Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

cuffs, then snap them off. But Bria was here trapped with me, and using that much magic was sure to bring LaFleur running. So I’d just have to be a little more circumspect. Small and quiet was always better than big and flashy anyway. Being the Spider had shown me that.
    So I drew in a breath and reached for my Ice magic. Once again, I was surprised by how easily it came to me now and how much stronger it seemed, even since my swan dive into the river the other night. My power was growing just as Jo-Jo had said it would. I hoped the dwarf was right about all the other things she’d told me about my magic—namely that I was the strongest elemental she’d ever seen.
    Because I was going to have to be to kill Elektra LaFleur and keep Bria safe.
    I grabbed hold of my magic. The silverstone cuffs around my wrists immediately responded, absorbing my small trickle of power before I could even think about using it.
    “Gin?” Bria asked, stopping her own struggles with the handcuffs as she sensed me using my power. “What are you doing? Do you—do you have
magic
?”
    I didn’t answer her, mainly because I couldn’t do that and concentrate on my power at the same time. The silverstone snapped around my wrists made it hard—so
hard
. Every time I grabbed my Ice magic, every time I tried to form the particular shape that I wanted with it, the handcuffs would absorb all my power before I could even get started.
    I glared at the cuffs around my hands. Such a small thing, but they were keeping me contained, just as LaFleur had wanted them to—and she hadn’t even realized I had elemental magic to begin with.
    I had a shitload of silverstone melted into my hands when I was a kid, and I’d overcome that block, blasted my way right through it when I’d needed to the most. I could get through this one too. These measly handcuffs were nothing compared to the silverstone that Mab had seared into my palms the night she’d murdered my family.
Nothing
. I wasn’t going to die because I was chained, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let the same thing happen to Bria.
    But that didn’t mean I couldn’t make things a little easier on myself. I grabbed the handcuffs and slid them down my arms as far as they would go. Not far, but it gave me another two inches between the magical metal and my palms, where I would release my magic.
    Once again, I reached for my Ice magic, and a cold silver light flickered in my palm, centered on the spider rune scar there. I immediately felt the handcuffs come to life, as the silverstone metal hungered to absorb my magic. I gritted my teeth against the constant power drain, focused, and forced my Ice magic away from mypalm, trying to move it up into the very tips of my fingers, which was as far away from the silverstone cuffs as I could get it.
    It worked.
    Slowly, snowflake-shaped crystals spread up my fingers, and the cold, silver light began sparking there on the tips of my fingers instead of farther down in my palm. A small thing, but it took all the control I had to do it with the silverstone cuffs on my wrists continuously soaking up my magic. Quickly, before I lost the thin grasp I had on it, I forced the magic into the particular shapes I wanted—two slender Ice picks.
    When they were finished, I let go of my Ice magic, let out a long, tense breath, and wiped the cold sweat from my forehead. Such small, simple shapes, but those had been the two hardest things I’d made with my elemental power.
Ever.
    “You’re an elemental?” Bria asked, her blue eyes narrowing. “With Ice magic?”
    “Yeah,” I said, grabbing the Ice picks and working on my handcuffs with them. “Just like you are.”
    Bria frowned. “Just like me? How do you know that I have Ice magic, Gin? I’ve never done any magic in front of you.”
    “Yes, you have,” I said in a gentle voice.
    For a moment, I flashed back to our childhood. Bria had loved using her magic when we were kids, making all kinds of Ice sculptures and flowers and other shapes just because she could. Just because she found it fun and entertaining. I wondered if she still did that. I wondered a lot of things about my sister—including how horrifiedshe was going to be with me before the night was through. Hell, before we even got out of this metal car.
    The picks did the trick, and the handcuffs popped open. Although I wanted nothing more than to sling them away, I forced myself to set them down quietly on the floor. I stood up, and Bria