Widow's Web (Elemental Assassin)

by Jennifer Estep

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  To me, she was just a girl—a girl who’d watched her father be horribly tortured and murdered, just like I’d seen happen to my mother and Annabella. My heart ached for her, and I wanted to go over to the girl and put my arms around her, just like the boy was doing. At least she had him to comfort her, to help her. That was something. I hadn’t had anyone.

  Instead of answering me, the old man shook his head. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

  Fletcher put his arm around me, and we hurried across the lawn, going back to the kitchen with the rest of the staff under the pretense of getting our things and getting out of there. Before we went into the mansion, I looked over my shoulder a final time.

  The boy had moved over to talk to another one of Dubois’s bodyguards. He had his arm around the girl’s shoulders, but he didn’t seem to realize that she wasn’t listening to what he was saying to the giant. Instead, the girl was staring down at Carl’s body. But the weird thing was that she almost looked . . . happy. Satisfaction filled her face, and she was smiling again, although it seemed like there was something wrong with her expression, that it was somehow twisted into something far more sinister—

  “Are you out of your fucking mind?” yelled an angry voice, startling me awake.

  25

  “Seriously, are you out of your mind?” that same voice asked again.

  My eyes snapped open, and I realized I was staring at a ceiling that featured a soft, pretty, cloud-covered fresco. Jo-Jo’s. I was in the dwarf’s house. Somehow, I’d gotten all the way from Cooper’s forge, down the mountain, and over to Jo-Jo’s salon in a ritzy Northtown suburb. Since I was lying in one of her upstairs bedrooms, that meant she had already healed me, had already fixed all the damage Salina had inflicted when she’d tried to drown me with her water magic. Good. That was good.

  What weren’t good were the bangs, shouts, and general commotion I heard coming from downstairs.

  “Just let me talk to Salina,” another voice said.

  Owen. That was Owen’s voice.

  “And do what?” demanded the first voice, which I now recognized as Finn’s. “Ask her to apologize to Gin for almost drowning her? Or maybe you’re going to get her to do a double apology, for almost blasting Cooper to death with her water magic?”

  Silence. Then—

  “I can’t believe you’re still defending her,” a third, softer, feminine voice jumped into the mix. Eva, this time.

  “I’m not defending her,” Owen replied. “But Salina obviously needs help.”

  “Oh yeah,” Finn sniped. “She needs help in the form of a bullet to the head—nothing else.”

  All the voices started talking at once, arguing with each other. I sighed, wondering how long my friends, family, and lover had been fighting. Probably since they’d brought me here. I glanced over at the window. Morning sunlight was creeping through the curtains, warming the entire room, and the clock by the bed read eight thirteen. We’d gone up to Cooper’s about four o’clock yesterday afternoon, which meant I’d been in bed for more than twelve hours. Not surprising. Air magic always took a toll on you mentally as your brain tried to catch up to the fact that your body was well once more. Plus, I’d gotten my ass kicked. I still needed a few more hours’ sleep to really be myself again.

  The voices continued arguing, telling me it was time to rise and shine, whether I felt like it or not. I sighed again, threw back the covers, sat up, and realized I wasn’t alone.

  Kincaid was there with me.

  The casino boss sat in a chair in the corner, reading one of Jo-Jo’s beauty magazines. He looked up at the sound of me stirring in the bed.

  “Getting some tips on how to keep your ponytail looking all nice and shiny?” I quipped.

  He put the magazine on the table by his elbow. “Well, I always like to look my best. Apparently, it’s all about which conditioner you use.”

  We fell silent. Kincaid sat there studying me, and I did the same to him. Instead of his usual suit, he’d dressed down today in a pair of black jeans, boots, and an expensive gray polo shirt that stretched across his shoulders.

  “Welcome back,” he said, for once without a trace of sarcasm in his voice.

  “I suppose I have you to thank for that.”

  He nodded. “I saw you take off into the woods after Salina so I chased after you while Owen stayed with Cooper. I had an idea of where she would go.”

  “The creek.”

  He nodded again. “The creek. Salina used to spend hours there sitting by the water when we were younger and Owen was busy working with Cooper. She saw me coming and took off through the trees, and I realized you were in the bottom of the creek. I’d just started to wade in to try and get you out when this silver light erupted out of the water, and the whole creek froze over, like it was the dead of winter instead of early May.”

  Kincaid gave me a calculating look, and I knew he was thinking about my magic and what he’d seen me do with it. But I didn’t volunteer any more information about my power. That was my business, not his. Especially when I still wasn’t sure whether or not I could trust him. Kincaid might have saved my life, but he had his own reasons for doing so—like me killing Salina for him.

  “Then what?”

  He shrugged. “I saw you there under all that elemental Ice, and I saw you blasting it again and again with your magic, trying to break free. I thought you were going to make it on your own. You got one hand loose and up into the air, but then it just sort of flopped there on top of the Ice. So I fished you out, dragged you up the bank, and did CPR.”

  I looked at his shoulders and at the muscles in his arms. “Guess that extra strength you have came in handy.”

  He shrugged. “You were right before. I don’t know who or what my parents were. Maybe dwarves, maybe giants, maybe one of each. But I’m strong, and I use it to my advantage.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “You saved my life.”

  He shifted in his chair, seeming uncomfortable with my thanks. “Just returning the favor you did me a few nights ago.”

  “I guess that makes us even then.”

  He didn’t say anything, but for the first time, a hint of a real smile softened his face.

  Below us, the voices kept arguing.

  I jerked my head at the bedroom door. “What’s all that about?”

  Kincaid sighed. “Just Owen being Owen.”

  “Is he still defending Salina?”

  “No. He’s finally seen her for what she really is. But he doesn’t want to cut off her head, mount it on a pike, and dance around with it like your pal Finn does.”

  I grinned. “Well, Finn can be just as violent as me. Sometimes even more so.”

  As if to prove my point, downstairs, Finn let loose with a very long, very imaginative string of words describing exactly what he thought should be done to Salina.

  “You know, I’m actually starting to like him,” Kincaid said. “He certainly has the right idea as far as Salina’s concerned.”

  “Well, that will certainly warm the cold cockles of Finn’s heart,” I said, swinging my feet over the side of the bed. “Now, come on. Let’s go before it escalates into fisticuffs.”

  I got up, and immediately had to lean against the nightstand for support. Despite the fact that Jo-Jo had healed me, I still felt weak and light-headed. I knew it was because I’d been so close to dying. Hell, maybe I’d even been dead for a minute or two there before Kincaid had revived me. Either way, it would take some time for my mind to figure out that I was still in one piece and not drowning one slow, agonizing breath at a time in that creek.

  I managed to walk down the stairs without Kincaid’s help. He seemed amused by my attempts to keep my legs under me, but he didn’t make any move to help me either. I didn’t want him to. The time for being weak was past.

  I reached the salon that took up the back of Jo-Jo’s house, and my eyes swept over the familiar furnishings. Cherry-red s
alon chairs. Stacks of magazines everywhere. Combs, scissors, curlers, and dozens of other beauty tools on the counters. Bottles of pink nail polish and matching lipsticks cluttered together. It was all as familiar to me as my own face, and I drank in the scene, grateful I’d survived another battle I shouldn’t have.

  Then I focused on the two men in the middle of the room. Finn and Owen stood toe-to-toe, their eyes bright, their bodies tense, and their faces flushed with anger, while Eva, Cooper, and Bria sat in the chairs behind them. The men’s shouts had woken Rosco, Jo-Jo’s tubby basset hound, who eyed them with lazy disinterest from his wicker basket in the corner.

  Footsteps padded in the hallway behind me, and Jo-Jo came to stand beside me in the doorway, her perfume filling my nose with its soft scent.

  Salina might pretend to be a genteel Southern lady, but Jolene “Jo-Jo” Deveraux was the real deal. She wore one of her many pink flowered dresses topped off by her usual string of pearls. Everything about her whispered of feminine poise, from the white-blond hair that was artfully curled over her forehead to the perfect makeup that softened the lines of her face to the effortless way she seemed to glide as she walked. Jo-Jo might have recently turned two hundred fifty-seven, but she was aging gracefully.

  “How long have they been like this?” I asked her.

  Jo-Jo glanced at a clock that was shaped like her puffy cloud rune, mounted on the back wall. “Ten minutes now. Apparently, Finn wants to kill Salina as soon as he can find her, while Owen at least wants to see if she’ll surrender peaceably.”

  I was of the same mind Finn was, but I could understand where Owen was coming from. He’d once loved Salina, had wanted to marry her. It was hard to let go of those feelings, even now, when he knew exactly what she’d become—or maybe what she’d always been.

  I might understand, yes, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t seriously pissed about it. The bitch had tried to kill me—Cooper too—and yet here Owen was, still trying to protect her. What was wrong with him? Anger surged through me, along with doubt, worry, and fear. Not so much that Salina might kill me, but that she was going to be the death of me and Owen—of us. Try as I might, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that Owen and I were headed for disaster, courtesy of Salina—and what I was planning to do to her.

  At the sound of Jo-Jo’s footsteps, Rosco peered in our direction, hoping she had a treat for him. The basset hound gave a happy woof at the sight of me, and his tail thumped against the side of his basket. Then he turned in Finn and Owen’s direction and let out a low whine. Their argument had interrupted Rosco’s nap, and it was obvious he wanted them to shut up so he could get back to it, pronto. Couldn’t blame him for that. I’d only been in the room a minute, and their sharp voices had already given me a headache.

  “Enough,” I said.

  Finn and Owen kept arguing, with Eva occasionally putting in her two cents for good measure. Cooper sat silent. I looked at him, and he shrugged his shoulders.

  “Enough!” I repeated, raising my voice.

  Finn and Owen were too intent on yelling at each other to hear me, so I did something Sophia had taught me—I put my fingers between my lips and let out a loud, earsplitting whistle. That got them to shut up and look at me in surprise.

  “Morning, boys,” I drawled.

  For a moment, the two of them just stared at me. Finn recovered first. He usually did.

  “I’m not sure how much of that you heard, but he”—Finn stabbed his finger at Owen—“actually wants to give that water elemental bitch a chance to explain herself. Apparently, he wants to know exactly why she tried to kill you, other than the fact that she’s just mean as a snake and bat-shit crazy to boot.”

  Owen bristled. “That wasn’t my point at all, and you know it.”

  Finn glared at my lover, but Owen ignored him and looked at me.

  “My point was that Salina needs help,” he said in a quiet voice. “She wasn’t always the way . . . she is now. I want to at least give her a chance to do the right thing.”

  I thought the right thing for Salina involved stabbing her repeatedly with one of my knives and then slitting her throat for good measure, but I wasn’t going to tell Owen that.

  “Why don’t you all leave us alone for a few minutes?” I said. “Owen and I have some things we need to discuss.”

  Finn shot Owen another hot glare, but he stormed out of the salon. Eva got to her feet and followed him, with Kincaid trailing along behind her. Cooper stood as well, walked across the room, and held his arm out to Jo-Jo, who blushed a little.

  “My, what a gentleman you are,” Jo-Jo said in a soft voice.

  “I do try,” Cooper said. “Especially with a pretty lady who saved my life.”

  Jo-Jo blushed a little more at that. So she had healed Cooper with her Air magic too. Good. I was glad that Owen’s mentor was okay, although I didn’t know quite what to make of his shameless flirting with her.

  Jo-Jo saw me looking at them and grinned. She let out a low whistle, and Rosco lurched up out of his basket and trotted after her, in hopes of getting a treat after all. Cooper leaned down to pet the dog, then the three of them set off down the hallway.

  Bria stood up and came over to me. My sister gave me a critical once-over, then leaned forward and hugged me.

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” she whispered.

  I tightened my arms and returned her hug. “Me too.”

  She drew back. “What do you want to do about Salina? Cooper said he’d press charges against her, so I can arrest her for what she did to him.”

  I didn’t want Bria anywhere near Salina and her magic, but I knew my sister was just trying to do her job. “I appreciate that, and I’m sure Cooper does too, but let me talk to Owen first, okay?”

  She nodded, hugged me again, and left the salon.

  Once she was gone, I shut the door for privacy. Then I turned to face my lover.

  “So,” I said. “Salina.”

  “Yeah, Salina.”

  Owen ran a hand through his hair and started pacing back and forth. I walked over, sat down in one of the padded chairs, and watched him. Waiting, just waiting, for him to let me in, to tell me exactly what was going on inside his head and his heart too—and wondering whether or not I’d like what he had to say.

  I wondered if this was how Owen had felt when I’d seen Donovan again. If he’d felt the same ugly pressure in his chest, the same paralyzing fear, the same sharp, niggling worry that the harder I tried to hold on to him, the faster I was losing him to Salina.

  Not only was she stunningly beautiful and strong in her magic, but she was sly. To Owen, Salina had always presented a sweet, innocent, beguiling face, at least until today, but to everyone else, she had eventually showed her true, deadly nature. It was a sticky web she’d caught Owen in, pitting his feelings for her against how she’d hurt the people he cared about most. I wasn’t sure if my lover could ever fully untangle himself from her and what she’d once meant to him—or if he even really wanted to deep down inside.

  The idea of losing Owen scared the hell out of me, but I forced myself to stay calm and listen to what he had to say.

  He finally stopped pacing and looked at me. “What Salina did to you and Cooper was terrible. And what she did to Eva and Phillip all those years ago is simply inexcusable. I know how you want to handle it now, and I can’t say I blame you. If Donovan had done to me what Salina did to you, I’d take my blacksmith’s hammer to the bastard’s knees before I used it to cave in his skull.”

  I didn’t respond.

  “But she needs help, Gin. I wish you could have known her before Mab murdered her father. She was different then.”

  I wanted to point out that Mab had murdered my family too and that I hadn’t let it turn me into a monster—at least not as much of one as Salina. I might have been an assassin, but I could keep my rage in check, whereas the water elemental couldn’t, and I didn’t blame people for things that weren’t their fault. Most importantly, I
didn’t go around hurting innocent people.

  But I kept those thoughts to myself. Instead, I just looked at my lover, that calm expression still fixed on my face. “What exactly are you proposing?”

  “I want to go talk to Salina and get her to check herself into a facility.”

  As the Spider I’d once done a hit inside the confines of Ashland Asylum, and I’d have been quite happy knowing Salina was locked up there. In fact, there was no place I’d rather have seen Salina—except in the ground. But Owen was asking me for a chance. I owed him that.

  “And if she doesn’t agree?” I asked. “What happens if Salina doesn’t want to get help?”

  Owen’s body swelled with tension, and a bit of fire flashed in his violet eyes. “Then I’ll kill her myself for what she’s done to you, Eva, Cooper, and Phillip. She either gets help, or she gets dead. Is that something you can live with?”

  I would have skipped the getting help part and gone straight to getting dead, but I couldn’t deny Owen what he was asking. I didn’t want him anywhere near Salina, but I couldn’t stop him from going, not without being a total hypocrite. Not after everything he’d seen and watched me do these past few months. Owen hadn’t batted an eye at my killings. The least I could do was give him one more chance to get Salina under control before I plunged my knife into her heart.

  I sighed. “I don’t like it, but I understand why you have to do it. But I have one condition—we go talk to her together.”

  Owen opened his mouth to protest, but I cut him off.

  “No, I don’t trust her, especially not with you. You saw her when she was attacking Cooper. How happy it made her to hurt him. You don’t know that Salina won’t turn on you too, especially given what you’re asking her to do.”

  He shook his head. “She won’t hurt me. Trust me. I know Salina better than anyone.”

  I wanted to point out how wrong he was. How he hadn’t known what Salina was capable of when they were younger and that she’d likely only gotten crueler and more vicious over the years. But once again I held my tongue. Owen had stood by me plenty of times when I’d gone into dangerous situations, and he’d always let me do what I thought needed to be done. I had to do the same for him now. Besides, this way, I’d be there to protect him—and stop her for good.