Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,57

in peace with the rest of the world. It had been his recent death that created the opening on the council.

“I’m sorry if you feel that you were used,” Gideon said stiffly. “We were never sure where your interests lie. I mentioned to Gage that you were in the area, and was pleased when he gravitated toward you on occasion as it gave me a chance to keep him abreast of changes.”

Sofie gave a shrug of her small shoulders. “I didn’t mind. I appreciated the visits from both of you and the information. I doubt that I’d agree with everything that your group believes, but I do agree with Gage’s sentiment. Things need to change. I watched the Great War and the growing pile of dead bodies. I haven’t the stomach to do it again.” She looked up at me. Her expression was unreadable as a cat’s, but I had a feeling that she was sad. “But for anything to change, the first thing you have to do is survive.”

I waved one hand at her and paced a small distance away. I was getting tired of this you-have-to-stay-alive mentality. I had to do more, but I didn’t know what. As it was, I had to find a way to help Trixie settle things with the Summer Court, get Bronx free of Reave, and extricate Robert from the mess he was tangled in before the damn dark elf got us all killed. There was no time to lead a fucking revolution against the Towers . . . and maybe that was the point.

“Fine. I stay alive,” I said under my breath. “I’ve got enough to keep me busy for now. I’ll leave the rest of the world to you.”

“Staying alive is going to be harder than you might think,” Gideon warned, drawing my gaze back to him. He drew in a heavy breath and stared at the table in front of him.

“What? You’ve been removed as my guardian? A new warden has been assigned?”

“Not yet. During the last meeting, your name came up a few times. There are some who are afraid that you could prove to be a source of information since you’ve defected.”

I threw my hands up in disbelief. “They’re thinking of this now? I’ve been out for roughly ten years.”

“Some have voiced it before but I think they had trouble accepting the idea that you’d be disloyal to your own people. I guess some believed that you only wanted to get away from Simon, not the Towers. They thought you were still one of us.”

A horrible sinking feeling filled my body so that it was like my heart was pumping sludge through my veins. “Someone thinks I have something to do with the information leak?”

“No, not this one. The spotlight is firmly on the elves. But I think they are now realizing that you’re a risk. You and the other runaways.”

“That was the reason for the hit squad on my doorstep?” I shook my head and then paced back to where he sat. “Someone found out that I was in contact with Sofie. I’m sure she never particularly hid where she was, so when she was located, they followed in hopes of locating me.”

“Gage—” Sofie started, but I held up my hand.

“Don’t, Sof. You didn’t know and it doesn’t matter. If they want to find me, they will. I’m sorry that you got hurt in the process.”

“Speaking of that, unless Gideon has something else to reveal, I’m going to jump into your shower. I never was a fan of the taste of my own blood.”

I kept my mouth shut on that one. It sounded too much like she might not mind the taste of someone else’s blood. Sofie might be a nice witch, but she was still a witch and that left the door open for all kinds of weird shit.

“Nothing much else.” Gideon sighed as he relaxed slightly on the sofa. “They’re searching for a sign of the elf that helped this resistance group. Their search is staying close to Oklahoma City, but it’s branching out. No other cities are on the chopping block, but that could change in an instant. For now, they’ve decided to take out the Internet.”

“For Oklahoma?”

“For the world.”

“What?” I cried. “That’s going to—”

“People will survive,” Gideon said a bit irritably. “They lived centuries without it. They can go a little while without checking e-mail. We can’t track digital transmissions with magic as easily as we can trace paper and analog trails. Taking