Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,144
It hovered high so my night vision wasn’t destroyed, but cast enough light to keep me from walking off the edge of a cliff. “Yeah, I used to camp here. We’re in Red River Gorge, but the dark elves aren’t supposed to be here. This is part of a national park. The government set up massive swaths of land for the fey to live undisturbed, but they aren’t supposed to be living in the parks.”
Duff’s chuckle was soft, as if he was afraid of drawing attention to us. “The elves go where the earth calls. The boundaries of the government are just lines on a piece of paper. If the elves choose to hide in the forest, do you think anyone can find them to evict them from the land?”
A sigh slipped from me, knowing he was right, but it made me feel uneasy knowing how many times I had come camping down here alone. Red River Gorge was part of Daniel Boone National Park, and was lined with some of the best hiking trails I had ever found. The sandstone that filled the park had been worn away over thousands of years to leave dozens of amazing formations such as natural bridges. I had wandered down most of the trails, and yet I found something new and beautiful on each trip. Angel Windows was a favorite formation of mine. I always tried to visit it as well as Princess Arch and Rock Bridge when I was in the park.
The only problem with Red River Gorge was that it was not a place you wanted to walk through in the dark. The entire park was a series of valleys and peaks. If you weren’t one hundred percent sure that you were in a valley, there was a very good chance that you were going to walk off the end of a cliff and fall down into a steep ravine. Every year, several people died in the park from falls. I was hoping not to be one of them as I picked along the narrow path that led to the main road.
As we came to flatter ground, Duff flew off my shoulder and zipped up ahead of me. Slipping past the reaches of my meager light, he disappeared into the trees as if he were made of them. I was hoping that he was going to scout out ahead and get our bearings before we were faced with the Svartálfar. I wasn’t worried about him betraying me to Reave, simply because the bastard had attempted to kill his friend for her organs. As a warlock, I wasn’t much of an improvement, but at least I hadn’t tried to kill the pixie. That had to put a point or two in my favor.
The darkness eased back as I stepped into a gravel parking lot at the head of the trail. Duff darted back to me, keeping a wide distance from the glowing orb.
“He’s where I last saw him. It’s another rock formation, like the opening of a cave at the top of a steep rise. I don’t know the human name for the place. Gage, why must humans name everything?”
A small smile lifted one corner of my mouth. “I don’t know. Maybe it gives them a sense of ownership.”
He gave a little snort as he grabbed his tail and twisted it between his two hands. “You said ‘them.’ Aren’t you human?”
His question made me stop. I hadn’t even noticed my choice of words. When I had lived in the Ivory Tower, Simon had taught me that I was no longer human, but after I left, I felt sure that he was wrong. I wasn’t so sure anymore. Maybe it was all the magic I had been using lately, the power coursing through my body, or even the echo of memories from Gaia’s garden, but I didn’t feel as if I belonged to that race any longer.
“I don’t think so,” I whispered. “I think it’s the same way that a vampire or lycanthrope is no longer human. They may have started out human, but in the end, they’re not.”
“Does that make you sad?”
I shrugged. My sense of identity was the least of my concerns. “It is what it is. Was Reave alone at this cave?” I abruptly changed the subject back to the reason I was standing in the middle of a gravel parking lot in Red River Gorge during the blackest part of the night. I didn’t want to think about my