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I lay there sprawled over the dwarf, my hand curled around the bloody knife still in his chest, breathing hard, sweat pouring down ht and the adrenaline running throughmore than to lie there until the tremors and exhaustion passed, but I made myself roll off the dwarf, pull the knife out of his chest, and sit up

The cemetery was completely quiet

I peered out over the still, silent landscape, ravestone to the next But no one else could be seen lurking a the monuments, and there weren’t anythe leafy branches, waiting to take another shot at er had passed, I let go of ic Then, knife still in hand, I lay down on rass and curled into a loose ball I stayed that way until the air was back in

I could have stayed there longer, in the quiet of the ceht, but I just didn’t have the tirass around me So, after aposition, then h my twisted knee still throbbed with pain

I looked at Mab’s casket It was closed just like it had been before the fight, although the dwarf’s shovel was still stuck in the side of it, like an arrow in a target, scarring the black surface of the wood But the sunburst rune on the side was still intact, the ruby in the hter than the dwarves’ blood that covered olden rays and faceted sides of the ge, as the afternoon sun reflected off the at?" I , it just glinted a little brighter, al me one final time

Phillip Kincaid

I couldn’t believe she’d killed the three dwarves

Oh, I’d heard the rumors for weeks now about Gin Blanco About how she was a powerful Ice and Stone elemental About how she was really the assassin the Spider And most especially about how she was the one who’d finally killed Mab

Jonah McAllister had whispered those things andto insinuate hiraces McAllister shouldn’t have bothered sucking up to me The cocky bastard had causedfor Mab forh to dointo Gin Blanco Fa on the Southtown streets, taken in and raised by an old man as also rumored to be an assassin What I found had only ht my attention earlier today when she ran toward the sniper in the tree instead of finding a tombstone to hide behind likea normal person would do So when it becaood-byes to Mab alone, I pretended to leave the cemetery, then snuck in a back way and took up a position behind the sa happened, except that Blanco said a few soft words to the coffin that I couldn’t quite hear Then the dwarves appeared I thought they’d rave, but they crept up on Blanco and attacked while her back was turned

I thought about shouting a warning, showing ht, but Blanco didn’t need race, like the knife in her hand was a natural extension of her own body: Owen’s work, I’d wager He’d always enjoyed ive his assassin lover than a knife or two?

It was one thing to think that Blanco was an assassin; it was another to see her handiwork for erous as McAllister clai quickly, brutally, and ruthlessly, with no wasted movements, no hesitation, and no remorse

I watched Blanco stab the last dwarf to death She sluround, and I thought she ot back up on her feet She looked down at the dwarf, her face cold and dispassionate, then slid her bloody knife up her sleeve with nospare change into their pocket Definitely no remorse there I liked that about her

"Wow," a voice whispered in my ear "She really is an assassin She really is the Spider"

I looked at the giant hunkered down in the grass beside ht-hand man and my friend, one of the few that I had these days

"It appears so," I murmured "For once, McAllister actually told the truth about sooing to do with the information Unlike McAllister, I didn’t want Blanco dead No, I had so else in mind for her I’d heard some nasty ru back to Ashland, and I was thinking that Blanco was the perfect person to help me with my problem I just needed to convince Blanco of that But it wouldn’t takeNot when she realized whoto be to her and what she loved

I thought my enemy had shown her face here today - that e had filled un and start blasting at her But I watched her, and I realized the ht she was Oh, no My eneround like that I didn’t knoho the mystery woer worries right now, like figuring out exactly when my enemy would return to Ashland - and finally co into hts

I looked at Blanco, but all she did was face the coffin and lower her head to it again

"Coo and let her pay her respects in peace I think she’s earned it"

Antonio and I slipped away frorave site I wanted a few minutes to think about what I’d just seen, so I told Antonio that I’d walk to the front of the ceet the car from where he’d parked it on the back side of the ce at all the tombstones and the na tied to survive against the odds So I had in cohts about the assassin that I didn’t even see Owen until I enty feet away frohts, but he turned at the scuff of ht of er blazed in his eyes Even now, after all these years, he still hated ht I’d done I couldn’t decide whether I despised hi that I wasn’t the villain - that I never had been We’d been friends once - brothers, even - but that was gone now, long gone, destroyed in an instant by vicious lies and Owen’s inability to see through the in his direction and halting right in front of him

"Owen" I nodded h clenched teeth

"Coht hate me, but we had some similar business interests, so he had to deal with and even speak to me on occasion I went out of my way to make him interact with me as often as possible It pleased me to see his jaw clench when I knew that all he really wanted to do was punch e I could force myself to take - on Owen, anyway It wasn’t cos had turned out like they had

"And Gin?" I asked "Did she come to pay her respects as well?"

Owen’s eyes narrowed "What do you know about Gin?"