By a Thread by Jennifer Estep Page A

calling out for me? For help. Why did it seem like I was here on the mountain by myself now?
    Panic filled me then, and I turned and ran back down the trail the way I’d come.
    â€œFletcher!” I yelled in between breaths. “Fletcher!”
    He didn’t answer me.
    I made it all the way back down to the fork where we’d split up, but there was no sign of him, his tin pail, or his backpack. It was like he’d never even been here to start with. My head whipped left, then right, thenleft again—and that’s when I saw the note.
    A white piece of paper had been tacked to one of the trees right by the trail, with the name GIN written on it in big black block letters. The panic pulsing through my body slowly turned to fear, and a sick, sick feeling filled my stomach. Somehow, I knew what the note was going to say even before I yanked it off the tree and opened it with trembling hands.
    â€œI’m sorry,” the note said in Fletcher’s distinctive handwriting. “This isn’t working out. I can’t have you hanging around anymore. You’re on your own now. Fletcher.”
    That was it. There was nothing else. Just a few simple sentences to explain the fact that Fletcher had dumped me out here in the middle of nowhere. I felt like a puppy someone had left in a cardboard box by the side of the road—alone, abandoned, unwanted. But mostly, I didn’t understand why. Why bring me all the way out here when just kicking me out of the house and telling me to stay away from the Pork Pit would have been so much simpler?
    I couldn’t help but wonder what I’d done that was so wrong. What had been so horrible about having me around that the old man had gone to such extreme lengths to get rid of me?
    â€œFletcher?” I whispered, panic filling me once again. “Fletcher! Where are you? Come back! Please!”
    But he didn’t answer me. He was already gone, leaving me alone on the mountain, all alone—
    The sharp shriek of magic snapped me out of my dream. It took me half a second to realize what the sound was—the spiral protection runes in the stone of the outer wall of the suite surgingto life and warning me that someone was trying to get inside.
    I glanced at the clock by the bed: 11:33. They’d shown up sooner than I’d expected them to. I would have waited until much closer to dawn myself. Harder for people to rouse themselves from sleep then.
    I pulled a silverstone knife from under my pillow, got up off the bed, and nestled it against the small of my back. Then I grabbed two more weapons off the nightstand, enjoying the cold, comforting feel of the blades in my hands before sliding one of the knives up my sleeve. I’d been wearing a long robe when I’d been out on the patio, talking to Bria; but after my sister had gone to bed, I’d changed into my usual ensemble of black jeans and a long-sleeved black T-shirt. I’d gone to sleep with my boots on, with my final two knives resting in the side of either shoe.
    I’d wanted to be prepared in case Dekes decided to send me a message for roughing up his two goons, and it looked like the vampire’s men were knocking on my door. The poor bastards should have walked away when they’d had the chance—because I wasn’t giving them a second one.

8
    I eased out of my bedroom and tiptoedacross the dark suite, using the mental map that I’d made earlier to skirt around the couches, tables, and other furniture. I stepped up to the door, careful to keep away from the glass peephole so that whoever was lurking around outside wouldn’t realize I was awake and already waiting for them.
    I looked across the suite at the closed door that led to Bria’s bedroom. As an elemental, she’d be able to hear the stone’s cries too, although they wouldn’t resonate as loudly with her, since she had Ice magic and not Stone like I did. I waited a moment, wondering