Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

authority crackled in Mab’s words.
    Thanks to Finn and his ability to get his hands on absolutely anything, I’d opened the dining room windowearlier and fastened a small bug inside underneath the windowsill. The bug’s receiver, which I’d stuck in my ear several minutes ago, let me hear Mab loud and clear.
    “I wasn’t sure exactly how many of you would show up on such short notice,” Mab continued. “But I’m most pleased by the turnout.”
    I frowned. Turnout? What was the Fire elemental up to, and who were these mysterious people that she’d invited to her mansion? I had a funny feeling that they weren’t the tame businessmen and businesswomen that I’d expected to find.
    A woman stepped forward, separating herself from the pack. She wore an evening gown like all the others, but the garment was just a bit too big for her thin, wiry frame. The fabric was slick and cheap, and the mint-green color was faded, as though she’d been wearing the dress for years, pulling it out of the depths of her closet for special occasions just like this one. She had to be seventy if she was a day, and her skin had the dark, nut-brown look of someone who’d spent her entire life outdoors, working under the burning sun. Her iron-gray hair had been pulled back into a tight bun, which set off her sharp, angular face, and her eyes were a pale, washed-out blue.
    The woman was one of the guests who’d come in with someone else. A young girl of about sixteen stood off to her right, dressed in a low-rent pink gown with a poofy ballerina skirt, which made it look like a prom dress. The girl was as light as the woman was dark, with long molasses-colored hair shot through with honey-blond highlights. Her hazel eyes were wide and innocent in herlean, almost gaunt face, and the girl kept glancing from side to side, obviously awed by all the lavish furnishings.
    “Well, there was really no choice in the matter, Mab.” The woman’s voice was low, pleasant, friendly even, as though she was talking to some stranger on the street and not the most dangerous person in Ashland. “Not with the generous payout you were offering. I’m surprised that more people didn’t show up to try to collect.”
    The others in the room nodded in agreement. My eyes narrowed. Payout, for what? And how were they going to collect? Was this some kind of business deal? Or something else … something more sinister? Something to do with the Spider, perhaps?
    It wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities. Not too long ago, Mab had hired an assassin named Elektra LaFleur to come to Ashland, hunt me down, and kill me. Of course, I’d taken care of LaFleur instead. Still, ever since then, I’d been waiting for the Fire elemental to do something, anything, to try to find the Spider again. Mab wasn’t the type of person to give up, especially when I’d been offing her men, thwarting her best-laid plans, and generally thumbing my nose at her for months.
    But everything had been quiet since I’d killed LaFleur in the city’s old train yard. Even Finn and his many spies hadn’t heard a whisper of what Mab might be planning, which worried me more than if I knew that the Fire elemental had dispatched every man at her disposal to track me down.
    Somehow, though, I knew that the quiet was about to end tonight—in a big, big way.
    “And you would be?” Mab asked, staring down her nose at her guest.
    The woman bowed her head respectfully, although she never took her eyes off the Fire elemental. “Ruth Gentry, at your service.”
    “Ah, yes, Gentry. Well, I appreciate your honesty,” Mab said, returning the thin woman’s pleasant tone. “You have a stellar reputation, as does everyone else in the room. Which, of course, is why I asked you all here tonight.”
    The Fire elemental had peaked my curiosity with her strange words, and I paused, wanting to find out exactly who the mystery people were. Curiosity was often an emotion that got the best of me, but for once, I forced it aside. I was here to do one thing—kill Mab. Everything else could wait.
    “I hope you all had a pleasant journey,” Mab said, looking at her guests. “As you can see, we’ll be dining on the various dishes that my chef has prepared….”
    I tuned out the Fire elemental. Slowly, I reached forward until my fingers closed around a tiny, clear, almost invisible suction cup on the window in front of me. I gently pulled on the cup, and a small circular piece slid out of the window. A