Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,44

radio immediately and call him if you needed anything.”

I stared at Trixie for a second, my face twisting in confusion. “Is everything okay at the shop?”

“I guess so. He didn’t say.”

I started walking around my SUV to the driver’s side. “Did he sound like he’d been drinking?”

“Oh, come on! You know better.”

I shrugged before pulling open my door. “Yeah, but Bronx isn’t usually this cryptic.”

I let it drop as we settled into the car. Slipping the key into the ignition, I only turned it enough to get the radio on. I had a sick feeling that I didn’t want to be driving yet.

“What channel?” I asked, reaching for the tuner. I think Trixie was going to tell me that Bronx didn’t say. She opened her mouth, but the words never came out, as they were stopped in her throat by the announcement coming across the radio. Bronx hadn’t needed to give a station—the news hitting the airwaves was on all stations.

. . . skies are filled with smoke and the flames can be seen for several miles away from where the city had been. As far as we know, there was no warning that this strike was coming and no explanation has been released since the strike. The president has sent both the National Guard and members from all branches of the armed forces to do rescue and reconnaissance. While there are no official news reports coming out of the city, it is believed that every living creature within the confines of the Interstate 465 loop has been destroyed by members of the Ivory Towers. Our prayers and thoughts go out to everyone who had family living within the confines of Indianapolis.

9

OH, SHIT! THEY KNOW.

The words kept ringing through my head while the radio announcer’s voice became a dull buzz in the background. My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles ached and turned white. Muscles were rigid throughout my whole body while air was pulled into my lungs in sharp, harsh gasps. All those people . . . dead. Thousands gone in a flash of fire and destruction that I was sure had completely leveled the city and surrounding area.

The witches and the warlocks had struck, and I knew it had to be because they suspected that someone knew the Tower locations. I don’t know how they found out, but Low Town was no longer safe. Gideon’s warning that the situation was bad in the Towers only made this tragedy worse. They were going to be quicker to act, quicker to strike out to protect themselves as their panic increased.

I looked over at Trixie as she sat silently beside me, staring straight ahead. One trembling hand was pressed to her parted lips while tears traced down her pale cheeks. She looked over at me, horror filling her wide eyes.

“Why?” she whispered, her voice shattered. “Why would they do such a thing? We’ve done nothing to antagonize them.”

“I . . . I’m not sure,” I replied. I had a guess, but I couldn’t be sure. I needed to talk to Gideon. And I needed to beat the shit out of Reave.

Reaching for the key in the ignition, I hesitated. Where was I going to take her? If this was about the Tower locations, Low Town wasn’t safe any longer. Hell, I was surprised they hadn’t attacked the city already because of their animosity toward me.

Sadly, the first safe place I could think of was the Summer Court. The Towers weren’t going after the elves and they stayed out of the cities for the most part. But I couldn’t bring myself to make the suggestion. Even if I could convince Trixie to go, she’d be alive but miserable as the consort to the king. That wasn’t a life.

Sending Trixie off to the Summer Court might save her life, but what about Bronx and Sofie and the thousands of other people that called Low Town home? What about my parents? The only way to save Trixie and everyone else in Low Town was to stop the Ivory Towers from striking here. I didn’t have a clue how to do that without risking the life of my brother as well.

Taking a deep breath, I grasped the key and turned it, starting the engine. I wasn’t going to solve anything sitting in the car, staring blankly through the windshield. The first thing I needed to do was talk to Gideon and find out if this had to do with the information that