Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

don’t remember a lot of it. I ran back through the house for what seemed like forever, stoppingto hide every time I saw one of Mab’s men searching for me. But finally I made it all the way back to the staircase where you’d told me to wait before two of Mab’s men spotted me. One of them grabbed me, and I started screaming.”
    I remembered the sound of her screams that night. The awful, awful sound. The one that always made me wake up in a cold sweat.
    “Anyway, I don’t really know what happened after that. I guess it was you and your magic, because the house started to collapse right on top of us. Part of it fell on one of the giants and buried him.”
    That must have been the one whose arm I’d seen near the fountain.
    “I jerked away from the other giant, ran past the staircase, and managed to make it out of the courtyard. But he wasn’t as fast as I was. I saw the staircase fall and crush him to death.” She gave me a tight smile. “I know it’s horrible now, but at the time, I remember thinking that his blood squirted out of him just like juice from a tomato. I imagine that’s whose blood was on the rocks you found. His, not mine.”
    It wasn’t any more horrible than all the things I’d done as the Spider, but instead of telling her that, I just nodded.
    “Anyway, I just kept on running, going deeper and deeper into the forest around our house until I collapsed. After that, things get a bit blurry,” Bria said. “All I really remember is that sometime later, this man found me out there in the middle of nowhere. I don’t really remember much about him, just that he had the greenest eyesI’ve ever seen. All slick and shiny-looking, like glass or something. Anyway, he took me … somewhere. Fed me, bathed me, and made sure that I was okay. The next thing I knew, I had a new mom and dad. They were wonderful people, Gin. I think you would have liked them. But it wasn’t—the same. It wasn’t ever the same.”
    I looked over at the wall beside the cash register and the photo of Fletcher Lane that was hung there. In the faded picture, a young Fletcher held up the catch from his fishing trip, beaming proudly at the camera. Somehow, I knew that the mystery man that Bria was talking about was him.
    And once more, I was stunned—simply stunned. The old man had found Bria all those years ago? Had given her to her foster parents? Why? Had he been looking for me as well?
    More importantly, had he known about Mab’s attack on our family? Had he been there that night? Had Fletcher been there as the assassin the Tin Man, as one of Mab’s men? That horrible thought slammed into me with the force of one of my own silverstone knives, slicing my heart in two. Had the old man in some way been responsible for the murder of my mother and older sister?
    For a moment, the world tilted crazily, and I couldn’t breathe. I just couldn’t
breathe
—
    “You’re not the only one who has dreams,” Bria said in a low voice, cutting into my troubled thoughts. “Last night in the train yard, I was doing just what you wanted me to—getting out of there. But I couldn’t stop thinking about that night and how I had acted back then. And I decided that I didn’t want to run away again.”
    Somehow I pushed my speculations about Fletcher aside and concentrated on her once more.
    “Is—is that why you came back for me last night? Because you felt guilty about running away all those years ago?”
    Bria bit her lip and nodded. “I was a coward once before when my big sister needed me. I didn’t want to be one again. Especially over an arrogant assassin like Elektra LaFleur. So I ran back to the giant you had killed, the one with the gun, picked it up, and circled around behind her. The two of you were struggling, so I couldn’t get a clear shot. But then she started using her magic, and you collapsed at her feet. I thought she was going to kill you, and I just—lost it. That’s why I started shooting. But I didn’t think to check to see how many shots were left, which is why I ran out of bullets before I could kill her.”
    “Believe me,” I said in a wry tone. “I was grateful for the shots you took. It distracted her long enough to let me do what needed to be done.”
    Bria nodded and lifted her eyes to meet mine. “And that’s what you specialize in, isn’t it? Because you’re the Spider.”
    I stared at her. “Does it bother you? The fact that I used to be an assassin? The fact that I’ve