Web of Lies
seriously hurt the Fire elemental.
one of the giants pinched my ass as I walked past. I walked up the steps and stopped in front of the douAlthough I wanted nothing more than to palm one of my ble doors.
silverstone knives and slit his throat for putting his hand
“Invitation?” the man with the clipboard asked. on me, I deepened my smile.
I pointed to the black velvet choker around my throat—
“Now, now.” I waggled my finger at him. “I’m here for the one with the heart-and-arrow rune on it. “I believe this the guests, sugar. Not the hired help.”
is all the invitation I need, sugar. But here’s the hard copy His face flushed at my insult. The giant stepped forEstep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 276-277
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ward, but the other one put a restraining hand on his But not Mab Monroe.
shoulder.
The Fire elemental hadn’t skimped on anything in her
“She’s right,” the second man rumbled. “Mab will be mansion. Not a thing. White marble coated the floors like pissed if you touch her. Remember what she did to Steglossy varnish, while gold and bronze leaf glittered on the venson last time? Do you want that to be you?”
ornate cathedral ceilings a hundred feet above my head. The giant paled. Evidently, whatever Mab Monroe had Genuine Tiffany lamps lined the hallway like soldiers, done to Stevenson had made an impression on the rest of the hidden bulbs sending out sprays of jewel-tone colors her guards. The giant shot me a sour look, but he stepped through their stained-glass shades. A few lights glowed in back. I winked at him and headed inside the mansion. the various rooms that branched off the hallway, illumiThe insane shriek of the stones washed over me again, nating delicate antique furniture from a variety of eras. so loud the spider rune scars on my hands itched from the Everything in the house was tasteful and expensive, sound of it. But I gritted my teeth and pushed the noise whispering of casual elegance that looked effortless, away, buried it so deep that it was nothing more than a though it had cost a pretty penny to procure. I might murmur in my head. I needed to concentrate on my mishave been momentarily dazzled by it, if the shrieking sion, not wonder what Mab Monroe had done in her own stone of the mansion hadn’t told me exactly how Mab house to make it sound like that.
had gotten the money to pay for all this finery—and all A hallway that was at least a hundred feet wide cut the nasty things she’d done in here since. through the center of the massive mansion. Despite the I walked on, passing dozens of people. Silk, satin, relatively early hour, the party was in full swing. The trill crushed velvet. Everyone sported their Sunday best eveof laughter and the murmur of conversation resonated ning gown or tuxedo. Nothing less would do for one of through the house, low and mellow, like hidden cicadas Mab Monroe’s parties. In addition to the stone of the cooing in the tall grass in the summertime. It helped mansion, I could also hear the whispers of the gemstones drown out the stones’ insane shrieking.
the men and women wore on their necks, wrists, fingers, During my years as an assassin, I’d gotten close to a lot and even toes. Beauty, elegance, fire. But even the grandof wealthy, powerful, influential folks. As a general rule, est diamond’s vibration paled in comparison to the singthe richer a person, the stingier he was with his money. ing clarity of the one I’d seen in Tobias Dawson’s safe. Finnegan Lane agreed with my observation. He often reoh yes, the dwarf could make quite the fortune mining galed me with tales about his billionaire vampire clients and selling the diamonds on Warren Fox’s land to this who bought cases of off-brand toothpaste at the nearest highfalutin crowd.
Sell-Everything so they could save a measly five cents a I recognized more than a few of the faces I passed. tube.
Some, I’d done jobs for. For others, I’d assassinated parEstep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 278-279
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ents, brothers, sisters, or business partners for whatever ballroom floor, their clusters and cliques not even comreason. Some were Mab’s sycophants, her loyal subjects. ing close to filling the massive space. They reminded others would have been happy to spit on her corpse, me of dolls that might populate a child’s playhouse. dance a jig on her grave, and then set about trying to take Pretty and polished with fake smiles that stretched their the Fire elemental’s place as Ashland’s queen bee. painted, plastic faces to the breaking point. But I looked I didn’t speak to anyone, but men and woman stared beyond the elegant veneer of the people and furnishings. at me as I passed. Their eyes caught on the silver rune Despite the rich sophistication on display, I noticed around my throat, then slid down my body, as thought I other things, things that weren’t as nice as they appeared were a cut of meat they were thinking about getting from at first glance.
the butcher. According to Finn, I looked like a real, live, Like the giants circulating throughout the ballroom. fuckable Barbie doll, thanks to Roslyn’s clothes and long Given the platters of champagne, caviar, and quail’s eggs blond wig. I’d barely recognized myself when I’d looked they supported on their enormous hands, you might have in the mirror earlier.
thought them nothing more than waiters. But I knew But I didn’t meet anyone’s gaze and walked on as if I what they were really here for—crowd control, in case hadn’t noticed there was anyone else in the mansion at folks got stupid and drunk enough to start turning on all. I wasn’t here to attract their attention. Tobias Dawson each other. I imagined Mab Monroe wouldn’t cotton to was my target, and I had no intention of getting sidea couple of tipsy elementals deciding to stage a magical tracked or propositioned by anyone else.
duel in her ballroom.
The main hallway led out into a grand ballroom. AlThat’s how elementals usually fought, by flinging their though grand really wasn’t the right word for the enorraw magic at each other, until one person succumbed mous space, which served as the junction for the three to the other’s power. When two elementals clashed, the wings of the mansion. It featured a golden parquet floor, inevitable loser could suffer everything from catching tiled here and there with marble, granite, and sheets of Fire, to getting encased in Ice, to having her heart turned hammered bronze. Chandeliers dangled from the ceiling. to Stone, or even being flayed alive by the very Air she Some glowed with rubies and diamonds. others burned breathed. Depending, of course, on the type of elemental with garnets and topaz. A staircase that was several hunshe was fighting. And this wasn’t even counting all the dred feet wide lay at the opposite end of the ballroom, its other folks who had talents for things like metal, water, pristine scarlet carpet stretching up to the second floor and electricity.
and beyond.
overall, elementals’ duels were a quick, nasty, painful More than three hundred of Mab Monroe’s closest way to die, which is why I never engaged in them. Killbusiness associates talked and laughed and drank on the ing the other person first was what mattered to me. Not Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 280-281
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old-fashioned, outdated, useless concepts like honor and gown that made her look like a Greek goddess. Mab Monduels. Codes of conduct were for overconfident fools. roe had invited the hooker to the party so Roslyn could Five, ten, twenty . . . I count almost thirty giants in all, keep an eye on her guys and girls and make sure they were more than enough to control even the unruliest crowd. properly servicing the more important guests. And, as None of them were carrying weapons, but then again, part of our plan, Roslyn had brought Finn along as her they didn’t need to. one good blow from a giant’s fist date for the evening. Nothing unusual about it, since the would break almost anything—especially alcohol-soaked two of them were often seen together out on the town. jaws and egos.
The grand staircase marched up to the second floor, I stepped into the swirling cr
owd, letting the sea of forming a wide landing, before splitting in two and windtuxedos and shimmering gowns sweep me along from one ing up either side to the upper floors of the mansion. clique to the next. A set of glass doors on the left side of Finn had chosen well. His position gave him a view of the ballroom led out to a terrace. A massive orchestra had the entire ballroom below.
been erected on the right side in front of another set of
“Let’s get started,” I said. “Before someone decides to glass doors. I plastered a smile on my face and strolled proposition me. Where’s Dawson?”
through the ballroom, flitting from one knot of people
“He’s in the center of the ballroom, about a couple to the next, until I reached a quieter space along the unhundred feet behind you on the right. Although I derside of the staircase beside a potted bonsai tree with wouldn’t suggest approaching him now, given his current gnarled limbs.
company.”
I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and called
“Current company? What does that mean?”
Finn. He picked up on the third ring.
“You’ll see. Just keep looking in that direction. Daw“I’m here,” I said. “Where are you?”
son’s easy to find. He’s the only one wearing a cowboy hat
“I see you, Gin. You look smashing, even for a faux tonight.”
hooker.”
I peered through the crowd. It took me several seconds
“Finn,” I growled.
to spot Dawson, and Finn was right. He was the only
“To answer your question, I’m on the second floor, cowboy in attendance. In addition to the giant hat on his leaning over the railing and surveying the majesty laid head, the dwarf also wore snakeskin boots and another out before me.”
lariat tie topped with turquoise. All of which looked riMy eyes flicked up. Sure enough, Finn was exactly diculous with his tuxedo. But Tobias Dawson’s fashion where he said he was. Leaning against the marble banister, sense wasn’t what made me frown, then curse. It was the Scotch in one hand, cell phone in the other. Roslyn Philcompany he was keeping. lips stood beside him, wearing a strapless white evening Mab Monroe, Jonah McAllister, and Elliot Slater. Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 282-283
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over the crowd. He wasn’t quite as wide as he was tall, but his frame was all solid, compact muscle. A cut with one of my knives would have felt like a bee sting to him. 26
Slater’s complexion was pale, almost albino, and his tousled thatch of blond hair disappeared into his large skull. His eyes were a light hazel, and the only real color on his chalky face. A large diamond ring flashed on his pinkie. Another inch or two, and I could have worn it as a bracelet.
And then there was Mab Monroe herself. The Fire elemental was a few inches shorter than me, but she radiated raw power, even more so than Elliot Slater did. Her hair was as red as polished copper and curled softly to her shoulders. In contrast, her eyes were a deep, liquid
“Fuck,” I said.
black. Ink would look dull and diluted next to her gaze.
“Fuck is right,” he replied. “Because no hooker in her Fire and brimstone. That’s what Mab Monroe always reright mind would try to get in the middle of that sandminded me of. wich.”
The Fire elemental wore a floor-length evening gown My eyes slipped past Dawson and studied the three done in an emerald green that made her hair seem even people he was standing with. of course, I’d met Jonah redder than it actually was. She wore no jewelry except McAllister in person yesterday, when he’d come to the for a flat gold necklace that ringed her throat. My eyes foPork Pit to threaten me into dropping the charges against cused on the centerpiece of the design. A circular orange his son, Jake. The slick-talking lawyer looked distinruby a little smaller than my fist surrounded by several guished and handsome in his tuxedo, and his thick mane dozen wavy rays. The intricate diamond cutting on the of hair resembled silver that had somehow been swirled gold caught the light and made it seem as though the rays around his head.
were actually flickering. A sunburst. The symbol for fire. I hadn’t had any dealings with Elliot Slater, the giant Mab’s personal rune, used by her alone. For a moment, I enforcer who ran Mab’s security detail and took care of sensed the ruby’s vibrations. The gemstone whispered of any problems the Fire elemental didn’t feel like dealing raw, fiery power. The sound meshed perfectly with the with herself. Slater was one of the tallest giants in atshrieking stone of the mansion. Both made my stomach tendance, if not the tallest. His seven-foot figure loomed clench.
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As I looked at Mab, I couldn’t help but think about waiters and headed toward the back of the ballroom. The the file Fletcher Lane had left me on the murder of my grand staircase was shaped like a T, and two hallways ran family—and the piece of paper he’d tucked inside with underneath either side of it and connected the ballroom Mab Monroe’s name on it. Again, I wondered why to the other wings of the mansion. I strolled down the Fletcher had written down the Fire elemental’s name. left hallway, peering into the rooms I passed. I couldn’t Had Fletcher concluded that she’d murdered my family?
very well kill Tobias Dawson on the ballroom floor, so Had he merely suspected her? or had he put her name in I needed to find a more secluded spot I could lure the there for another reason entirely—
dwarf to before I stabbed him to death.
“Earth to Gin,” Finn murmured in my ear.
But the hallway wasn’t as deserted as I’d hoped. I passed I focused on the here and now once more. “How long several couples standing against the walls or inside the have they been standing there talking?”
interior rooms, just out of sight of the ballroom. Some
“Not long,” Finn said. “I’d say you have another five or talked softly. others stared into each other’s eyes and ten minutes before Mab and the others drift off.”
sipped champagne. A few necked. But at least one person
“All right. Keep an eye on them.”
in every couple wore a heart-and-arrow rune that marked
“What are you going to do?”
him or her as a hooker from Northern Aggression. I stared out at the glittering mass of people. “Find one man wearing the rune necklace grimaced as his someplace quiet to take care of Tobias Dawson, once I vampire paramour sank her fangs deep into his exposed get my hooks into him.”
throat. Her eager, sucking sounds reminded me of a kitten mewling. Another man, a dwarf, stood upright, his Finn promised to keep watching Tobias Dawson, and we head tucked up underneath the dress and his face buried both hung up. I tucked the cell phone back into the purse in the crotch of a giant woman wearing the rune necklace. Roslyn had given me. It was a tiny thing, but I’d managed I didn’t have to guess what he was doing with his tongue. to stick one of my silverstone knives inside, along with The giant had a decidedly bored look on her face. She the compact and tube of healing ointment Jo-Jo Devercooed false encouragement to the dwarf, even as she exaux had provided a few days ago. I didn’t think Dawson amined her nails as if debating whether or not she needed would go down easily, and I wanted to have some healing a fresh manicure. The giant saw me staring. Her brown supplies on hand in case the dwarf got a couple of shots in eyes landed on the rune necklace around my throat, and on me before he died. I couldn’t exactly sneak out of Mab she shrugged as if to say, What can you do? I returned her Monroe’s party unnoticed if I was bruised and bloody shrug and walked on.
from head to toe.
one thing I didn’t see back here were any giant guards. I grabbed a glass of champagne from one of the giant Mab Monroe probably didn’t want her more amorous Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 286-287
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guests to feel like they were being watched. Having a and knowing whispered in the back of my mind. Here is giant loom over you would give just about anyone per your enemy. formance anxiety.
Not an unusual thought for a Stone elemental to have I came to a cross corridor and paused. To my left, while in the house of a Fire, or vice versa. opposing elanother set of doors led out onto the terrace. Another ements just didn’t mesh—and neither did their human hallway stretched out in front of me, while another one counterparts. Air against Ice, Fire against Stone. An old, veered right, snaking back underneath the staircase. I predictable story. I’d heard that voice, felt this unease, beturned right and walked deeper into the mansion. The fore in other places with other elementals. But never this partygoers hadn’t gotten too serious about their sexual intense.
gymnastics just yet, so this area was deserted. I passed a Again, I wondered about Mab Monroe’s name being in couple of rooms, none concealed enough for my liking. It Fletcher’s folder. I’d been blindfolded so I hadn’t seen the wouldn’t do any good for me to kill Tobias Dawson and bitch’s face back then, only heard her cackling laughter have someone find his body a minute later. I was going as she tortured me. But it could have been Mab. Rumor to need longer than that to slip out of the mansion after put her current age at about forty-five. She would have I’d done the job.