"What are we doing in here?" I murmured, staring up the ceiling fan spinning above my head.
Jo-Jo's face hovered over mine. "Because when you collapsed the mountain, it created a gigantic sinkhole out back. It's already filled in with water. It hasn't reached the house yet, but it might. So we brought you to the store where it was safer. Now, relax, Gin, as much as you can. Because this is going to hurt."
Jo-Jo's eyes flashed a brilliant white, and her Air power rolled off her like invisible waves. The dwarf put her hand against my forehead. The hot pain of her magic filled me, and I knew nothing more.
The next time I woke up, I was lying in a bed that wasn't my own. I felt better, but bone-tired at the same time, which told me that my body was still recovering from the trauma I'd been through and being blasted with Jo-Jo's healing Air magic. I shuddered to think how much the dwarf had had to use to put me back together again. But while I'd been unconscious, someone had bathed and dressed me in a pair of oversize black sweatpants, a matching long-sleeved T-shirt, and thick socks.
I threw back the blanket on top of me, got to my feet, and stumbled over to the dresser in the corner. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. I looked the same as always, dark chocolate brown hair, gray eyes, light skin, a few freckles on my nose and cheeks. I wiggled my jaw. Perfect as always, and all my loose tooth felt attached once more. However terrible I'd looked when I'd come out of the mountain, Jo-Jo Deveraux had healed me - all of me.
I'd have to get Finn to give the dwarf a bonus for going above and beyond this time.
I opened the door to the bedroom and looked around.
I was upstairs in the Foxes' house, from the look of all the pictures of Warren, Violet, and the rest of their family on the walls. I headed right and padded down a set of narrow stairs. I'd just stepped onto the landing when something shimmering outside through the window caught my eye.
The small creek that ran by the Foxes's house and country store had turned into a large pond. It stretched out perhaps a quarter of a mile, settled into a new dip in the ground.
Probably right over the spot where the cavern with the diamonds had been. The pond was another sign of how my magic had altered the landscape, of how I'd done this thing without even thinking about the consequences.
"Fuck," I whispered.
I shook my head and went down the stairs. Soft voices drifted out from the den, so that's where I headed.
"... can't believe the amount of power she used, how much magic she was able to tap into."
I stopped where I was in the hallway. Jo-Jo was talking - about me.
"I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't felt it," Warren T. Fox replied in his high, reedy voice. "Felt like the whole mountain was going to tear itself in two. Worse than an earthquake."
"Gin's only just now coming into the full extent of her power," Jo-Jo replied. "She's only going to get stronger."
"I'd hate to get on her bad side," Warren muttered.
I waited in the hallway, but the two of them didn't say anything else. So I padded into the den where they were sitting. Both of them looked at me. Sophia and Finn were nowhere to be found, and Violet was probably still at Eva's. The television flickered in front of Warren and Jo-Jo, showing scenes of the collapsed mine, although the sound was muted.
"Feeling better?" Jo-Jo asked.
I shrugged. "Some. I'm still tired, though."
"You will be," the dwarf replied. "It took me quite a long while to patch you up this time. Whatever you did in that mine shaft, it took its toll on you."
I didn't respond. Instead, I looked at Warren. "I'm sure you've guessed by now, but Tobias Dawson is dead. So are two of his giants. He won't be bothering you anymore."
The old man nodded and rocked back and forth in his recliner. "I figured as much."
"What happened down there, Gin?" Jo-Jo asked. "In the mine."
I sat on the sofa and curled my feet up underneath my body. "Dawson knocked me out at Mab Monroe's party. He recognized my magic somehow. When I woke up, I was in the mine with the dwarf and two of his giants. We were in this cavern, this beautiful cavern. That's where the diamonds were, hundreds of them set in the stone walls like tiny lamps. Dawson hit me. He wanted to know if Warren had hired me to kill him. All the usual stuff."
"What did you say?" Warren asked.
I smiled. "I told him I was working for Mab Monroe. That she wanted him dead."
Something sparked in Jo-Jo's eyes, but she masked the emotion before I could figure out what it was.
"Then what happened?" Jo-Jo asked.
I shrugged. "I figured I wasn't getting out of there alive and that I might as well take Dawson and his goons with me. So I used my Stone and Ice magic to collapse the ceiling. That's why he needed your land, Warren. The cavern was right under the creek, and the ceiling was too fragile for him to go ahead and mine the diamonds without you knowing about it."
Warren nodded.
"After the dust settled, I was still alive, and they weren't. So I looked for a way out of the cavern, and I found one. End of story."
I didn't tell Jo-Jo about my hands, about the fact I seemed to have more Ice magic now than ever before.
That I could feel the cool power rippling through my veins. There would be time enough to do that later. After I'd figured out for myself whether it was just a fluke.
I jerked my head at the television. "What are they saying?"
Warren hit the remote, and the sound came on.
"They're saying it was an earthquake. That Dawson and his men were doing a late-night inspection and got trapped inside. They're still digging for them, although everybody knows he's probably dead by now."
I thought of Dawson's pale hand sticking out the mound of earth and stone - and the way I'd cut the dwarf 's wrist just to make sure. "Yeah, Dawson's dead and buried."
"I'm just glad you didn't end up the same way," Warren said.
I stared at the wreckage on the television. The sound of the earth rumbling and the stone shrieking rang in my ears. "Me too."
Jo-Jo went to call Finn and Sophia and tell them that I was finally awake, leaving me alone in the den with Warren.
The old coot heaved himself out of his recliner, bones cracking, and disappeared. I watched the news coverage of the mine disaster.
Warren came back a minute later carrying a small picture frame. He stared at it a moment, then shoved it into my hands. "Here. I know I can't pay you for what you did with Dawson and all that you suffered. But I'd like to give you something, and I thought you might want this."
I stared at the picture. A fine layer of dust covered the frame, which I wiped away with the edge of my T-shirt.
The picture might have been in color at one time, but it had long ago faded to a dull yellow. Two young men, little more than teenagers, looked up at me. The shorter man was obviously Warren T. Fox. He'd stared into the camera with a serious expression, as though he didn't like having his picture taken. The other man was Fletcher, whose wide grin more than made up for Warren's lack of one. They both wore work shirts and overalls. Fishing rods and tackle boxes lay at their feet, along with a string of fish. Trees ringed the area behind them.
"Is this you and Fletcher?" I asked.
Warren settled into his recliner and started rocking again. "It is. Taken a couple of months before he started up the Pork Pit. Last photo we ever took together."
"Don't you want to keep it then?"
Warren shrugged. "I don't need a photo to remind me of Fletcher. Never have."
He stared at the television, but I still spotted the sheen of moisture in his dark eyes. In that moment, I knew Warren missed Fletcher Lane as much as I did, even if he'd never admit it. And I knew the photo had to be one of his prized possessions. Because it was a symbol of their friendship, of their childhood growing up together, and all the good times and hopes and dreams they'd shared.
I had photos of Fletcher, but none like this. None that showed him being so easy and carefree. None that showed him as he really was, without the calm mask he'd presented to so many people, including me, over the years.
For the first time, I felt like I was seeing the real Fletcher Lane.
And now Warren was giving the photo to me. His gesture touched me in a way nothing had done in a long time. I might have been an assassin for seventeen years, might have killed a lot of people, but helping Warren and Violet Fox was definitely one of the best things I'd ever done.
"All right," I said. "There's an empty spot on the wall at the Pork Pit. I think this will go nicely there."
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.