards of my former profession. I wasn’t going to I’d had to draw myself a map just to get from my upstairs get dead now because I’d made a rookie mistake, like not bedroom to the front door and back again. I threw my checking the gravel before I stepped into Fletcher’s home. keys down into a bowl by the front door, kicked off my Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 40-41

  12/17/09 9:32 PM

  42 JENNIFER ESTEP

  Web of Lies 43

  boots, and headed toward the back of the house, where was far weaker, though. All I could really do with it was the kitchen was.

  make small shapes, like cubes or chips. The occasional Fletcher Lane had lived in this house seventy-seven lock pick. A knife, when the need arose. But often it was years. He’d been born here, and he probably would have the little things that saved you. A lesson I’d learned when died here, if he hadn’t been murdered by an Air elemenbattling Alexis James a few weeks ago. The Air elemental tal. The old man had collected a lot of stuff in his time would have killed me, would have flayed me alive with on this earth. Furniture, plates, tools, odd bits of metal, her magic, if I hadn’t formed a jagged icicle with my wood, glass. I hadn’t had the heart to clean any of it out power and cut her throat with it.

  yet. The air stilled smelled faintly of him—like sugar, I reached for my cool Ice magic, and a moment later, spice, and vinegar swirled
together.

  small, snowflake-shaped Ice crystals spread out from my But the kitchen, the kitchen was mine. Always had been, palm and fingertips. They frosted up the side of the glass, from the moment I’d moved in as a homeless teenager to arced over the lip, and ran down into the lemonade. Then when I’d taken up residence again several weeks ago after I held my hand palm up and reached for my magic again. Fletcher’s funeral. I stepped inside and flipped on the light. A cold, silver light flickered there, centered in the spiThe kitchen was one of the largest rooms in the house, der rune scar embedded in my palm. After a moment, and a long, skinny island divided it from a small den that the light coalesced into a couple of Ice cubes, which I contained a television, stacks of books, a sofa, and a coudropped into the tart beverage. ple of recliners. Copper pots and pans hung from a metal I took my lemonade into the den, plopped down in rack over the island. A brand new, high-end stove, refrigone of the recliners, and put my socked feet up on the erator, and freezer flanked half of the back wall, while a scarred coffee table. As always, my eyes flicked to a series series of picture windows took up the other side. Several of framed drawings propped up on the mantel over the butcher blocks full of silverstone knives also populated fireplace. Three pencil drawings I’d done for one of my the kitchen. on the island. on the counter. In the spice community college classes and another, more recent, one. rack. Behind the microwave. You could never have too The first three drawings depicted a series of runes—the many knives lying around if you loved to cook like I symbols of my dead family. A snowflake, the rune for the did—or were a former assassin.

  Snow family, and my mother, Eira’s, symbol, representing I poured myself a glass of lemonade, then wrapped icy calm. A curling ivy vine for my older sister, Annabella, my hand around the container and concentrated, reachrepresenting elegance. A delicate, intricate primrose for ing for the cool power deep inside myself. In addition to my younger sister, Bria, symbolizing beauty. being a Stone elemental, I also had the rare talent of being The fourth rune was shaped like a pig holding a platter able to manipulate another element—Ice. My Ice magic of food. An exact rendering of the multicolored neon sign Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 42-43