Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

the bastards know I had my wits about me just yet. I left cheekbone too. A couple of my teeth felt loose, and also opened my eyes and started blinking away the white the coppery tang of my own blood filled my mouth. I spots that swam in and out of my vision like lazy catfish. cracked my eyes open. A bit of light trickled into my viSlowly, I pushed myself up to my hands and knees, then sion. Well, at least he hadn’t ruptured my optic nerve. leaned back on my heels. My head and face pounded, but Next I wiggled my fingers and toes. My arms felt sore, I blocked out the pain, even as I huddled there with my as though I’d been manhandled, which I probably had head in my hands.
    been. My knees were scraped and raw. So were my hands. A pair of boots appeared before me. Cowboy boots. Minor annoyances. But to my surprise, I didn’t seem to Black snakeskin with red flames and pointed, silverstone have any other injuries. No broken bones, no missing tips. I looked up to find Tobias Dawson looming over me. limbs, no trauma between my thighs. Which could only As much as a five-foot-tall dwarf could loom. mean one thing. Tobias Dawson wanted to question me “About time you woke up, bitch,” he said and hit me before he killed me—or the dwarf just wanted me awake again.
    while he tortured me. Neither option was a pleasant one, but I’d faced them both before and come out more or less I didn’t have time to reach for my Stone magic to harden in one piece. I’d survive this too.
    my skin into a rocky shell. Besides, that was a card I didn’t
    “I think the bitch is awake,” a voice said. want to play just yet. Tobias Dawson might have sensed Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 324-325
    12/17/09 9:32 PM
    326 JENNIFER ESTEP
    Web of Lies 327
    my magic, might have been able to finger me as the one ation. But anger—anger was another story. Sure, anger who broke into his safe, but he probably didn’t realize could make you reckless, sloppy, but it could also made how strong I was. otherwise, he would have done the you strong. Determined. Both of which were things I was smart thing and killed me while I’d been unconscious in going to need if I had any hopes of getting out of here Mab Monroe’s garden.
    alive.
    But all that knowledge, all that planning, didn’t help
    “Pick her up,” the dwarf ordered. “I want the bitch to me with the fist whistling toward my body at warp speed. see exactly what she’s dying for.”
    I managed to lean back and turn my body enough so Two giants stepped out of the shadows and lumbered that his fist hit my left shoulder instead of slamming into over to me. I recognized them as two of Dawson’s men, my face. The hard blow bowled me over onto my side, the two that had come with him to Country Daze to and I felt it reverberate through my whole body. An elecbrace Warren and Violet Fox. The giants hauled me to my tric shockwave of pain. A low groan escaped from befeet. More pain blossomed in my shoulder and jaw, and I tween my clamped lips, but I forced myself to tense up, let out another low groan. But I didn’t offer any resistance to try to defend myself against another sharp blow. But to the giants. Not yet.
    the dwarf didn’t come after me again. Instead, he stepped I was already injured, which meant I needed more of back and regarded me with his cold blue eyes. Since Toa plan than my usual method of hacking and slashing my bias Dawson wasn’t immediately going to beat me to way out of trouble. I didn’t know how long I’d been undeath, my gaze flicked around the area. conscious, but Finn had surely realized things had gone I’d been right—I was deep in Dawson’s coal mine. to hell at Mab’s party. He was probably working his conGray and brown rock surrounded me on all sides, and nections, trying to figure out where Tobias Dawson had seams of coal ran like black ribbons through the various taken me. Finn might even be on his way to the mine layers of stone. The passage was wider than I’d expected. right now, with Sophia and Jo-Jo Deveraux in tow. Taller too. Concrete beams shored up the roof, and a variBut I couldn’t count on them to save me. I wouldn’t. ety of old, broken equipment lay scattered on the ground. In the end, the only thing, the only person, you could The air smelled of rocks, dust, metal.
    ever count on was yourself. Another lesson Fletcher Lane All around me, the stone muttered. Sharp, angry had taught me. Something else I’d already figured out for sounds