Jennifer Estep - Web of Lies

Warren nodded. I walked over, leaned down, and kissed his wrinkled cheek. He smelled of Old Spice and peppermint.

“Thank you for this.”

He didn’t look at me, but a blush crept up the side of his neck. “It’s nothing.”

“No,” I said in a quiet voice, staring at Fletcher’s smiling face. “It’s everything to me.”

——

Embarrassed, Warren made some excuse about checking on the store, leaving me alone in the den. I sat there staring at the photo of him and Fletcher until Jo-Jo Deveraux came back in.

“What’s that?” she asked.

I showed her the picture.

“Nice of him to give it to you,” the dwarf replied, sitting on the sofa.

“Yes, it was.”

We didn’t speak for a few moments. Finally, Jo-Jo broke the silence.

“You want to talk about it?” she asked in a soft voice.

“About what happened in the mountain? About your magic? About how you’re stronger now?”

My head snapped. “How the hell do you know that?”

Her pale eyes were old and knowing in her made-up face. “I could feel it when I was healing you. Your Ice magic, it’s stronger now, isn’t it?”

I sighed and told her what had happened in the cavern.

About how I’d felt something give inside me and the fact the spider rune scars on my hands glowed brighter than a flashlight. I even gave her a demonstration.

Jo-Jo leaned over and studied my silvery palms. Then she nodded and sat back on the sofa.

“So what happened to me? Is it temporary? Permanent? Did I break my magic or something?”

Jo-Jo chuckled. “Nothing like that, Gin. But yes, I do believe it’s permanent.” She gave me a steady look. “Have you wondered why your Stone magic is so much stronger than your Ice power?”

I shrugged. “Not really. It’s rare enough to be able to control two elements. I always assumed my Ice magic was just weaker.”

Jo-Jo shook her head. “No, darling, your Ice magic isn’t weaker. It’s just been contained — until now.”

I frowned. “How?”

She jerked her head at my palms. “By that silverstone in your hands. You know as well as I do that silverstone is a magical metal, that it can hold and absorb elemental magic.”

“So what?”

“So silverstone can also block magic. In your case, the metal in your hands kept you from fully realizing your Ice potential.”

“I don’t understand.”

Jo-Jo propped her heels up on the coffee table. Her feet were bare, her toes painted pink, just like always. “You know there’s a lot of duality in elemental magic. A lot of likes and dislikes between all four of the elements. Now, Stone is more of an internal magic. You don’t have to do anything to hear the vibrations of the rocks around you. Air is the same way. But Fire and Ice are different. Most elementals release those two types of magic through their hands. It’s just easier and quicker to form a fireball in your hand than it is to shoot it out of your eyes or your ass.”

I smiled at her interesting imagery.

“But you had silverstone melted into your hands. So, in a sense, the metal choked your Ice magic every time you tried to release it through your hands. Like a bottleneck. Make sense?”

I thought about all those times I’d formed a cube or a pair of Ice picks. Jo-Jo was right. I almost always used my hands to do those things, but most of the time when I drew on my Stone magic to harden my skin, the power almost always came from within. “I think I get it now. But how was I able to draw on so much Ice magic in the cavern if the silverstone was blocking it?”

Jo-Jo stared at me. “Because you finally brought enough of your Ice magic to bear to overpower the silverstone. You blasted right through that metal, broke down that barrier. Your Ice magic’s always been as strong as your Stone magic, Gin. Now, it’s finally risen to the surface where you can use it. That’s why your spider rune scars look brighter, more of a silver color now. Because your Ice magic is right there waiting for you to tap into it. Because your power is in the silverstone now, instead of being blocked by it.”

“You knew, didn’t you?” I asked. “You knew the whole time why my Ice magic was weaker. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you had to break through the silverstone by yourself,” Jo-Jo said. “I couldn’t do it for you.”

I sat there and stared at the matching scars that decorated my palms. A small circle surrounded by eight thin rays. One on either hand. A spider rune. The symbol for patience.

“You’re only going to get stronger now, Gin,” Jo-Jo said in a quiet tone. “One day soon, you’ll be the strongest elemental in Ashland. Even stronger than Mab Monroe herself.”

Stronger than Mab? I didn’t know if that was a good thing, seeing as how the Fire elemental only used her power for destruction. All Mab used her magic for was to kill, hurt, and burn everyone who stood in her way. I might have been an assassin, but I didn’t want to be like her. Not now, not ever.

I curled my hands into fists, hiding the scars from sight, and tried to ignore the shiver that shook my body.

——

I spent the rest of the night at the Foxes’, resting up, and Finn came to get me the next day just before the crack of noon, as was his style. I was sitting on the front porch of Country Daze in some of Violet Fox’s borrowed clothes when he pulled up in his Cadillac Escalade. I’d already said my good-byes to Warren T. Fox, who was still inside with Jo-Jo Deveraux. Sophia was coming up later to pick up her older sister, who wanted to spend a few more hours gossiping with Warren.

Finn got out of the car and walked over to me. He slid his designer sunglasses down so he could peer over the top of the lenses. “Nice clothes.”

“Lovely to see you too, Finn,” I replied in a wry tone.

But I got up and hugged my foster brother anyway. He hugged me back as tight as he could.

“You ready to leave?” Finn asked.

I looked up at the tin sign mounted over the front door. Country Daze. Yeah, dazed was one way of putting everything I’d gone through the last few days. I stared at the gleaming sign a moment longer, then turned and smiled at Finn. “Let’s blow this gin joint. Take me home. Take me to the Pork Pit.”

The incident at the coal mine played out for the next week. Folks worked around the clock for days, digging, moving, and hauling earth and stone out of the way before they finally recovered Tobias Dawson’s body, along with those of his two giant workers. The coroner said both the giants and Dawson died of blunt force trauma.

Yeah, the cave-in had taken out the giants, but Dawson had died from those Ice daggers I’d launched into his torso. Too bad the evidence had melted away — just like always. Something I was grateful for.

After the rescue workers recovered the bodies, there wasn’t much else to do. So they closed down the mine and went home. A couple of days later, Finn showed me a business article in the Ashland Trumpet that said Owen Grayson had bought Tobias Dawson’s company for a song — lock, stock, and barrel. No plans had been announced about what would happen to the collapsed mine, and Grayson was quoted as saying he wasn’t in a rush to make a decision. Either way, I’d destroyed the diamonds in the cavern, so no one would be sniffing around there anytime soon. Which meant Warren T. Fox, his granddaughter, Violet, and their store, land, and house were safe for now and the foreseeable future.

I was glad I’d been able to help the Foxes, glad I’d been able to do something for someone who had once meant so much to Fletcher Lane. I thought the old man would have approved of me helping Warren, even if the two of them had parted on bad terms all those years ago.