Thread of Death Read Online Free Page B

and absolutely no brains. I turned away in disgust.
    Either way, most everyone wanted to assume Mab’s mantle of power on their own, without any help from me. Fools. With my knowledge of Mab’s businesses, legitimate and otherwise, I could have made things so much easier for them. But of course they couldn’t see that—they couldn’t see the big picture like I could, like I’d always been able to. They didn’t have the discipline to plan and plot and think ahead like I did. I’d had to do those things just to stay alive in Mab’s employment. Skills that would serve me well, now that she was gone.
    Still, if the other bosses wanted to disregard my offers of informationand try to climb to the top of the crime ladder themselves, that was fine with me. I’d just sit idly by and wait until they’d killed each other off one by one. Once the dust settled and a clear winner emerged, I would reassess things.
    In the meantime, there was one thing I was determined about: that Gin Blanco was going to die.
    I stared past the minister at the troublesome bitch. I’d thought she might show up here today. Part of me had hoped she would, and I’d been eager to see her, eager to see just how much Mab had hurt her. If Ms. Blanco couldn’t be dead, then being horribly scarred, burned, and a small, pitiful shell of her former self would have been the next best thing. I would have been somewhat satisfied with that—for a time, anyway.
    But of course Blanco had gotten some Air elemental to patch her up, probably Jo-Jo Deveraux, that old beauty queen dwarf who was standing with the rest of the bitch’s group of misfits. Blanco looked no worse for wear. In fact, her skin was positively glowing, and she looked as fresh and relaxed as if she’d spent a long weekend at a spa. Envy stabbed through me, along with disappointment.
    But my disappointment soon turned to anger. I’d been in the rubble-filled courtyard with Mab and Blanco when they had their elemental duel. Once the two of them started in on each other with their magic, I got myself to safety, determined to finally, happily, watch Mab kill the woman who’d caused me so many problems.
    But Blanco won instead. Somehow, she did something I didn’t think anyone could do: she killed Mab.
    That was shocking enough, but what really surprised me was how far and fast I fell as well. With Mab gone, so were all the things I’d enjoyed while serving the Fire elemental: my status, my position, my power, and most important the way I could merely look at someone and see him tremble knowing exactly who my employer was and what she was capable of. Working for Mab had been stressful, but I’d enjoyed those particular perks. I’d earned them over the years with all the messes I’d cleaned up for the Fire elemental and all the long hours I’d spent soothing her raging ego.
    But that was all gone, crumbled to ash just like Mab was. Now people didn’t look at me with fear in their eyes. Instead, they snickeredat me behind my back. Blanco was the reason I’d lost all those precious things—and she was how I was going to get them back too.
    I doubted Blanco had thought ahead to what would happen to her now that Mab was dead, but I had—and I’d already sowed the seeds of discontent among the underworld. All I had to do was kill the bitch—or, rather, arrange for it to be done. I’ve never liked getting my hands dirty that way. I’ve always found much more pleasure in orchestrating someone’s death, rather than actually pulling the trigger myself. Anyone can buy a gun and shoot someone. It takes skill and finesse to take down your enemies from a distance and get away clean, with no one knowing—or at least being able to prove—that you were ever involved.
    Ms. Blanco didn’t know it, but Mab’s wasn’t the only funeral I’d been planning recently. She’d find out soon enough, though—and so would everyone else here today.
    Calmer now, I turned my attention back to the minister