Widow's Web

21

Owen introduced me to Cooper. It took some convincing, but eventually the dwarf put his poker on the ground and clapped me on the back, almost knocking me over with his great strength.

“Sorry about the confusion, missy,” Cooper said in his loud, rumbling voice. “But you can’t be too careful these days, even up here in the mountains. These are troubled times, you know. Troubled times.”

I thought about all the hoodlums who’d tried to kill me in the last few months and all the others who would keep coming after me. I grimaced. I could tell Cooper a thing or two about troubled times.

“Especially since someone keeps stealing my fountains!”

“Fountains?” I asked. “You make fountains?”

The dwarf nodded. “Not as often as I do sculptures, but I got a commission a few months ago for them. Some guy named Henley wanted seven of them for his gardens, but the guy never showed up with the money.”

I frowned. Something about the name Henley seemed familiar to me, like I’d seen or heard it somewhere recently. I concentrated, but the memory just wouldn’t come to me.

“So I just planted them out in the woods, figuring I’d get rid of them sooner or later,” Cooper said. “But one by one, someone’s been stealing them. There’s only one left now, which was why I was out hiding in the trees, trying to catch the thief. I saw you come out here and thought you might be the person whose backside I need to kick.”

“Sorry,” I murmured. “Not much use for fountains in my line of work.”

Once he decided I wasn’t a threat to him or his remaining fountain, Cooper moved over to Owen and Kincaid. He clapped Owen heartily on the back and did the same to Kincaid. Then he put his arms around the two of them in a bear hug and lifted them both up off the ground, letting out a loud roar that made Owen smile and Kincaid laugh.

“It’s good to see my boys together again,” Cooper said when he finally put them back down.

They didn’t say anything, but Owen and Kincaid looked at each other over the top of his head.

Cooper led us back to the house and directed us to some chairs on the patio while he went inside and rustled up something for us to drink. A few minutes later, he came back with a tall pitcher of lemonade and several mismatched cups, some of which were actually repurposed jelly jars.

“It’s a bit warm,” he apologized, setting everything down on the metal table in the middle of the chairs. “I’m afraid I forgot to fill up the ice cube trays the last time I emptied them. I always forget that.”

Kincaid chuckled. “And everything else that involves housework. All you care about is your forge and your latest masterpiece.”

The dwarf shrugged, but there was a good-natured smile on his face.

“Let me help with that,” I said.

I leaned forward, wrapped my hand around the pitcher, and reached for my magic. A silver light flickered on my palm, and elemental Ice crystals spread out from my hand, ran up the pitcher, and then down into the lemonade below. A second later, the entire pitcher was cold and frosty, so much so that the layer of Ice I’d put on the glass started to steam, the faint wisps of it curling up into the afternoon heat.

Cooper looked at me, his eyes sharp and wary in his lined face. I sat back in my chair and gave him an easy smile.

We sat there for half an hour, sipping lemonade, while the three of them caught up. If the dwarf thought it strange Owen and Kincaid were here together, he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he reminisced about Christmas, when Owen and Eva had visited him last. I hadn’t come with them then, not wanting to intrude on what was a family celebration, but I was glad I’d been able to meet Cooper today. I only wished the circumstances could have been better.

Finally, we finished our lemonade. The dwarf pushed his glass away and speared Owen with a hard look.

“Now, do you want to tell me the real reason you came all the way up here?” Cooper asked. “Because I know it wasn’t just for the pleasure of my company. Not when you came with Phillip, to whom as far as I know, you haven’t said a civil word in years. And you still haven’t told me about her.”

The dwarf jerked his head at me. Owen had introduced me before simply as Gin, but now it was time to let the dwarf know who and what I was.

“My name is Gin Blanco.”

The dwarf frowned, like he recognized the name but couldn’t quite place it, so I decided to help him out.

“I believe you know, or rather knew, my foster father. Fletcher Lane.”

The dwarf’s eyes sharpened that much more. “Yes, I knew Fletcher. I was very sorry to hear about his passing.”

Well, passing was a polite way of saying brutal murder, but I tilted my head, accepting his condolences.

Owen leaned forward, staring at the dwarf. “We came up here today because Salina is back in Ashland.”

For a moment, Cooper went completely, utterly still. He’d been reaching for the pitcher to pour himself some more lemonade, and his hand wavered in mid-air before he dropped it down to the table. Then, he sat back in his chair and shrugged, like it didn’t matter to him where Salina was or what she was doing.

“Well, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later,” he grumbled. “Although I was hoping for never.”

“What do you mean?” Owen asked.

Cooper shifted in his chair. His gaze cut to Kincaid, but he didn’t respond to Owen’s question. He didn’t have to.

“So it’s true then,” Owen said. “What Kincaid said. That Salina—that she hurt Eva all those years ago.”

Emotions flashed across his face like lightning. Shock, disbelief, disgust, and finally anger—so much anger. Owen got to his feet and paced around the patio, stalking from one side to the other, his wing tips clacking on the stones.

Finally, he turned and stabbed his finger at Cooper. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you wouldn’t have listened to us—any of us,” the dwarf said in a resigned voice. “You loved the girl, and you only wanted to see the good in her. There was no point in making things worse than they already were.”

Owen turned his gaze to Kincaid. “And you, Phillip? Why didn’t you tell me what she was doing? Hell, why didn’t Eva tell me?”

“I tried, but you were too busy beating the shit out of me,” Kincaid snapped. “As far as Eva goes, she told me that Salina threatened to hurt me and you too if she said anything. She begged me to keep quiet, so I did. Eva was so upset, so afraid that Salina could come back at any time. She’d already been hurt enough, and I didn’t want her to worry any more than she already was. That’s the reason I kept my mouth shut back then and all these years. I was protecting Eva.”

Something you failed to do. Kincaid didn’t say the words. He didn’t have to.

That stricken look dimmed Owen’s eyes again, and I knew what he was feeling—guilt. Guilt that he hadn’t realized what was going on, guilt that he’d taken Salina’s side over everyone else’s, guilt over what Eva had suffered, guilt that he’d almost killed Kincaid because of Salina’s lies. So much guilt. Enough to last a lifetime.

As much as I wanted to go over to Owen, hold him close, and tell him it was okay, I couldn’t do that. Nothing I could say would make his guilt go away, and right now I needed to talk to the dwarf about more practical matters.

I looked at Cooper. “So what happened? How did you convince Salina to leave Ashland?”

He shifted in his chair again. “Phillip called me the night Owen beat him. We’d kept in touch, even though Owen and I weren’t speaking at the time. I came and picked him up, and he told me what Salina had done. I got the boy patched up, and we waited for Owen to leave the house. When he finally did, we went in and confronted Salina. I told her to leave Ashland and never come back—or I’d kill her. Of course, she didn’t listen to me. She tried to use her water magic on me, but I managed to overcome her with my Air power. I held her down on the ground with it while Phillip packed up her things. Then we made her write a note for Owen and threw her out of the house. That was the last time I saw her.”

We were all quiet, although I could hear the sudden, loud chirping of the birds deeper in the woods, like something had startled them. A few crows zoomed up out of the tops of the trees and started circling around and around in the sky above.

“Salina might come after you,” I told the dwarf. “Especially given how isolated you are here. Maybe it would be better if you stayed with Owen for a few days. Just in case.”

“Bah!” Cooper waved his hand. “I don’t need protection from her. Besides, I doubt she’d come all the way up here. Salina never did much care for this place—or me.”

“All the more reason for her to come after you now,” I said. “Salina seems to be going around settling old scores, among other things. You were the one responsible for running her out of Ashland. That’s not the kind of thing a person forgets. Especially not someone like her. Trust me. I know a thing or two about grudges. She’ll come after you sooner or later.”

Cooper shrugged. “And I’ll deal with her the same way I did before.”

The dwarf looked back and forth between me and Owen. “But the two of you are together now?”

Owen nodded. “We are.”

“Then I’d say missy here is in far more trouble than I am,” Cooper said. “Salina never did like sharing you, Owen—not with anyone.”

Owen didn’t respond, but sadness mixed with the guilt on his face. I wondered if he realized what the dwarf was really saying—that Salina would probably come after me too. I wondered what Owen would do in that situation—which one of us he’d choose. I hoped it would be me, but I couldn’t quite ignore the cold, creeping dread that it would be Salina instead.

We sat there for another half hour. Owen and Kincaid tried to convince Cooper to come back to Ashland and stay at the Graysons’ mansion, if only for the next few days, but the dwarf wouldn’t budge, saying he had too many projects to finish.

“I’ve been up here in this old holler going on two hundred years. I’m not about to let Salina or anyone else drive me out of it.”

Cooper winked at me, and I found myself grinning in return. I liked the dwarf, with his loud voice and thick goggles. He reminded me of what Fletcher would have been like if the old man had still been alive—absolutely irrepressible.

Eventually, since he wouldn’t come with us, we got to our feet and said our good-byes. Cooper walked us around to the front of the house. I started to get into the car with the others, but he grabbed hold of my arm.

“You be careful with Salina,” Cooper warned. “I’ve heard about you, Gin, and what you can do with your magic. How you killed Mab Monroe. But Salina’s tricky. She always has been, and so is her water magic. Fighting her isn’t like fighting another elemental. Water power is hard to get a hold on, and it’s even harder still to figure out some way to beat it.”

I nodded, taking his words to heart. I’d seen what Salina could do with her magic—how she enjoyed using it to hurt people.

“I’ll be careful,” I said. “I’ll take care of Kincaid and protect him from Salina. Eva too. She won’t hurt them again. Not as long as I’m still breathing.”

Cooper shook his head. “Eva and Kincaid aren’t the only ones who need protecting from Salina. I think you know that.”

I looked over at Owen, who was already in the car and staring at us through the passenger window. “Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.”

I got into the Escalade. Through the open windows, Owen and Kincaid tried one final time to get their mentor to come along.

But Cooper shook his head again. “I’ll be just fine up here. I have been for a long time now, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. But you take care.” His gaze flicked to me. “All of you.”

I nodded at him, and he nodded back. Cooper knew how these things ended. He knew that one of us would kill the other, and I was determined to be the last one standing—no matter how tricky Salina’s water magic might be.

I cranked the engine and backed up the SUV. We all waved at Cooper a final time. I’d just started going down the ridge when the dwarf turned and went around the house, probably going back to his forge.

Kincaid and I were quiet in deference to Owen. We both knew he needed some time to process everything. To sort through and come to terms with all the lies. Still, once again, I wondered how he would react if I told him what Eva had asked me to do, how she’d asked me to kill Salina. If he would let me do it—or if he’d try to stop me.

A murder of crows exploded out of the trees to our right, forcing me to slow down or risk hitting them. Finn would not be happy if I came back with feathers in his grille. He still hadn’t forgiven me for trashing his Aston Martin.

The crows flapped across the rutted driveway before taking flight and soaring up into the spring sky, their sharp caw-caw-caws ringing through the air. I took my foot off the brake and put it back on the gas.

“What is with the birds today?” Kincaid muttered. “That’s the second time something’s startled them.”

His words made me remember how earlier the crows had taken flight from trees deeper in the woods, even though the four of us had been sitting on the patio. That led to another thought, then another one, until they all seemed like a series of grenades exploding in my mind.

The giants, the moving truck, and the van I’d seen near the bottom of Cooper’s driveway. Some guy commissioning several fountains he’d never picked up. Someone else knowing enough about Cooper to steal those same fountains from his sculpture garden. The crows flying away, even though there was seemingly nothing around to frighten them.

And then I felt it, the final piece of the puzzle—a cool caress of magic, like water sliding against my skin. Faint as a whisper, but I knew what it and everything else meant—and what I had to do.

I slammed on the brakes, making the SUV fishtail and skid on the gravel. Rocks sprayed everywhere as the vehicle finally lurched to a top.

“Gin?” Owen asked, his hand braced against the dashboard. “What’s wrong?”

I didn’t answer him. I was too busy getting out of the SUV and running back toward the house.