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I crossed my arms over my chest and snorted. "Only because you turned me into the same curious sort that you are. Or were. Or whatever. "
His grin just widened.
Fletcher didn't ask me about killing Mab. He didn't have to. We both knew that I wouldn't be here if the job hadn't been done. Finally, finally done.
"Well," he rumbled. "I thought I explained it well enough in that letter I left for you in my office. But to answer your questions, yes, Mab did hire me to kill your family. At first, it was just your mother, but then Mab got greedy and wanted me to throw in you and your two sisters for free. And you know that I didn't kill kids-ever. "
I nodded.
Fletcher shrugged. "Mab was a bit upset when I turned down her offer. She knew me only as the Tin Man, not as Fletcher Lane, but that didn't stop her from ordering some of her men to track me down and kill me. When I took the initiative and killed them instead, she sent a few more, but I took care of them too. As for why I bought the land, it was yours-yours and Bria's. Mab had already taken so much from the two of you. I didn't want her to take that too. You know everything else that happened. The rough outlines anyway. My trying to save your family that night but realizing I was already too late. My finding Bria roaming in the woods around your burning, crumbled house, giving her to her foster family, and then you, showing up at my back door. . . "
His voice trailed off, and his green eyes clouded over, lost in his memories, just like I was.
"But why keep me in the dark about Bria for all these years?" I asked. "Why even take me in? Why train me to be an assassin? You could have just shipped me off to Savannah to live with Bria and her foster family. That would have been the easiest thing for you to do. The simplest thing, for everyone. "
"Maybe I could have, maybe I should have," Fletcher murmured. "I thought about it when you first came here. "
"So what changed your mind?"
He looked down at the pages of his book, and for a moment, I thought that he wouldn't answer me. But he finally raised his gaze to mine once more.
"Do you remember the night that Douglas, that giant, came to the Pork Pit? He was one of Mab's men, one of those searching for me. He spotted me while I was out scouting another job, and he followed me back here to kill me. Do you remember that, Gin?"
Oh, I remembered, probably better than Fletcher did, because Douglas was the first person I'd killed inside the Pork Pit. I'd taunted the giant, lured him over to me, and then I'd stabbed him to death with the knife I'd been using to chop onions. The first time I'd ever used a blade that way-the first of many.
"When you killed Douglas, I realized how I could make things up to you, for your family being gone. I realized that I could train you to be an assassin, to survive. Even back then, you had that same cold, iron will you do now," Fletcher said. "I'd heard about Magda's prophecy, so I knew why Mab had wanted you and your sisters dead, because supposedly one of you would grow up to kill her. And I thought that maybe-that maybe this was what the prophecy was all about in the first place. That maybe you were meant to be with me, instead of with Bria. At first, anyway. Until you grew up. Until I could train you. Besides, by that point, I just loved you too damn much to let you go. "
We fell silent. I thought back to what I'd said to Mab, when I'd asked her if she thought that she'd brought all this on herself.
"It's all very Greek, isn't it?" I quipped. "Prophecies, tragedies, destinies. Just like in all those old mythology books we read over the years. "
Fletcher shrugged. "Hard to beat the classics. "
I nodded. "And what about all that talk of my retirement right before you. . . died?"
Fletcher shrugged again. "Being an assassin is all well and good, but I wanted you to start thinking about other things, to realize that there was more to life than killing people, no matter how good you are at it. I'd taught you how to survive. I guess I wanted to put you on a happier path before I died. "
"The one that led me to Bria," I finished.
He nodded. We didn't speak. Outside the snow continued to fall, coating everything in its cold, wet embrace.
"So what now?" I finally asked. "Because Mab's dead. I made sure of that. And if I'm not already, then I'm probably on my way to join her-and you. "
The old man snorted. "What now? That's up to you, Gin. Just like it always has been. "
"So I can go back then? Back to being. . . alive? Or whatever?"
The old man stared at me with his bright green eyes. "You're Gin Blanco, Genevieve Snow, and the Spider all rolled into one. You can do whatever you want to, sweetheart. "
I bit my lip and looked away. "I don't want to lose you again, Fletcher. I don't want to leave you behind. Especially since it's my fault that you died in the first place. My fault that Alexis James tortured you to death. "
A hundred agonizing emotions tightened my throat, but for once, I forced out the words. "I-I failed you that night. "
"And I failed you when I didn't stop Mab from killing your mother and older sister," the old man snapped right back at me. "We all make mistakes, Gin, even the best of us. I like to think that it all evens out in the end. Remember that, and you'll be fine. "
"But what should I do?"
"I can't tell you that," Fletcher said. "But it seems to me like there are a lot of people out there who care about you. It would be a shame to up and die on them, especially when they're working so hard to try to save your life. "
