Spider's TrapElemental Assassin #13
Publication date: 7/28/2015
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Keep your friends close but your enemies within stabbing distance.Excerpt #4:
One important lesson I’ve learned in the assassination business is that to be the best you have to roll with the punches. Now that I’m queen of Ashland’s underworld—by default, not by choice—a lot more punches are being thrown my way. But I suppose that’s the price of victory for taking down some of the underworld’s top dogs. Good thing I have my Ice and Stone magic to help me survive my volatile new position. Just when I think things are finally settling down, someone tries to murder me during a hush-hush underworld meeting. But the real surprise is how strangely familiar my shadowy assailant seems to be.
My job is to maintain order among killers, crooks, and thieves, and soon I’m embroiled in a bloody game where the ability to keep secrets could be the greatest superpower of all. My enemies have all sharpened their knives and laid their traps, waiting for me to fall. But this Spider weaves her own webs of death…
But
a few weeks ago, I’d taken down Madeline Magda Monroe, an acid
elemental who’d declared herself the new queen of the Ashland
underworld, following in the footsteps of her mother, Mab.
Just
as I had killed her mother several months earlier, I took out Madeline
with my Ice and Stone magic, and with no more Monroes left to grapple
for control of the underworld, the other bosses had made me their de
facto leader. At least until they started plotting how they could murder
me and one of them could seize the throne they all coveted so very
much.
I almost wished that one of them would succeed in putting me out of my misery.
Contrary
to popular belief, being the head of the Ashland underworld was not a
bed of roses. It wasn’t even a bed of thorns. It was just a giant
headache—like the one throbbing in my temples right now.
I’d
thought I’d been a popular target over the summer, but now the bosses
sought me out more than ever before. And they actually wanted to talk to
me. Incessantly. About business deals and treaties and who was letting
their gang members spray-paint rune graffiti in someone else’s
territory. As if I actually cared about any of those things. But as the
big boss, it was apparently my job to listen. At least, according to
Silvio.
Lorelei
was the one who’d requested this meeting, although she’d actually
approached Phillip about settling the dispute instead of me. Apparently,
Lorelei didn’t want to acknowledge my new authority or involve me in
her affairs. That, or she just hated me for some reason. Didn’t much
matter either way, since I cared as little about her as she did about
me.
But
Phillip was my friend, and he’d told me about the get-together. So here
I was, about to mediate my first big dispute as Gin Blanco, the Spider,
new queen of the Ashland underworld. Yeah, me.
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Spider’s Trap, the 13th book in her Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series, will be released on July 28.
Spider’s Bite, Web of Lies, Venom, Tangled Threads, Spider’s Revenge, By a Thread, Widow’s Web, Deadly Sting, Heart of Venom, The Spider, Poison Promise, Black Widow, and Spider’s Trap, along with the e-shorts Thread of Death, Parlor Tricks, and Kiss of Venom, are the other works in her Elemental Assassin series.
Jennifer is also the author of the Black Blade and Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series and the Bigtime paranormal romance series.
For more on Jennifer and her books, visit her at www.JenniferEstep.com, her blog or follow her on Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter (@Jennifer_Estep).
Find Jennifer and her books
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