Elemental Assassin 04 - Tangled Threads

the door to the railcar. About time. I was getting hoarse at that point—and wondering if he was going to be dumb enough to fall for something so old, so clichéd. If the giant didn’t, if he kept the door closed, then I was going to have to go with my plan B, which was to use my Ice magic to blast through the two-by-fours bolted over the busted-out window.
    But just when I was about ready to stop screaming, a click sounded, and the door creaked open.
    The giant had fallen for it after all. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy of him. But I wasn’t complaining too much. Not tonight. No, tonight I’d take every bit of luck I could get and go back hungry for more. Even if luck was always a capricious bitch who’d screw me over the second that she could.
    As soon as the door opened wide enough, I nodded at Bria, who nodded back. Then I drew another breath deep into my lungs, preparing myself for what was to come.
    “Let me out of here!” I screamed and flung myself past the giant through the open door of the railcar and down onto the loose gravel that covered the train yard. “That bitch is crazy! She’s got a knife! Two of them!”
    The giant, who’d started to swivel toward me to grab me, instead snapped his attention back to Bria, who stood in the middle of the car, a silverstone knife in her hand. He stood there, mouth open, eyes wide, wondering what was going on and what he was supposed to do about it.
    He never had a chance.
    I hopped back up onto my feet and slithered up next to him. Then I grabbed a fistful of his shirt, yanked his head down to my level, and slit his throat with one of my knives. I turned my head, so the warm, sticky, arterial spray of blood caught me only on my cheek instead of going into my eyes and momentarily blinding me.
    One down, three to go.
    The giant started choking and gurgling, spewing more blood all over my face, neck, hands, and clothes. His hands went to his throat, the way they always did, tryingto stem the blood loss even though it was already too late. He went down on his knees and collapsed against the side of the railcar, down for the count.
    I looked up at Bria, who was staring down at the dying giant. Shock and horror and disgust filled her face, but I had no time to think about what she was feeling right now—or what she thought of me, her long-lost, big sister Genevieve. I was pretty sure I knew anyway—and it was nothing good.
    Of course, the other three giants had heard the commotion of my screaming and their dying friend. They all abandoned their posts around the other sides of the railcar to come and investigate. I palmed my second knife and sprinted to the left just in time to catch one of them coming around the side of the car.
    One, two, three.
    I made two deep slashing cuts across the giant’s chest, digging the blade in as far as I could. The giant screamed in pain and swung at me, but I ducked and pivoted out of reach. When his fist went wide, I stepped back in range. My boot slammed into his knee, which buckled under the sharp assault.
    The giant lurched forward, and I stepped into him and cut his throat as well. More blood spattered onto me, but I ignored the sensation. I pivoted again, this time out of the way of the giant’s falling body, and turned to face the new danger.
    The third giant—the one who’d been stationed on the back side of the railcar—had also decided to come around this way. He stopped short at the sight of his buddy already on the ground and bleeding out.
    “What the hell—”
    Last fucking words he ever said. I hopped up onto the back of the downed, dying giant. Using him as a stepping stool, I reached up and slammed my first knife into the third man’s heart. He too lashed out at me with his fist, but I ducked under the slow blow, came up inside his arms, and stabbed him again in the stomach, ripping into his guts with my knife, before shoving my shoulder into his chest.
    The attack took him by surprise, and he screamed again and lurched back away from me. His feet skidded on the loose gravel. For a moment, his massive arms windmilled crazily in the air. Then, screaming and blubbering all the while, he went down in a pile of twitching limbs, joining his friend.
    And then there was one.
    I turned around to find the fourth giant, the one who’d been driving the limo, standing at the far end of the railcar. He was a little smarter than his friends because instead of charging at me, he fumbled in his suit jacket for the gun strapped