bit of gold flashed around her pale throat in between the
“Enough.”
folds of her expensive coat.
A low voice floated out from somewhere deeper in the I couldn’t see that well, given the starbursts still exshadows. A soft, breathy sound that reminded me of silk ploding in my vision, but I knew what the gold flash was. wisping together. I knew that tone, that sultry cadence, Mab Monroe never went anywhere without wearing her knew exactly whom it belonged to. So did my inner signature rune necklace. A large, circular orange ruby surpsyche. Enemy, enemy, enemy, a little voice muttered in rounded by several dozen wavy rays. From previous sightthe back of my head. A strange, primal, elemental urge ings, I knew the intricate diamond cutting on the gold flooded my body, the desire to use my Stone and Ice would catch the meager light and make it seem as though magic to lash out and kill whatever was within striking the rays were actually flickering. or perhaps my vision distance.
was just that fucked up at the moment.
Elliot Slater ignored the command and hit me again, Still, I knew what the rune was. A sunburst. The symbol adding to the pain that racked my body.
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At the sight, the silverstone scars on my own palms emotions cloud your judgment, Jonah. Ignoring the facts. started to itch and burn. Mab wasn’t the only one here It’s most unbecoming.”
with a rune. I had one too. A small circle surrounded by
“And what would those facts be?” McAllister deeight thin rays. A spider rune. The symbol for patience. manded.
The rune had once been a medallion I’d worn on a chain
“That Ms. Blanco is just a woman, a mere, weak around my neck, until Mab had used her Fire elemental woman with no elemental magic or other notable magic to superheat and burn the silverstone metal into strength or skills. otherwise, I’m sure she would have my palms like it was a fucking cattle brand. That’s how used everything at her disposal to keep from being so vishe’d tortured me the night she’d murdered my family. ciously beaten tonight. She’s not the person you’re lookI was looking forward to returning the favor—someday ing for, Jonah. More importantly, she’s not the woman soon.
I’m looking for.”
Enemy, enemy, enemy; the little voice in the back of my McAllister’s brown eyes glittered. “You and your obseshead kept up its muttered chorus. sion with that blond whore. Why can’t you accept the fact Mab Monroe walked over and stood beside Elliot that she’s dead? Buried somewhere in that coal mine, just Slater and Jonah McAllister. She glanced down at me like Tobias Dawson and his two men were?”
with all the interest she might give a cockroach before she Mab’s eyes grew even blacker. She reached for her Fire crushed it under the toe of her boot. Her dark eyes swalelemental magic, holding the power close to her like she lowed up the available light, the way a black hole might. I might a lover. As an elemental myself, I could feel her lay very, very still and tried to look like I was a mere inch magic. Mab’s power pricked at my skin like hot, invisible away from death. Not much of a stretch tonight. needles, adding to my misery, but I stayed still, giving no
“I said enough, Jonah,” Mab said. “or have you forindication I could sense it—or that I knew what the fuck gotten that you and Elliot work for me?”
they were talking about.
After a moment, Elliot Slater stepped back and bowed
“I doubt that hooker was a real hooker, and they never his head in deference. The other two giants did the same. found her body in the rubble of the collapsed mine,”
But Jonah McAllister was too angry to heed the hard edge Mab replied in a cold voice. “Until I see her body, she’s in Mab’s breathy tone.
not dead. I’m going to find her, Jonah, and then we can
“This bitch made problems for my son, and I think she both have our revenge. She killed Dawson, and she’s the knows something about his death,” McAllister barked. “I one who killed your son. Not Ms. Blanco.”
want her to pay for that. I want her to die for that.”
They were talking about the night of Mab’s party, Mab stared down at me again. “You’re letting your when I’d dressed up as a hooker to get close to Tobias Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 414-415
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Dawson, a greedy mine owner who was threatening some But Jo-Jo Deveraux is quite popular. It might be enterinnocent people. Dawson was the one I was supposed to taining, but killing her wouldn’t win me any favors. Bekill that night, but Jake McAllister had spotted me before sides, I have other concerns at the moment, most notably I’d had a chance to do the hit. Mab had caught me in the Coolidge.”
bathroom a few minutes after I’d stabbed Jake McAllister My dazed mind latched onto the odd name. Coolidge?
to death. Evidently, the Fire elemental had put two and Who the hell was Coolidge? And what had he done to two together and realized that I’d stiffed Jake, then done piss off Mab Monroe?
the same to Tobias Dawson later on in his own mine. Not
“You’ve had your fun, Jonah. Face it, Ms. Blanco isn’t good.
the one who killed Jake. And she’s suffered plenty tonight
“I agreed to this little test with the understanding that for whatever insults she laid on him previously. Now, Ms. Blanco would live through it, should she prove herare you going to come quietly so we can talk business?
self to be innocent of your son’s murder,” Mab continued. or should I start looking for a new attorney?” Malice
“She’s done so, at least to my satisfaction. Nobody would dripped from Mab’s voice like acid rain.
willingly let themselves be beaten the way she has.”
Jonah McAllister finally realized he wasn’t going to win So Mab Monroe didn’t understand the concept of this one. And that if he kept arguing with his boss, she self-sacrifice. Not surprising. I might have laughed, if was likely to use her Fire elemental magic to fry his ass it wouldn’t have hurt so damn much. At the moment, I where he stood. So the lawyer clamped his lips together would have endured a whole new beating just to get them and nodded his head, acquiescing to his boss’s wishes. At to leave me alone in the darkness. Still, I was doubly glad least for tonight.
that I’d let Elliot Slater hit me. otherwise, I would have Then the silver-haired bastard turned and kicked me been dead by now, ambushed from the sidelines by Mab in the stomach as hard as he could.
Monroe and her Fire elemental magic.
The blow wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it still made
“Who cares if the bitch lives or dies?” Jonah McAllister me retch up even more blood. Something hot and hard scoffed. “She’s nobody.”
twisted in my stomach. I needed to get to Jo-Jo Deveraux
“That might be true, but unfortunately, Ms. Blanco soon so the dwarven Air elemental could heal me. otheris not without friends,” Mab replied. “Most notably the wise, I wouldn’t be breathing much longer. Deveraux sisters.”
“Fine. We’ll move on to the next person, then.” Jonah
“I don’t care about those two dwarven bitches,” Jonah McAllister leaned down and grabbed my brown ponytail, snapped. “You could easily kill both of them.”
pulling my face up to his. “You talk to the cops about Mab gave a delicate shrug of her shoulders. “Perhaps. this, bitch, and you will die. Understand me?”
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Cops? oh, I had no intention of going to the cops. No siree. I was going to handle this matter all by my lonesome. But to keep up the act, I let out a low groan and nodded my head. Satisfied that I was suitably cowed this time, McAllister let go. I flopped back onto the ground.
“Let’s get out of here,” the lawyer growled. “The bitch dripped blood all over my coat.”
Jonah McAllister stepped over my prone body and disappeared into the da
rkness. Elliot Slater and the other two giants followed him. But Mab Monroe stayed where she was and studied me with her dark gaze. Her power washed over me again, the invisible, fiery needles pricking my bloody skin. I bit back another groan.
“I do hope you’ve learned your lesson this time, Ms. Blanco,” Mab said in a pleasant voice. “Because Jonah’s right. Next time you cross one of us—any of us—you will die. And I promise you that it will be far more excruciating than what you’ve experienced here tonight.”
A bit of black fire flashed in her eyes, backing up her deadly promise. Mab Monroe smiled at me a moment longer, then turned on her boot heel and vanished into the cold night.
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Jennifer Estep, Web of Lies
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