Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,136

ready to take him apart.

“I know, but you need to get a grip. You’ve got enough magic gathered to kill us all.” I rubbed my sore jaw, staring at him through narrowed eyes as his words slowly sank in. “Pull it together, for the kids.”

“The witch?” I asked, trying to breathe around the fury licking at my brain. My tight grip on the magic energy in the air started to loosen. The charge slackened and the air grew less dense as I packed my emotions away in a box in the back of my mind.

“Dead,” Gideon replied, motioning toward the bloody heap in the middle of the street. “You okay?”

I nodded, looking anywhere but at him. Standing in the middle of the street on that early morning, I understood for the first time why the Towers forbid warlocks and witches from marrying and having children. It wasn’t because they were afraid of them being distracted from their studies or some elitist idea of sullying themselves. It was simply too dangerous for us to form emotional attachments. We were brought to the Towers to learn control, but in a moment of rage and pain, all that control was thrown out the window and we became a deadly force of nature.

I couldn’t bear the idea of a child being killed by a warlock, especially a child I knew and respected. Yet standing there, struggling to bury the horror, I had a feeling that if it had been Trixie or Bronx instead of Alice, Gideon would not have been able to stop me without killing me.

“How’d they find us?” I asked, trying to push my thoughts to more important matters.

“They said something about blood.”

My head snapped up to look at Gideon. “Mine? I thought I—”

“No, one of the dead warlocks guarding you,” he said, cutting me off. “I think one of the kids stepped in the blood and tracked it here. They followed the trail.”

I cursed in a low voice, squeezing my eyes shut. I hadn’t thought of that. I should have thought of that. Should have thought of some protection spells to hide the kids better. Should have done something . . . more.

Turning, we walked over to where the kids were standing in a small semicircle. Paola was pressed against Étienne, softly sobbing, while Tony stood on the other side of his friend as silent tears slid down his dark brown cheeks. James was on his knees beside his sister, holding her hand in both of his, staring blindly. He wasn’t crying, but it would come as the numbness wore off.

As we drew close, Étienne glared at us and raised his wand. “He led them to us.” Paola raised a haunted expression to me, filled with fear that more fighting and dying would come. Tony looked as if he was about to shatter before my eyes, his mind unable to accept that I might have betrayed him through Gideon.

“No!” I said sharply as I stepped in front of Gideon. “They followed the blood on the baseball bat.” I wasn’t sure if that was it, but I didn’t want to risk any of them looking at their shoes, wondering if they had brought the attackers and Alice’s death.

Étienne’s face twisted in pain and confusion as he turned over the idea. “But—”

“Gideon risked his life to protect you. He risked his family to protect you. He didn’t betray us.”

The anger drained from their expressions to be replaced with pain. I stepped over and gently grabbed Paola’s elbow, pulling her away from Étienne. She looked at me with wide, sad eyes. “I need you to help James. Please.”

She nodded woodenly and moved over to the little boy’s side. Very carefully, she pulled him away from his dead sister and into her arms. He stood with his face buried in her side, his breathing growing heavy as the first sobs started to hit him.

Gideon swept in and knelt where James had been, spreading his black cloak on the ground. He gathered up the girl and lovingly laid her on the material. Folding her arms on her stomach, he wrapped her up in the cloak. I looked away when I saw the tears streaking down his pale cheeks, knowing he was thinking of his own daughter.

Turning my attention to Étienne, I cleared my throat so I could speak past the lump. “We need to get out of here. Do you know of another safe place to hide?”

“Yes.”

“Go inside now. Get everything you need and then leave