Jennifer Estep - Web of Lies

Dawson shook his head. “All that Stone magic you have, and you don’t really know anything about your own element, do you?”

I shrugged. “Geology isn’t my strong suit.”

The dwarf pointed to the ceiling, where water dripped off one of the stalactites. “This whole cavern is directly underneath a creek that runs through Fox’s property. The ceiling’s strong enough as it is, but if I start digging diamonds out of here, there’s a good chance the whole thing will collapse in, leaving a giant sinkhole right in the middle of his backyard — even bigger than the one that’s there right now.”

He wasn’t telling me anything I hadn’t already guessed, but it was nice to have some confirmation.

“And you couldn’t risk that,” I said in a soft voice. “You couldn’t risk him finding out about the diamonds that are on his own land.”

“Smart and pretty. A shame you’re going to die so young,” Dawson mocked.

“I thought we had a deal,” I said, although there was no real protest in my voice. I’d expected the double cross.

The dwarf laughed. “Ah, the foolishness of youth. But I’m a sporting man. I’ll give you a chance to get out of here.”

“Really? And how would I do that?”

Dawson stared at me. “All you have to do is beat me— in an elemental duel.”

“A duel?” I asked.

He nodded. “A duel. That’s how I take care of my problems. Haven’t lost one yet in more than two hundred years.” He looked over his shoulder. “You boys might want to step out of the way for this.”

The giants moved off to either side of the cavern, leaving Dawson standing by himself in the middle.

The two men looked bored, as though they’d seen their boss do this a dozen times before. They probably had.

The dwarf stood relaxed with his knees slightly bent.

He tipped his cowboy hat back on his head to give himself a clearer look at me, and his hands hung down by his sides, fingers flexing and unflexing. He reminded me of some Old West gunfighter who’d just called the town sheriff out into the dusty street for a noon showdown.

Yeah, I could see how elemental dueling would fit right in with Dawson’s cowboy fetish. Too bad it was going to be the death of him.

“A duel, huh?” I asked again.

“A duel,” he repeated. “You and me. Right here, right now. Think about it, how strong your magic is. You might beat me.”

But Dawson didn’t sound too concerned by the possibility.

Bastard was trying to goad me into making the first move. Into doing something sloppy. Oh, I was going to do something all right, but it wasn’t going to be what he expected.

Still, I had to play this out to its inevitable conclusion, so I reached for the cool power deep inside me. Gathering it up, letting it fill every part of my being. Although I couldn’t see them, I knew my eyes were glowing a bright silver with my elemental power. All around me, the stones’ murmurs intensified, sensing my command over them.

But the dwarf wasn’t worried. If anything, my reaching for my magic amused him. Tobias Dawson grabbed hold of his own Stone magic. Power poured off him like the water sliding down the cavern wall, and his eyes glowed a dull, slate blue. The dwarf was strong, and his magic felt old and well-worn, like a horse he’d broken in over the years. No wonder he wanted to duel. One burst of magic from him would be enough to take down most elementals.

Maybe even me.

The dwarf let out a low laugh. “You have power, bitch, I’ll give you that. A lot of raw power. I’m going to enjoy this.”

“So why give me this chance, if I’m so strong? If I could beat you?”

“Because I like challenges.” Dawson grinned and spit out another stream of tobacco juice. The foul brown mixture landed at my feet.

“Do you know what I like, Tobias?” I asked.

“What?”

“Playing dirty.”

I smiled at him and threw my magic at the cavern ceiling.

——

There was no time for finesse, restraint, or even patience. One shot was all I had, and I took it. I threw everything I had at the cavern ceiling. All my Stone magic and all my Ice power, weak though it was. The water that had been dripping off the formations and sluicing down the cavern wall immediately froze. The resulting crystal droplets glistened like the diamonds embedded in the walls. The sudden surge of Ice caused bits and pieces of the cavern to crack and sheer off from the rest of the walls and ceiling.

Dust and dirt puffed up into the air.

Jo-Jo Deveraux had always told me I had more Stone magic than anyone she’d ever seen before. I hoped that meant Tobias Dawson too. But I’d been weakened by Dawson’s punches, and I wasn’t at full strength. Even if I had been, I was still hammering at stone that had been around long before I’d been born — and would be around long after I was gone. Layers and layers and layers of it. But I used my magic, my Stone power, like a hammer, smashing at everything I could feel with raw, brute force.

Across from me, Tobias Dawson frowned, not sure what the hell I was doing, why I wasn’t attacking him. I had maybe another two or three seconds before he figured it out and hit me with everything he had.

I drew in a breath and threw another blast of Stone magic at the ceiling, even as I reached for my Ice power, making the frozen droplets and stream of water expand in size. I forced the Ice into the stone like a chisel. Ice, stone.

Chisel, hammer.

My vision became a field of silver. Sweat dripped into my eyes, my knees trembled, and my whole body felt weak. It felt like I’d been toiling away for years, decades, even though only a second, two tops, had passed. I wanted to let go of my magic, wanted to rest. Every part of my aching body screamed at me to just let go and fall into the blackness that was threatening to overwhelm me.

But if I did that, if I gave Dawson a second of opportunity, he’d throw his own magic at me, and I didn’t have the strength to ward him off. Not now. So I gritted my teeth, pushed the pain away, and kept hammering at the stone. Bringing the ceiling down might be the last thing I’d ever do, but the fucker was going to fall.

Crack! Crack-crack!

It started to work. A large stalactite broke off from the ceiling. It plummeted down like a knife and speared one of the giants in his shoulder. He howled in pain and fell to the cavern floor. Crimson blood splashed everywhere, and the stone underneath my feet took on a darker vibration.

Dawson’s head snapped around at the giant’s screams. Sloppy, sloppy of him to get distracted like that.

I kept working. Ice, stone. Chisel, hammer.

Another second passed. Another piece of the roof broke off, this time above Dawson’s head. His Stone magic gave him enough of a warning for him to leap forward to get out of its way. The dwarf hit the ground hard.

It didn’t even daze him.

“Kill her!” Dawson screamed at the other giant even as he scrambled to his feet. “Kill her before she collapses the whole ceiling—”

Too late.

I felt a weakness in the stone, a little sliver of vulnerability caused by years of water seeping into it. I gathered my strength a final time and forced all the magic I had left into that pocket of air. It wasn’t as wide as a needle, but it was big enough.

CRACK!

The bottom of the cavern ceiling blew out with an enormous roar, as though a bucket full of grenades had just exploded next to it. The trickles of water became a rushing torrent that cascaded everywhere, and violet tremors shook the ground under my feet. Dust and dirt and rock zipped through the air like shrapnel. I dived to the ground and rolled back, back, back — away from Dawson, the two giants, and the stalactites that ringed the ceiling over their heads. My eyes latched onto a recess in the cavern wall, and I scrabbled over and into it. The space was just barely big enough to shield my body, but the rock here was harder than that above, which had been weakened by the water.