Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

woman cried out softly in a gazebo to our left. A mohimself on me. ment later, another woman joined her throaty chorus. I smiled at him again. “I’d love to go out to the garDawson ignored them and moved on. I let him lead me dens.”
    farther into the shadows that cut through the garden like black knives.
    I put my hand on Tobias Dawson’s arm, and we left the The dwarf didn’t stop until he reached a gazebo hiddance floor. Across the room, I saw Finnegan Lane starden underneath the tendrils of a weeping willow tree. ing at me. He still stood next to Roslyn, but I saw the I glanced over my shoulder. We were two hundred feet relief in his green gaze. Finn knew the longer I stayed the away from the terrace, well out of sight of anyone looking more risk there was of someone trying to proposition me through the glass doors. I tightened my grip on my knife for real—and the slimmer my chances got to take care of and got ready. Dawson led me over to a long wooden Dawson.
    bench inside the gazebo. I sat down, but the dwarf didn’t Finn wasn’t the only one staring at me. So was owen join me. Instead, he stood before me and rocked back on Grayson. He nodded his head to me as we walked by. I the heels of his cowboy boots.
    smiled at him in return.
    “You look like a smart girl, Candy,” the dwarf rumTobias Dawson opened one of the double doors for bled. “So I think it’s pretty safe to say you know who I am me, and we stepped outside. The night air had grown and what I do for a living.”
    even chillier since I’d been out here with owen Grayson, I didn’t know where he was going with this, but I and I shivered.
    smiled. “of course I’ve heard of you, Mr. Dawson. You’re
    “Cold?” the dwarf asked, closing the door behind us. one of the biggest coal miners in all of Ashland. A very re“A bit.”
    spectable businessman. Very smart. Very strong.” A little He smiled at me. “Don’t worry. What I have in mind over the top, but flattery never hurt.
    will warm you right up.”
    He nodded. “I am very strong and very smart. I’m also Dawson was saying all the right things, but again, his a Stone elemental, did you know that?”
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    I shook my head. “No. I’m afraid I don’t pay much attention to magic.”
    Dawson nodded again. “Fair enough. As you said, I’m very powerful. But what few people know is that I have another elemental talent. Something small but very 29
    handy at times.”
    I kept smiling, although by now, my cheeks hurt from the effort. The dwarf needed to step closer so I could come off the bench and stab him, not talk me into a glassy-eyed coma. “And what would that be? A talent for metal perhaps?”
    Dawson shook his head. “oh no, nothing that grand. But I do have the ability to sense others’ magic and know exactly what their power is, just by touching their skin. Almost like a magical fingerprint, if you will.” His face
    “Are you sure it was her, Tobias?”
    hardened. “And your sticky palms were all over the safe in A female voice sounded somewhere above my head, my office, bitch.”
    although it seemed far away. I couldn’t tell exactly where Uh-oh.
    it was coming from. The pounding in my head drowned Tobias Dawson had sensed my magic—and worse, he out just about everything else, although I felt dew-covknew I was the one who’d broken into his safe at the minered grass underneath my back, and the cool kiss of the ing office.
    night wind on my face. Why was I lying down? I couldn’t I immediately came up off the bench, already bringremember anything through the ache in my skull. ing my hand up, ready to drive my silverstone knife deep
    “I’m positive,” a man muttered. “This is the bitch who into the dwarf’s chest. But Dawson was quicker. His fist broke into my office. She has the stench of that Stone slammed into my face, and the world went black. magic all over her. Then there are these.”
    Something rustled. I wanted to open my eyes to see what it was, but for some reason, my eyelids just wouldn’t lift.
    “Is that silverstone?” the woman asked again. Some small part of my mind frowned in thought. I knew that voice, that soft, breathy voice that resonated Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 320-321
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    with so much raw power. I just couldn’t remember whom Her voice short-circuited my train of thought. I tried it belonged to.
    to