Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,105

head today?” I shook my head, still smiling. She took a quick sniff of the air and rolled her eyes at me. “Oh, got some, did you? That would explain your silliness. You know, if you weren’t a warlock, I’d tell you that you need to make an honest woman of that poor girl. But then, I guess it’s better this way.”

My smile disappeared and I leaned my head back against the sofa as reality came crashing back down on me with a sickening thud. “Thanks for the reminder, Sof.”

The cat stood, alternating between arching her back and stretching each leg so that long claws extended. “Sorry, Gage. I didn’t mean anything by that comment. I guess I’m in a grumpy mood.”

“I know. It’s been a rough few days for everyone. It doesn’t seem like anything is going right.”

Sofie paused beside the TV remote and stepped on the red button, turning off the TV, before she walked over and curled up in my lap. I scratched the top of her head, getting her to start purring. If she was going to act like a cat, I was going to treat her like a cat. I’d deal with all the repercussions and complications if she was ever returned to her natural state.

“Trixie told me about your visit to see the queen of the Summer Court and their . . . difficulties,” she said, her voice so soft that I could barely make out her words. She had stopped purring and moved her head away from my hand as she rested it on my stomach.

“That’s what I was hoping to talk to you about.” Placing my elbow on the arm of the couch, I leaned my head against my hand. “I’ve listened to the queen’s story and what Trixie told me about the advice from the Hearth Women, but something seems off. Something about this whole thing seems like the elves are suffering under the effects of a spell. Everything I’ve been taught says that it’s not possible because spells aren’t this artfully selective or gradual, but my gut screams spell. What do you think?”

Sofie was silent for several seconds. She was so still that I thought she might have even stopped breathing. When she spoke, her voice was extremely soft and low.

“I’ve done many horrible things in my lifetime and I don’t regret a single damn one of them. It was our culture. It was about protection. It was about being the strongest species. I believed it all . . . until now.”

I lifted my head and stared down at the cat, my heart skipping in my chest. “What are you talking about?”

“The elves. They’re barren . . . and it’s my fault. It is a spell. I crafted it at the request of the council years ago. I had forgotten about it until I met Trixie.”

My breathing was shattered as I sat on the couch with my thoughts colliding into one another before spinning off in another direction. My first instinct was to push her off me so I could pace around the room.

It was a spell. Sofie had created the spell that was slowly destroying the elves. The cat I was protecting—hell, the cat Trixie was protecting—was responsible for keeping Trixie’s people from having children, leaving them stuck on a one-way train for extinction.

“Sofie,” I breathed, my voice rough as I tried to order my thoughts.

“I’m so sorry, Gage. We always worried about the elves and their ability to find the Towers through the glamour. We were afraid that if we attacked them, they would go into hiding, making it impossible to find them. The spell was designed to attack more and more of their kind with each passing decade until none of them could have children.”

“Well, it’s nearly succeeded,” I snapped before roughly running my hand through my hair. “The king and queen of the Summer Court can’t have kids, and if they don’t have an heir soon, the Winter Court or the Svartálfar could soon attack in hopes of conquering the Summer Court.”

“I never meant to hurt Trixie. I like her. She’s sweet and funny. I never wanted to hurt her.”

“I know. The elves were a faceless people to you and all the Towers, but the fact remains that there are people that are being hurt. It has to stop. How do I unravel the spell?”

Sofie stood and walked over to the far cushion on the couch, where she sat down, wrapping her long tail around her