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I'd been in position forflat on a part of the roof that plateaued before sloping down at a severe angle and dropping away to the ground far below The blowing snow and hts inside, h the

But really, the worst part of the night wasn't the guards, the cold, the snow, or even the icy, treacherous cli to listen to the stones around me

People's es sink into their environment over time, especially into the stone around them As a Stone elemental, I could hear those emotional vibrations in whatever form the element took aroundto a marble sculpture The sounds, the h the stones let me knohat had happened in a particular spot, what sorts of people had been there, and all the dark, ugly, twisted things that they'd done in thearound in the here and now, trying to get the drop on me

Fire, heat, pain, death That's what the stones of Mab's , confident whispers of power and s that the Fire ele, the sound thatof ray stones Wave after wave of it, as though the rock had somehow been tortured until it was just as broken, burned, and dead as Mab's many victims

After acries, I'd blocked out the daotten on withmy weapons As always, I carried five silverstone knives-one up either sleeve, one against the small of my back, and two more tucked into my boots The knives were my weapons of choice on , and almost unbreakable Just like me

But Mab was a Fire elemental, which meant that she could create, control, and manipulate fire the same way that I could stone And Mab wasn't just any ic, more raer, than any elemental born in the last five hundred years She could easily fry h to even think about plungingblack heart

I'd decided to play it smart and keep a healthy distance between us, just in case things didn't work out exactly as I'd planned tonight So I'd brought another weapon along with me-a crossbow It looked like your typical crossbow-heavy, substantial, deadly-made even er and the six-inch-long, barbed bolt already in firing position Since it was icalit calass, stone, flesh, bones

The crossbow currently sat on theledge, with the barb pointing inside I'd been in firing position for more than fifteen minutes, and all I had to do to release the deadly bolt was pull the trigger

Good thing, as people were starting to arrive for dinner

The black velvet drapes had been drawn to either side of the , lettingelse most folks didn't bother with above the second floor Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy of Mab's bodyguards not to see to a pesky little detail like that

I'd actually been inside Mab's et a fewroom before me was just as opulent as I re The rooh above it Gold and silver leaf glinted in elaborate patterns on the ceiling, while several chandeliers dropped down frolistened like jewel-colored dewdrops above a polished ebony table Four dozen place settings of fine china covered the table, along with ne, and other expensive liquors were spaced down both sides of the table, so that everyone could have easy access to the booze

For the last tenin plates, napkins, liquor, and everything else that aze drifted over to a buffet table that had been se

t up on the far side of the roo other delicacies

Finally, one of the giants opened the double doors at the end of the roouests inside Tiet the party started, in more ways than one

Most of the guests drifted in one by one, although a feere coupled up in groups of two or , fat, thin, black, white, Hispanic, dwarves, giants, vampires There was more variety to the crowd than I'd expected Usually, all of Mab's business associates looked the saed reedy, twisted appetites to match