Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,155

he will settle.”

“A very pretty attempt at protection,” Henry Fox commented, sounding bored, but I knew better. His mind was already turning over the spells that he could use to track down Robert. It would take time, but he could do it.

I grinned at him, looking sharklike myself. “I also gave him insurance.” Fox’s satisfied look crumpled to a frown and even the dandy seemed to be paying closer attention now. “He has the coordinates tattooed on his body in code, though not currently visible to the naked eye. However, if he should die unexpectedly and there is even a hint of magic surrounding him at the time, not only will the tattooed coordinates appear on his body, but they will also appear on ten different people every day for the next ten years. And should they die in a similar manner, the spread will be amplified. There will be no stopping the spread of information if he is harmed. My brother will not be hunted.”

The conversation in the chamber rose to a deafening roar as the gathered mass realized that the council had been outmaneuvered. No one did such a thing, and certainly not some rogue who had turned his back on the Towers. It took several minutes of pounding on the floor and few shouted threats to get the room back under control.

If I wasn’t looking at my own death sentence, I would applaud your efforts, Gideon whispered telepathically. Surprisingly, he didn’t sound angry. I was hoping that it was because he understood why I did what I did, and maybe knew he would have done the same thing to protect his family.

“Powell,” the black witch said on a sigh when the silence had returned. She was frowning, looking as if she had aged ten years since I had entered the chamber. She probably wanted to smack me, and I couldn’t blame her. “You’re a devious bastard, which only makes it seem fitting that you wound up with Thorn since he was a devious bastard as well. Through your actions, you’ve handed yourself to us on a silver platter. You’ve broken the agreement not to use magic beyond self-defense, and yet I can’t shake the feeling that you’ve still got one more card to play. Shall we get on with it?”

It was a struggle not to grin at her, but I managed, keeping my face empty. A wistful thought wandered through my brain: if she had been my mentor when I came to the Towers, I might have stuck around a little longer.

“You need me,” I said, shoving my hands into the front pockets of my battered jeans.

Laughter exploded throughout the room, which helped to ease some of the growing tension, but it crept back into the room as everyone slowly realized that I was completely serious. Seats creaked as people nervously shifted while the council members frowned.

“The information leak should have impressed upon you that the Towers are no longer in tune with the events occurring in the rest of the world,” I continued when silence had returned. “The people of the world have gotten better at hiding their secrets from you because time has taught them your tricks. They fear you, that will never change, but they’ve found new ways to work around you. Reave’s accumulation of information couldn’t have happened overnight; it required the passage of weeks if not years. Yet the Towers didn’t discover it until he had all the locations. Simply put, you’re dangerously out of touch.”

To my surprise, none of the orbs glowed red. Instead, faces turned red and some members shifted in their seats. They were uncomfortable. I wasn’t telling them anything they hadn’t already realized and had begun to worry about.

“We don’t need you, traitor.” The pregnant-looking warlock sneered, but he gave no other argument because he had none.

“In fear, members of the Towers destroyed an entire city to kill one person when it would have been more effective to have killed him quietly and secretly without arousing the suspicions of the world,” I said, careful not to blame the destruction of Indianapolis on the council. “Now the world is wary. People have scattered like cockroaches with the light flipped on. They’ll be harder to find, harder to kill.” I smiled, letting an evil glint enter my expression. “You need me living among them, sifting through the rumors to protect the safety of the Towers.”

“Why do you wish to protect the Towers?” the dandy asked. The mocking look had been