Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd

by Web of Lies (pdf)

  I drew in a breath and threw another blast of Stone

  “Do you know what I like, Tobias?” I asked. magic at the ceiling, even as I reached for my Ice power,

  “What?”

  making the frozen droplets and stream of water expand in

  “Playing dirty.”

  size. I forced the Ice into the stone like a chisel. Ice, stone. I smiled at him and threw my magic at the cavern ceilChisel, hammer. ing.

  My vision became a field of silver. Sweat dripped into my eyes, my knees trembled, and my whole body There was no time for finesse, restraint, or even patience. felt weak. It felt like I’d been toiling away for years, deone shot was all I had, and I took it. I threw everything I cades, even though only a second, two tops, had passed. I had at the cavern ceiling. All my Stone magic and all my wanted to let go of my magic, wanted to rest. Every part Ice power, weak though it was. The water that had been of my aching body screamed at me to just let go and fall dripping off the formations and sluicing down the cavinto the blackness that was threatening to overwhelm me. ern wall immediately froze. The resulting crystal droplets But if I did that, if I gave Dawson a second of opportuglistened like the diamonds embedded in the walls. The nity, he’d throw his own magic at me, and I didn’t have sudden surge of Ice caused bits and pieces of the cavern to the strength to ward him off. Not now. So I gritted my crack and sheer off from the rest of the walls and ceiling. teeth, pushed the pain away, and kept hammering at the Dust and dirt puffed up into the air.

  stone. Bringing the ceiling down might be the last thing Jo-Jo Deveraux had always told me I had more Stone I’d ever do, but the fucker was going to fall. magic than anyone she’d ever seen before. I hoped that Crack! Crack-crack!

  meant Tobias Dawson too. But I’d been weakened by It started to work. A large stalactite broke off from the Dawson’s punches, and I wasn’t at full strength. Even ceiling. It plummeted down like a knife and speared one if I had been, I was still hammering at stone that had of the giants in his shoulder. He howled in pain and fell been around long before I’d been born—and would be to the cavern floor. Crimson blood splashed everywhere, around long after I was gone. Layers and layers and lay- and the stone underneath my feet took on a darker vi ers of it. But I used my magic, my Stone power, like a bration. Dawson’s head snapped around at the giant’s hammer, smashing at everything I could feel with raw, screams. Sloppy, sloppy of him to get distracted like that. brute force.

  I kept working. Ice, stone. Chisel, hammer. Across from me, Tobias Dawson frowned, not sure Another second passed. Another piece of the roof what the hell I was doing, why I wasn’t attacking him. I broke off, this time above Dawson’s head. His Stone Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 338-339

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  magic gave him enough of a warning for him to leap fora dozen steps back toward the mine entrance before one ward to get out of its way. The dwarf hit the ground hard. of the rock spears split his head open. I saw his blood hit It didn’t even daze him.

  the wall even through the spray of water, dust, and falling

  “Kill her!” Dawson screamed at the other giant even as rock.

  he scrambled to his feet. “Kill her before she collapses the Tobias Dawson was smarter than his minions. Tougher whole ceiling—”

  too. Like me, he dived forward, avoiding most of the Too late.

  deadly stalactites. The dwarf bounced up onto his feet. I felt a weakness in the stone, a little sliver of vulnerHe saw me cowering in the recess, and his blue eyes narability caused by years of water seeping into it. I gathered rowed in hate.

  my strength a final time and forced all the magic I had left

  “I’ll kill you for this, bitch!” His roar echoed through into that pocket of air. It wasn’t as wide as a needle, but it the cavern even above the hiss of water and thunder of the was big enough.

  splintered stones.

  CRACK!

  The dwarf ran in my direction, still dodging the fallThe bottom of the cavern ceiling blew out with an ing rocks and cascading water. His blue eyes burned with enormous roar, as though a bucket full of grenades had magic. He stretched out his hands, ready to throw his just exploded next to it. The trickles of water became a power at me or to drag me out of the recess and into the rushing torrent that cascaded everywhere, and violet falling debris. Probably both. The dwarf might survive tremors shook the ground under my feet. Dust and dirt the punishment of the ceiling collapse, but I wouldn’t. and rock zipped through the air like shrapnel. I dived My body wasn’t as tough and strong as his. I didn’t have to the ground and rolled back, back, back—away from my knives, so there was only one thing left I could do to Dawson, the two giants, and the stalactites that ringed fight him off.

  the ceiling over their heads. My eyes latched onto a recess This time, I threw my magic at him.

  in the cavern wall, and I scrabbled over and into it. The My Ice magic. It was all I had left. I’d exhausted the space was just barely big enough to shield my body, but Stone to collapse the ceiling. So I focused on the water the rock here was harder than that above, which had been droplets flicking through the air in front of the chargweakened by the water. ing dwarf, freezing and flinging them at Dawson. I was The stalactites that had been hanging overhead already weakened from the effort of drawing on so much dropped to the ground like pointed guillotine blades. The magic, so instead of the knives I’d imagined, the droplets first wave skewered the giant who’d been injured before, turned to shards of Ice that did little more than prick the until he resembled some sort of oversize voodoo doll with dwarf’s thick skin. It didn’t slow him down. Another few a mass of rocky pins stuck in it. The second man got half feet, and he’d be able to reach me. And then I’d get dead. Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 340-341

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  Determination rose inside me—cold, hard, unflinchknives. The blue glow of magic snuffed out of the dwarf’s ing. I reached for my Ice magic again. It was harder this bulging eyes, and he opened his mouth to scream. The time, so fucking hard, like trying to scoop up water with rest of the ceiling began to collapse, drowning out his wide fingers. Every time I gathered up enough power, hoarse cries.

  it slipped away. So I reached for it again, clenching my It should have been dark in the cavern, which was hands around the trickle of magic inside me. It tried to choked by dust, debris, mud, and water. But it wasn’t. slip away, but I held on tight and pulled, yanking it to There was a light on—me. I stared down at my hands. me, bending it to my will.

  The spider rune scars on my palms, the ones that had And something inside me wrenched.

  been caused by the silverstone metal burning into my For a moment, I felt like a raw egg that had been flesh all those years ago, were on fire—with icy flames. dropped on the floor—broken, messy, oozing. But then And I felt the power surge through me again, greater than magic filled me. More Ice magic than I’d ever felt before. before. Ice magic that felt almost as strong as my Stone I didn’t stop to think about where it had come from or power did.

  whether this was all some sort of deathbed hallucination Not good.

  on my part. I used the magic to freeze more of the water For a moment, my eyes met the dwarf’s. Panic, fear, rushing through the air and threw it at Dawson. pain, and awe flashed in Tobias Dawson’s gaze. And then This time, the droplets formed long, slender icicles he was gone, swallowed up by the falling rock, rushing that zipped through the dusty air like daggers. The dwarf water, and suffocating dust. I curled into a tight ball and saw them coming. He stopped in his tracks about five huddled in the wall recess as the earth and stone shook feet away from me and brought his own Stone magic to around me. The stones’ vibrations roared a violent, unbear, trying to block my attack, trying to use his elemenending scream inside my head. I’d shattered the cavern tal power to harden his skin against the crude weap
ons, as ceiling with my magic, caused it as much pain as Dawson I’d done so many times before.

  and his mining equipment ever had. The sound made my But it didn’t work.

  stomach clench. But it had been the stone or me, and I’d Maybe he was too distracted by the chaos around him. choose me every single time.

  Maybe I’d wrecked his concentration with my initial So I closed my eyes and listened to the stone wail as sneak attack. Maybe I’d upset the order of his perfectly the cavern collapsed on top of me.

  arranged duel, and he just didn’t know how to recover from the unfairness of it all.

  Whatever the reason, my icicles slammed into Dawson’s chest with all the force of one of my silverstone Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 342-343

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  a word as he sat down cross-legged a few feet away from me. His green eyes were as bright as a cat’s, although his face sagged with weariness and pain from where the giant had 31

  hit him.

  I stayed in my crack, my little refuge, and wondered if this was the part where Fletcher told me to leave—and never come back. He’d seen what I’d done to the giant, what I was capable of. Who would want someone like that hanging around?

  “You’ve been here a while now,” Fletcher said in a quiet voice. “You’re a smart kid, Gin. I’m sure you’ve noticed things. Like me being gone so much.”

  And coming back with blood all over you , I thought. I didn’t know what Fletcher was getting at, but at least he I huddled in my usual hiding place, a small crack in the alley wasn’t telling me to get lost—yet. “Yeah, I have.”

  wall behind the Pork Pit. The enclosed space always made He nodded. “I’m sure you’ve wondered where I go, what me feel safe. Secure. Perhaps it was because I knew no one I do. All the trips I take.” Fletcher turned his eyes to me, so could squeeze in here after me—especially someone as big as that I felt the full force of his green gaze. “It’s time you knew the giant I’d just killed.

  the truth, especially after tonight. I’m an assassin, Gin. Have Half an hour had passed since Douglas had forced his been for years.”

  way into the restaurant and attacked Fletcher and Finn. My Maybe I should have been surprised or stunned or even tears were gone, but blood still coated my hands from where horrified. But I wasn’t. After my family’s murder and the I’d killed the giant. I scratched my fingernail across my skin, harsh realities of living on the streets, nothing much shocked leaving a white mark in the rusty brown stains. I’d done it me anymore. My childhood and my innocence were gone, re- again. Killed again. Just like I had the night the Fire elemen- placed by the knowledge people were mean, cold, crazy, dan- tal had murdered my family, and I’d collapsed my own house gerous. So I just nodded my head, as if his revelation made down on top of them all—including Bria, my baby sister. My perfect sense to me. In a twisted way, it did. stomach twisted. Somehow, I forced down the hot bile that

  “Do you know what being an assassin means?” Fletcher rose in my throat.

  asked.

  The back door of the Pork Pit eased open, and Fletcher I shrugged. “You kill people for money.”

  Lane stepped into the alley. The middle-aged man didn’t say He smiled. “Most of the time. Sometimes though, I get Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 344-345

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  offered jobs I don’t take. Sometimes the people I turn down

  “Do you want me to leave?”

  get angry with me. Sometimes they find me, come after me.”

  Fletcher frowned. “Of course not. Why would you think

  “Like Douglas?”

  that?”

  “Just like Douglas.”

  I stared at the blood on my hands and didn’t say anything. Despite the weirdness of the conversation, I found myself

  “Oh, Gin,” he said in a soft voice. “You don’t really re- curious to learn more about this other life Fletcher led. “Who alize what you did tonight, do you? You saved me. Finn did Douglas want you to kill?”

  too. Douglas would have killed all three of us if you hadn’t A shadow passed over Fletcher’s face. “Some little girls.”

  stabbed him. Don’t you dare feel bad about stabbing that sick

  “So why didn’t you do it?”

  bastard. You did what you had to do. Nothing else.”

  Fletcher stared at me. “Because there are rules, Gin. The knot in my stomach loosened. Maybe I wasn’t such a Things even assassins shouldn’t do. Killing innocent kids is monster after all. Or maybe I just didn’t care anymore. one of them.”

  “I want you to stay, Gin,” Fletcher said. “For as long as I thought of the Fire elemental and all the questions she’d you want. And, if you’ll let me, if you want to, I’d like to asked me about Bria, my baby sister. I hadn’t answered the train you.”

  elemental, not even when she’d burned me with my own spi- I stared at him, confused. “Train me to do what? You’re der rune. Because I’d known what would happen. I would already teaching me how to cook.”

  die, and then so would Bria.

  He hesitated. “To be like me. To do what I do. To be an

  “What happens when someone breaks the rules?” I asked assassin.”

  in a hoarse whisper.

  Maybe I should have been surprised. Shocked. Horrified. Fletcher stared at me. “I try to make it so they can’t hurt But I wasn’t. Instead, I thought of Douglas, the giant. How anyone else.”

  he’d come at me and how I’d defended myself. I knew my I knew he meant kill them. I thought of Douglas and the stabbing him had been more dumb luck than anything else. way the giant had looked at me. What he would have done But my family was gone, and I was alone. I was tired of to me if I hadn’t done it to him first. I shivered. “That must living on the streets and being weak and small and helpless. be nice. To be able to take care of other people like that. To Tired of hiding from everyone and everything. I looked at be that strong.” The last word came out as a raspy whisper. Fletcher. It wasn’t just that he was an adult, older than me, Fletcher stared at me, a strange look on his lined face, as taller, more muscled. Fletcher Lane had an inner strength though he was considering something important. Like tell- that set him apart from other people. I suddenly realized it ing me to get lost. I decided to make it easy for him. I owed was a strength I wanted. A strength I needed to survive. him that much, if only for the last few weeks of security he’d

  “What about Finn?” I asked. “He’s your son. Shouldn’t given me.

  you train him instead?”

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  Fletcher smiled. “He is my son, and I love him, but he and once again, I forced it down. I hadn’t been afraid of doesn’t have the right temperament. He’s too reckless, too the dark since I was a child. Besides, Tobias Dawson and flashy. You’re different. Calmer. You take the time to think his giants were dead. They couldn’t hurt me anymore. things through before you do them.”

  There was nothing down here but me and the rocks and I didn’t know about all that. But I decided to take what the water. Nothing I couldn’t handle.

  Fletcher was offering me. Grab on to it with both hands and So I began to blink, focus, and strain my eyes. Slowly, never look back. Genevieve Snow was dead. Her family was the blackness lessened to a midnight gray, and the world dead. But Gin Blanco was still alive. And I wanted to stay came back into focus. What I could see of it, anyway. that way.

  Which was nothing more than a big pile of rocks. They

  “Okay,” I said. “You can train me.”

  partially blocked the entrance to the small recess where Fletcher nodded. “All right then. We start tonight. Come I’d taken shelter from the cave-in. I stopped a minute to on. Let’s go back into the restaurant.”

  asses
s my body. Wiggled my fingers and toes, and went He got to his feet and stretched out his hand to me. I through the whole routine I’d done when I’d first woken stared at it a minute. I was going to be an assassin. Might as up in the cavern. Sore, scraped, raw, aching, bone-weary. well start acting like one. Which, to me, meant getting to my Same as before, but everything was more or less in work own feet by myself. Which I did. ing order.

  Fletcher’s green eyes brightened as he smiled—

  I reached down, searching for my purse and the healI gasped in a breath, waking from the dreamy memory. ing supplies Jo-Jo Deveraux had given me. But the purse It took me a moment to remember where I was, what was long gone. So was my blond wig, and I didn’t feel the had happened—and the fact I was probably buried alive. blue contacts in my eyes anymore. They’d popped out Panic welled up in me, threatening to break loose. But I somewhere along the way. The only thing I had left were pushed down the hot, worrisome emotion, smothering my black dress and stilettos, which were no help at all. So it with cold logic. I was still alive, still breathing. Which I blew out a breath, crawled forward, put my hands out, meant I still had a chance, however small it might be. and shoved.

  I didn’t know how long I’d huddled there under the lip To my surprise, the rocks moved. Bits and pieces of rock, with the earth shaking below my body and the broke off like eggshells where I touched them, and I got cavern collapsing in on top of me. Minutes had passed, to work. I don’t know how long I crouched there, half maybe hours, for all I knew. But it was quiet now. The under the recess, scooping rocks out of the way so I could earth had quit trembling, and the stones had quit falling, wiggle forward and get to my feet. Slow going given my which meant it was time to come back to myself. various aches and pains, but eventually I cleared a space I opened my eyes to blackness. Again, panic filled me, large enough for me to worm my way through. I got up Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 348-349

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