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Finn jerked, almost spilling his coffee again. Even I blinked at the sudden, powerful flash of light.
The dwarf arched his back and screamed, his harsh cry echoing down the deserted street, as the lightning slammed into his body. The woman advanced on him, the magical light in her hand intensifying as she stepped closer.
And she was so fucking strong. She stood at least a hundred feet away from me, but I could still sense the sharp, static crackle of her power even here in the car. The feel of her elemental magic made the spider rune scars on my palms itch and burn the way they always did whenever I was exposed to so much power, to so much raw magic. And she had plenty to spare.
A second later, the dwarf caught fire. He wobbled back and forth before pitching to the cracked pavement, but the woman didn't stop her magical assault. She stood over his body, sending wave after wave of lightning into his figure, even as the green elemental flames of her power consumed his skin, hair, and clothes.
When she was done, the woman curled her hand into a tight fist. The bright lightning flickered, then sparked away into nothingness, like a flare that had been snuffed out. Greenish gray smoke wafted up from her fingertips, and she blew it away into the frosty night air, like an Old West gunfighter cooling down his Colt after a shootout. How dramatic.
"Did you see that?" Finn whispered, his coffee forgotten, his green eyes wide and round in his face. "She electrocuted him. "
"Yeah. I saw. "
I didn't add that she'd used elemental magic to do it. Finn had seen that for himself.
Elementals were people who could create, control, and manipulate one of the four elements-Air, Fire, Ice, and Stone. Those were the areas that most folks were gifted in, the ones you had to be able to tap into to be considered a true elemental. But magic had many forms, many quirks, and some people could use other areas, offshoots of one of the four elements. Metal was an offshoot of Stone, and electricity was one of Air.
One that Finn and I had just seen used to deadly efficiency, thanks to our mystery woman.
I was an elemental too. In my case, I had the rare ability of being able to control two elements-Ice and Stone. But I'd never seen someone with electrical power before. And I wasn't so sure it was a good thing that I had now.
The woman stuck the toe of her boot into the man's ribs. A large hunk of his body disintegrated into gray ash at her touch and puffed up like some kind of cold, macabre fog. A sliver of a smile lifted her lips at the sight. Then she reached inside her coat, drew out something white, and tossed it down on top of his body before heading toward the van and sliding inside.
Thirty seconds later, the woman drove the van down the street, turned the corner, and disappeared from view. But instead of watching the vehicle, I stared at the burned-out body that she'd left behind, wondering what that bit of white was on the dwarf's still-smoking chest.
"You want me to follow her?" Finn asked, his hand hovering over the keys in the ignition.
I shook my head. "No. Stay here and keep an eye out. "
I got out of the car and made my way across the street, slithering from shadow to shadow, a silverstone knife in either hand. After about five minutes of careful creeping and lots of pauses to look and listen, I reached the edge of the building closest to the dwarf. I crouched there in the black shadows, out of sight, until I was sure that the mystery woman wasn't going to circle back around the block and see if anyone had come to inspect her shocking handiwork. Then I drew in a breath, stood up, and walked over to the dead dwarf.
Even now, ten minutes after the initial attack, smoke still curled up from his body, the elegant, green-gray ribbons wafting up to the black sky. I breathed in through my mouth, but the stench of charred flesh still filled my nose. The familiar, acrid scent triggered all sorts of emotions that were better left dead and buried deep inside me. But they bubbled to the surface, whether I wanted them to or not.
For a moment, I was thirteen again, weeping, wailing, and staring down at the ashy, flaky ruined thing that had been my mother, Eira, before Mab Monroe had used her elemental Fire to burn her to death. And the matching husk that had been my older sister, Annabella. Trying not to vomit as I realized the cruel thing that had been done to them. That was going to be done to Bria and me before the night was through. Sweet, little Bria . . .
I ruthlessly shook away the memory. My hands had curled into fists so tight that I could feel the hilts of my silverstone knives digging into the spider rune scars on my palms. I forced myself to relax my grip, then bent down on my knees so I could get a better look at the white blob resting on the dwarf's back.
To my surprise, it was a single white orchid, exquisite, elegant, and petal soft in the dark.
My eyes narrowed, and I regarded the blossom with a thoughtful expression. I knew what the flower meant and exactly who had left it behind to be found. It was her calling card, her name, rank, and trademark, just as my spider rune was. Something that she'd put here to announce her presence, mark her kill, and serve as a warning to anyone who dared to get in her way.
She was taunting me, just as I'd been doing to Mab Monroe these last two weeks.
"LaFleur," I muttered, saying her name out loud.
Because the simple fact was that an assassin had come to Ashland-one who was here to kill me.
Chapter 2
"You really don't know that she's here to kill you, Gin," Finn said.
After I'd examined the dead dwarf, I'd jogged back across the street and gotten into Finn's Escalade. He'd cranked the engine, and we'd left the docks and the mean streets of Southtown behind. Now we cruised through the downtown area on our way out to the suburbs that ringed Ashland.
The corporate sharks had long ago deserted the city's skyscrapers and office complexes and had gone home for the evening. The only people out on the streets at this hour were the bums who hadn't been able to find shelter for the night. A few of them huddled around trash can fires on some of the darker side alleys. Out on the main drag, vampire prostitutes wearing as little as the cold would let them trolled listlessly up and down the sidewalks, still hoping that some sugar daddy would want to get his rocks off before going back to his warm, comfortable bed. The hookers eyed Finn's vehicle with predatory interest as he drove past, their teeth gleaming like pointed pearls underneath the harsh glare of the streetlights.
"Maybe LaFleur just wanted to stiff the dwarf to get his merchandise," Finn added.
"So what? She waits in that shack on the dock for an hour until he moves those crates for her. Then she comes out and chats with him before she fries him with her electrical magic? I don't think so," I said. "The dwarf knew she was there the whole time. She was asking him if he'd seen or heard anything. If he'd seen or heard any sign of me. That's why he shrugged. The whole thing was a setup, pure and simple. "
