Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,131

and a warlock.

Looking over at Gideon, I frowned. “You had to bring Sofie with you?”

The warlock made a scoffing noise in the back of his throat. “It wasn’t about bringing her. It was more like I didn’t want to waste the time on a spell to stop her from following.”

“Gage Powell!” Sofie said shrilly, walking over to sit in front of me. “You disappear from the face of the earth for an entire day and then send a short message for me to fetch Gideon with no explanation. Did you honestly expect me to sit back and hope that everything was well? Trixie would have been furious if I had stayed behind.”

More likely, curiosity has been driving Sofie crazy, so she decided to tag along. Regardless of her usual grumpiness, Sofie’s life had become infinitely more interesting since she had come to live with Trixie, and the cat was enjoying it.

I let the comment go and turned back to Gideon, who was looking about the room. The kids were closely watching him, their wands in their hands. “To answer your earlier question, I did stay away. They found me.” When the warlock regarded me again, I gave him a brief summary of the attack at my apartment and the escape from the house in Austria. He grew paler as I spoke.

“It’s been getting worse,” he said, but then shook his head as if to push the thought away. “You should have left immediately. It’s too dangerous for you and them.”

“Look at this place! You want me to ignore this? I can’t leave them like this!” I shouted, throwing my arms out to encompass the poor living conditions. “This isn’t a home and they aren’t safe here.”

“They made the choice to leave the Towers. They have to accept their fate,” he said coldly.

“I know you’re not this much of a bastard. You can’t be.”

Gideon ground his teeth together, barely keeping his anger in check at the veiled mention of his hidden wife and child. “It is because of my situation that I am a bastard. I have to protect them first. With chaos threatening to consume the Towers, I think the kids’ problem is the least of our concerns.”

“I can take care of the Towers, but I need to try to settle things here first,” I said softly. If things didn’t go well with Reave and the council, I was afraid that the Towers weren’t going to give me a second chance to help these kids.

“You know?” His voice was so soft and haunted that I almost looked around for a ghost passing through the room. “You know the person . . .” For a second time that morning, Gideon gripped my shirt and slammed me against the wall. The air crackled with barely controlled energy, but I did nothing to defend myself. Terror held sway over Gideon’s mind. “Give me the bastard, Gage!”

“I can’t. Listen, if you or someone else turns him in, it’s not going to stop them from coming after me. They realize that I am a potential threat. I have to remove that thought from their minds, and to do that I have to be the one to take him to the council.”

Gideon released me and stepped back. “You want to make a deal?”

“I’m going to try.” My heart was pounding in my chest like a thing gone mad. Gideon was dangerous, and it wasn’t because he was a powerful warlock. It was because he knew me, knew what I was capable of. He had spent years watching over me. The only advantage I had over the other warlocks and witches I had fought was that they always underestimated me. Gideon wouldn’t make that mistake, and I wouldn’t have a chance in hell against him.

All the energy drained out of the room, as well as poured out of Gideon. The man’s large, narrow shoulders slumped and he almost seemed to sway on his feet as a look of hopelessness crossed his face. He knew I could bring the culprit before the Towers. He wasn’t expecting me to survive the encounter. I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t have high hopes myself.

Taking him by the shoulders, I gently turned him around and ushered him to the chair I had vacated minutes ago. Étienne returned to his seat to watch both me and Gideon.

“A favor, Gideon?” The warlock arched one eyebrow at me, looking skeptical, and I smiled. I couldn’t blame him. He’d already done a lot of favors for