Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

to kill me and my baby sister before the night was through.
    LaFleur disappeared into the shadows, probably to go get some kind of power tools or other sharp objects that she could torture Bria and me with. I’d needled her too much for her to just blast us with her electricity. No, the assassin really wanted to make it hurt for as long as possible before she finally went in for the kill shot with her elemental magic. Or maybe she was just going to get a couple of white orchids that she could leave on our bodies after the fact. Didn’t much matter either way. She’d left us alone with the giants. Mistake number two. Never take your eyes off your target.
    The giants marched us deeper into the train yard, leading us over to the same car they’d been holding Natashain when I’d rescued her. Had it just been two nights ago? Somehow, it seemed like a lifetime. Especially since tonight might be the end of mine and Bria’s.
    The giants forced us up the steps and into the railcar. Someone had removed the table and cards because the inside was empty now—except for the brown bloodstains on the metal floor and the matching spatters on the silver walls. Mab’s men hadn’t gotten around to mopping those up just yet.
    My eyes slid to the back window, already thinking of how Bria and I could escape. But several solid two-by-fours covered up the hole, bolted into the metal. The giants had already fixed that part of the car, making it prisoner-ready once more. We wouldn’t be getting through those boards, not without making noise that would easily give us away. I might want to kill LaFleur, but I’d rather know that Bria was safe first. Telegraphing every single step of our escape was one way to ensure that it wouldn’t happen at all.
    The giants slung us down in the middle of the railcar. The metal floor was as cold as ice, even through the thick fabric of my jeans. My breath frosted in the air. The temperature had already dropped into the low teens tonight.
    “Don’t move,” one of the giants growled before the four of them trooped outside.
    The door slid most of the way shut, but it didn’t make that particular, heavy
click
that would tell me the giants had fully sealed us inside. Hmm.
    Bria started to scramble to her feet, but I put my hand on her arm and held her in place on the metal floor beside me.
    “Wait,” I whispered. “Just wait.”
    Bria frowned at me in confusion but did as I asked. Ten … twenty … thirty … I didn’t even get to forty-five seconds before the door rolled back once more and one of the giants stuck his head inside, checking on us and making sure we were exactly where he’d left us. Just like I’d thought he would.
    Satisfied that we were going to stay put, he nodded, pulled his head back outside, and slammed the metal door shut. This time, the latch did
click
into place. I didn’t think they’d actually locked us in, since I didn’t hear an iron bar or anything else bang down on the outside, but they’d shut the door until LaFleur returned and told them to open it. Or until I figured out a way to make them open it.
    “How did you know that he would look back inside?” Bria asked in a low voice.
    “Because I’ve been dealing with suspicious bastards like that since I was thirteen,” I murmured.
    Bria stared at me a moment longer, then started twisting her handcuffs, trying to find some way to break the metal. I thought about telling her not to bother, since the handcuffs were made of silverstone, but decided against it. Better that she was focused on trying to escape than the horrors that waited for us with LaFleur otherwise. Still, part of me was proud of my sister because she was thinking about escape, just like I was, instead of curling into a ball, giving up, and waiting for her death.
    I took a few moments to study every part of the railcar, from the floor to the ceiling to the walls to the door that I knew at least one giant was guarding. Not much tosee. Bria and I were the only things inside, and the giants hadn’t been stupid enough to leave anything helpful in here, like power tools. I didn’t know how long LaFleur would mess around before she came back and started torturing us, but one thing was for sure—I needed these handcuffs off long before then.
    I stared at the metal linking my hands together. They were ordinary handcuffs, except that they were made of silverstone. If I’d been by myself, I might have tried using my Ice magic to flash-freeze the