Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

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 weapons, 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