Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

flickering inside the glass.
    I didn’t have time to be suave and kill him, so I barreled into his back like a NFL linebacker and drove my boot into the back of his knee. The dwarf screamed and did a header onto the gravel, slamming face-first into the rocks. A few heads turned in our direction at the sound, but I’d already grabbed the lantern and container and moved on. Liquid sloshed back and forth in the red plastic with every step that I took.
    I leaped up onto the sagging porch of the old depot, ran across to the far side, and dropped to one knee. Lightsblazed all around me now, but I was partially hidden by the dilapidated porch railing in front of me. Besides, by this point, almost everyone was still gathered around the railcar, staring inside at the two dead giants instead of looking in my direction.
    With one eye on the crowd, I unscrewed the black cap on the plastic container. The acrid smell of gasoline wafted up to me. I smiled. I’d seen some generators in among the building supplies. Of course, they’d need gas to run. Maybe luck wasn’t going to completely abandon me tonight.
    I didn’t have time to be sneaky or particularly creative, so I kicked over the plastic container. The gasoline slopped all over the porch and dribbled off the side like butter dripping off a hot biscuit. Then I raised the lantern over my head and dashed it down onto the gas-soaked, wooden porch.
    WHOOSH!
    The gas ignited at once, the bright heat of it flashing in front of my eyes and sucking the moisture out of them. I wasn’t the only one who noticed my sabotage. Elektra LaFleur’s head snapped around in my direction, her gaze drawn by the rapid spread of the fire.
    “There!” the other assassin screamed, green lightning flashing in her hand. “There she is! Get her!”
    Fuck. I’d hoped to slither back into the shadows while everyone else was distracted by the pretty flames. Not going to happen now. At least everyone was looking in this direction, instead of at Finn and Natasha sneaking out of the opposite side of the train yard. Still blinking orange spots out of my vision, I vaulted over the porchrailing and ran out into the waiting darkness, moving away from Finn and the girl.
    A few shots rang out, but none of them came close to hitting me. I didn’t even feel them kick up any gravel around my feet. Not surprising. Most people couldn’t shoot their way out of a paper bag, much less hit a moving target in the dark. Even if someone had gotten lucky and put a round in my back, I was still wearing my silverstone vest, which would catch any bullet that came into contact with it.
    Still, not wanting to chance it, I forced myself to run faster. Off to my right, several giants started to give chase. No worries there. Giants might be strong, but they weren’t the quickest creatures around. I had no doubt that I could easily outdistance all of them with my current pace.
    But there was one person that I couldn’t outrun—Elektra LaFleur.
    I glanced over my shoulder long enough to see the other assassin sprinting after me, running just as fast as I was. She was quick, I’d give her that. Green lightning flashed in both of her hands now, illuminating her way and letting her keep me in sight. I could feel the raw, elemental power in the eerie lightning, the shocking, deadly electrical charge of it, even though I was a hundred feet ahead of her. She was so fucking
strong,
even stronger than I’d realized before. That little jolt she’d given me at the Pork Pit earlier today was nothing compared to the pure, pulsing energy she held in her hands right now.
    But most importantly, Elektra had one advantage that I didn’t—we were running through a yard full of metal rails, and metal would easily conduct her lightning.
    Elektra knew as well as I that lightning can move a hell of a lot faster than humans. That’s why she dropped to her knees and slammed her green, glowing hands down onto one of the metal rails, unleashing her lightning, and sending it sparking toward me. The deadly electricity zipped along the rails, jumping from one to another, until the whole train yard glowed with its shocking power.
    I didn’t have a chance of outrunning the lightning, but I had my own magic, my own elemental power. I just hoped it would be enough to save me.
    I dropped to my knees in the middle of a set of rails, careful not to touch either of them, curled into a ball, and grabbed hold of my Stone magic, pulling it up through my