Widow's Web (Elemental Assassin)

by Jennifer Estep

  A hundred feet into the woods, I found a sculpture garden.

  Dotting a wide clearing and the landscape beyond, sculptures perched here and there among the trees. They were shaped like every figure you could possibly imagine. Birds, bears, rabbits, foxes, sunflowers, rainbows, and everything in between. The sculptures were made of various types of metal, from iron to steel to silverstone that glimmered like a star as the sunlight warmed its smooth surface. Iron benches had been placed along the paths that wound through the area, so folks could sit and look at their favorite pieces.

  I traced my fingertips over a beautiful statue of an eagle with its wings spread wide, as if it was getting ready to fly away. Despite the fact they were made of silverstone, the wings bore such intricate detail that I almost imagined they were ruffling as the spring breeze danced through the air.

  I wandered farther out into the garden, following the path of flagstones wending through the woods, amazed by all the pieces hidden among the dappled shadows. I could see why Owen continued to craft sculptures and weapons in his own forge. He’d been given the skills to do so by Cooper, just like Fletcher had instilled his love of cooking and the Pork Pit in me. More important, Owen shared the dwarf’s obvious love for working with raw ore and shaping it into something smooth, supple, and wondrous.

  Footsteps slapped on the flagstones behind me. I put a welcoming smile on my face, but then I realized the footsteps were approaching far too quickly for this to be a friendly encounter. Instinct took over, and I ducked to the right.

  Good thing, since a red-hot poker hit the sculpture of a bear I’d been admiring just a second before.

  Sparks hissed through the air, a few landing on my T-shirt and jeans and creating smoking holes in the fabric. I ignored the sparks, whipped out a knife, and turned to meet the danger.

  A dwarf stood behind me. He was tall for his kind, topping out at just over five feet, and incredibly muscled. His chest, biceps, and forearms looked as hard and unyielding as the sculptures, as though he’d been made from the same metal he could shape so well. His hair was a soft silver, with a few black patches sprinkled here and there, and was spiked to a high, wavy point above his forehead, like he’d run his fingers through the thick locks more than once today. A pair of goggles covered his face, making his rust-colored eyes seem that much bigger and brighter in his tan, speckled face. He wore a blue work shirt and a pair of matching pants, along with brown boots.

  Instead of being concerned about the knife in my hand, the dwarf immediately drew back his poker for another swing at my head.

  “So you’re the one who’s been sneaking around stealing my fountains. I’ll teach you a lesson you won’t soon forget! That knife won’t save you, missy—nothing will!”

  He swung the poker again. I ducked behind the statue, and the clang of metal on metal made my ears ring.

  “Cooper!” I said, yelling louder than I should have, since I couldn’t quite hear myself think at that moment. “Put down the weapon! I’m not here to hurt you!”

  The dwarf snorted. “Right. And pretty girls carrying knives just show up on my doorstep and creep around my woods every day of the week, and twice on Sunday.”

  He stepped around the statue and took another swing at me, forcing me to back up. Normally I would have rushed forward, knocked his weapon away, and put my blade up against his throat. But Owen wouldn’t have liked me attacking his mentor, even if Cooper had started things. So I slid my knife back up my sleeve and held my hands out to the side, showing him I was unarmed.

  “See there? No more knife,” I said in a soft, easy voice, trying to calm him. “Now why don’t you put that down so we can talk like reasonable people?”

  The dwarf studied me through his thick goggles. “We can talk, all right,” he muttered. “After I’ve bashed your head in.”

  Despite the situation, I couldn’t help but grin. I was starting to like the dwarf. Maybe because he seemed to have the same violent streak Finn always claimed I did.

  Cooper came at me with the poker again, but once more, I ducked out of the way. This time, he slammed the rod into the sculpture of another eagle, this one perched on a tree stump. Unfortunately, the sculpture didn’t hold up against the dwarf’s assault and he knocked the beak right off the bird.

  “Damn,” he said. “That was one of my favorite pieces. You’ll pay for that, missy!”

  I sighed and kept up my dance with the dwarf. Around and around the sculpture garden we went, with Cooper trying to split my skull open and me sidestepping out of the way time and time again. Despite the fact that Cooper was nearly three hundred, the dwarf moved with the ease of a much younger man, and all the long hours and years working at his forge had given him incredible strength and stamina. I was already sweating from all the bobbing and weaving, but Cooper looked like he could swing that heavy poker at me all day. He probably could, and sooner or later odds said he was sure to connect.

  Still, I held back. We’d already gotten off on the wrong foot. I didn’t want to add insult to injury by hurting the dwarf.

  Finally, just when I was getting good and tired of playing pin-the-poker-on-Gin’s-head, Owen and Kincaid came running into the sculpture garden. Cooper whirled at the sound of their footsteps and raised the rod over his shoulder, ready to take on these new intruders, whoever they might be. The two men skidded to a stop, and Owen held his hands out, just like I had a few minutes before.

  “Cooper,” he said. “It’s me, Owen. Put down the poker, okay?”

  Cooper blinked and slowly lowered his weapon. “Owen?”

  He nodded and smiled at his mentor.

  The dwarf frowned, then looked over his shoulder at me. “Then who is that?”

  I just wheezed and leaned against the broken sculpture.

  21

  Owen introduced me to Cooper. It took some convincing, but eventually the dwarf put his poker on the ground and clapped me on the back, almost knocking me over with his great strength.

  “Sorry about the confusion, missy,” Cooper said in his loud, rumbling voice. “But you can’t be too careful these days, even up here in the mountains. These are troubled times, you know. Troubled times.”

  I thought about all the hoodlums who’d tried to kill me in the last few months and all the others who would keep coming after me. I grimaced. I could tell Cooper a thing or two about troubled times.

  “Especially since someone keeps stealing my fountains!”

  “Fountains?” I asked. “You make fountains?”

  The dwarf nodded. “Not as often as I do sculptures, but I got a commission a few months ago for them. Some guy named Henley wanted seven of them for his gardens, but the guy never showed up with the money.”

  I frowned. Something about the name Henley seemed familiar to me, like I’d seen or heard it somewhere recently. I concentrated, but the memory just wouldn’t come to me.

  “So I just planted them out in the woods, figuring I’d get rid of them sooner or later,” Cooper said. “But one by one, someone’s been stealing them. There’s only one left now, which was why I was out hiding in the trees, trying to catch the thief. I saw you come out here and thought you might be the person whose backside I need to kick.”

  “Sorry,” I murmured. “Not much use for fountains in my line of work.”

  Once he decided I wasn’t a threat to him or his remaining fountain, Cooper moved over to Owen and Kincaid. He clapped Owen heartily on the back and did the same to Kincaid. Then he put his arms around the two of them in a bear hug and lifted them both up off the ground, letting out a loud roar that made Owen smile and Kincaid laugh.

  “It’s good to see my boys together again,” Cooper said when he finally put them back down.

  They didn’t say anything, but Owen and Kincaid looked at each other over the top of his head.

  Cooper led us back to the house and directed us to some chairs on the patio while he went inside and rustled up something for us to drink. A few minutes later, he came ba
ck with a tall pitcher of lemonade and several mismatched cups, some of which were actually repurposed jelly jars.

  “It’s a bit warm,” he apologized, setting everything down on the metal table in the middle of the chairs. “I’m afraid I forgot to fill up the ice cube trays the last time I emptied them. I always forget that.”

  Kincaid chuckled. “And everything else that involves housework. All you care about is your forge and your latest masterpiece.”

  The dwarf shrugged, but there was a good-natured smile on his face.

  “Let me help with that,” I said.

  I leaned forward, wrapped my hand around the pitcher, and reached for my magic. A silver light flickered on my palm, and elemental Ice crystals spread out from my hand, ran up the pitcher, and then down into the lemonade below. A second later, the entire pitcher was cold and frosty, so much so that the layer of Ice I’d put on the glass started to steam, the faint wisps of it curling up into the afternoon heat.

  Cooper looked at me, his eyes sharp and wary in his lined face. I sat back in my chair and gave him an easy smile.

  We sat there for half an hour, sipping lemonade, while the three of them caught up. If the dwarf thought it strange Owen and Kincaid were here together, he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he reminisced about Christmas, when Owen and Eva had visited him last. I hadn’t come with them then, not wanting to intrude on what was a family celebration, but I was glad I’d been able to meet Cooper today. I only wished the circumstances could have been better.

  Finally, we finished our lemonade. The dwarf pushed his glass away and speared Owen with a hard look.

  “Now, do you want to tell me the real reason you came all the way up here?” Cooper asked. “Because I know it wasn’t just for the pleasure of my company. Not when you came with Phillip, to whom as far as I know, you haven’t said a civil word in years. And you still haven’t told me about her.”

  The dwarf jerked his head at me. Owen had introduced me before simply as Gin, but now it was time to let the dwarf know who and what I was.

  “My name is Gin Blanco.”

  The dwarf frowned, like he recognized the name but couldn’t quite place it, so I decided to help him out.

  “I believe you know, or rather knew, my foster father. Fletcher Lane.”

  The dwarf’s eyes sharpened that much more. “Yes, I knew Fletcher. I was very sorry to hear about his passing.”

  Well, passing was a polite way of saying brutal murder, but I tilted my head, accepting his condolences.

  Owen leaned forward, staring at the dwarf. “We came up here today because Salina is back in Ashland.”

  For a moment, Cooper went completely, utterly still. He’d been reaching for the pitcher to pour himself some more lemonade, and his hand wavered in mid-air before he dropped it down to the table. Then, he sat back in his chair and shrugged, like it didn’t matter to him where Salina was or what she was doing.

  “Well, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later,” he grumbled. “Although I was hoping for never.”

  “What do you mean?” Owen asked.

  Cooper shifted in his chair. His gaze cut to Kincaid, but he didn’t respond to Owen’s question. He didn’t have to.

  “So it’s true then,” Owen said. “What Kincaid said. That Salina—that she hurt Eva all those years ago.”

  Emotions flashed across his face like lightning. Shock, disbelief, disgust, and finally anger—so much anger. Owen got to his feet and paced around the patio, stalking from one side to the other, his wing tips clacking on the stones.

  Finally, he turned and stabbed his finger at Cooper. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because you wouldn’t have listened to us—any of us,” the dwarf said in a resigned voice. “You loved the girl, and you only wanted to see the good in her. There was no point in making things worse than they already were.”

  Owen turned his gaze to Kincaid. “And you, Phillip? Why didn’t you tell me what she was doing? Hell, why didn’t Eva tell me?”

  “I tried, but you were too busy beating the shit out of me,” Kincaid snapped. “As far as Eva goes, she told me that Salina threatened to hurt me and you too if she said anything. She begged me to keep quiet, so I did. Eva was so upset, so afraid that Salina could come back at any time. She’d already been hurt enough, and I didn’t want her to worry any more than she already was. That’s the reason I kept my mouth shut back then and all these years. I was protecting Eva.”

  Something you failed to do. Kincaid didn’t say the words. He didn’t have to.

  That stricken look dimmed Owen’s eyes again, and I knew what he was feeling—guilt. Guilt that he hadn’t realized what was going on, guilt that he’d taken Salina’s side over everyone else’s, guilt over what Eva had suffered, guilt that he’d almost killed Kincaid because of Salina’s lies. So much guilt. Enough to last a lifetime.

  As much as I wanted to go over to Owen, hold him close, and tell him it was okay, I couldn’t do that. Nothing I could say would make his guilt go away, and right now I needed to talk to the dwarf about more practical matters.

  I looked at Cooper. “So what happened? How did you convince Salina to leave Ashland?”

  He shifted in his chair again. “Phillip called me the night Owen beat him. We’d kept in touch, even though Owen and I weren’t speaking at the time. I came and picked him up, and he told me what Salina had done. I got the boy patched up, and we waited for Owen to leave the house. When he finally did, we went in and confronted Salina. I told her to leave Ashland and never come back—or I’d kill her. Of course, she didn’t listen to me. She tried to use her water magic on me, but I managed to overcome her with my Air power. I held her down on the ground with it while Phillip packed up her things. Then we made her write a note for Owen and threw her out of the house. That was the last time I saw her.”

  We were all quiet, although I could hear the sudden, loud chirping of the birds deeper in the woods, like something had startled them. A few crows zoomed up out of the tops of the trees and started circling around and around in the sky above.

  “Salina might come after you,” I told the dwarf. “Especially given how isolated you are here. Maybe it would be better if you stayed with Owen for a few days. Just in case.”

  “Bah!” Cooper waved his hand. “I don’t need protection from her. Besides, I doubt she’d come all the way up here. Salina never did much care for this place—or me.”

  “All the more reason for her to come after you now,” I said. “Salina seems to be going around settling old scores, among other things. You were the one responsible for running her out of Ashland. That’s not the kind of thing a person forgets. Especially not someone like her. Trust me. I know a thing or two about grudges. She’ll come after you sooner or later.”

  Cooper shrugged. “And I’ll deal with her the same way I did before.”

  The dwarf looked back and forth between me and Owen. “But the two of you are together now?”

  Owen nodded. “We are.”

  “Then I’d say missy here is in far more trouble than I am,” Cooper said. “Salina never did like sharing you, Owen—not with anyone.”

  Owen didn’t respond, but sadness mixed with the guilt on his face. I wondered if he realized what the dwarf was really saying—that Salina would probably come after me too. I wondered what Owen would do in that situation—which one of us he’d choose. I hoped it would be me, but I couldn’t quite ignore the cold, creeping dread that it would be Salina instead.

  We sat there for another half hour. Owen and Kincaid tried to convince Cooper to come back to Ashland and stay at the Graysons’ mansion, if only for the next few days, but the dwarf wouldn’t budge, saying he had too many projects to finish.

  “I’ve been up here in this old holler going on two hundred years. I’m not about to let Salina or anyone else drive me out of it.”

  Cooper winked at me, and I found myself grinning in return. I liked the dwarf, with his loud voice and thick goggles. He remi
nded me of what Fletcher would have been like if the old man had still been alive—absolutely irrepressible.

  Eventually, since he wouldn’t come with us, we got to our feet and said our good-byes. Cooper walked us around to the front of the house. I started to get into the car with the others, but he grabbed hold of my arm.

  “You be careful with Salina,” Cooper warned. “I’ve heard about you, Gin, and what you can do with your magic. How you killed Mab Monroe. But Salina’s tricky. She always has been, and so is her water magic. Fighting her isn’t like fighting another elemental. Water power is hard to get a hold on, and it’s even harder still to figure out some way to beat it.”

  I nodded, taking his words to heart. I’d seen what Salina could do with her magic—how she enjoyed using it to hurt people.

  “I’ll be careful,” I said. “I’ll take care of Kincaid and protect him from Salina. Eva too. She won’t hurt them again. Not as long as I’m still breathing.”

  Cooper shook his head. “Eva and Kincaid aren’t the only ones who need protecting from Salina. I think you know that.”

  I looked over at Owen, who was already in the car and staring at us through the passenger window. “Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.”

  I got into the Escalade. Through the open windows, Owen and Kincaid tried one final time to get their mentor to come along.

  But Cooper shook his head again. “I’ll be just fine up here. I have been for a long time now, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. But you take care.” His gaze flicked to me. “All of you.”

  I nodded at him, and he nodded back. Cooper knew how these things ended. He knew that one of us would kill the other, and I was determined to be the last one standing—no matter how tricky Salina’s water magic might be.