Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

glass cutter was among the tools I’d brought with me tonight, tucked away in the zippered pocket on my silverstone vest. Earlier, I’d used it to carve an opening in the window. I wanted a clear shot at Mab and not one that might be distorted by my crossbow bolt punching through the glass.
    I put the glass down beside me on the snowy roof. Then I slid my crossbow forward, until the tip of it, the end with the bolt, just protruded through the hole in the window—aimed right at Mab.
    One of Mab’s giant bodyguards, who was pulling double duty as a waiter tonight, came over to stand beside her, as though he had an important message for her. The Fire elemental ignored him and kept talking to her guests about how they’d discuss business after dinner. Too bad she wasn’t going to even make it to the first course.
    I waited a few seconds to be sure that the giant wasn’t going to interrupt or step in front of Mab, then scooted forward even more and put my eye next to the rifle scope. The Fire elemental wasn’t that far away from me, maybe fifty feet, but the scope gave me a crystal clear view of her face.
    I aimed for her right eye, which looked blacker than ink. I’d only get one shot at her, and I didn’t want to waste it on a chest wound that might not put her down for good. Mab might have more magic than any other elemental in Ashland, but even she wouldn’t be able to survive a crossbow bolt through her eye, especially since the silverstone projectile would keep on going until it blasted out of the back of her skull. Hard to recover when half your brain matter was missing.
    Despite all the people I’d killed over the years, all the blood I’d spilled, all the sudden, violent, brutal deaths I’d caused, my finger trembled just a bit as I set it on the crossbow’s trigger. My heart raced in my chest, picking up speed with every single beat, and a bead of sweat trickled down the side of my face, despite the cold. I drew in a breath, trying to calm my nerves and quiet myself. Trying to go to that cold, dark, hard place that I’d been to so many times before—the shelter that had gotten me through so many terrible times in my life.
    Because this was the hit that truly, finally mattered—the only one that ever had. For my murdered family, for my baby sister, Bria, for me. It wouldn’t make things right, it wouldn’t erase all the horrible things I’d suffered through or the equally bad ones I’d done myself, but killing Mab would keep the people I loved safe. And I hoped it would bring me some kind of peace too.
    I hadn’t been able to stop Mab years ago, when she’d murdered my mother and older sister, but I could kill her now. Everything that I’d ever done—living on the streets, becoming an assassin, honing my deadly skills—had been leading up to this one moment, this final confrontation.
    I let out my breath and pulled the trigger.