Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,76
I started to walk to the parking lot and Trixie’s car. Behind me, I heard the large man whisper a relieved thanks. I started to raise my hand to wave off his thanks, but immediately dropped it to my side. In this world, when a warlock waves his hand, everyone shits their drawers in fear of the spell. This guy had been through enough for one day.
I was sick to my stomach. It wasn’t bad enough that I had killed another creature, but I had scared the crap out of another person when he had done nothing more than happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. To make it all the more sickening, I wasn’t sure if he was thanking me for killing a warlock or for not killing him. How much longer could the world survive living on this edge of fear?
Stepping onto the sidewalk, I walked into the nearby grass, crossing to where the woods started. With a couple whispered words, I waved my hands as if scooping up air. Seconds later, water bubbled up. It drifted into the air until it collected into an orb about the size of a bowling ball and hovered about waist-high. I dipped my hands into the water, rubbing them together to wash away Billy’s blood. I shouldn’t have been performing magic, but after being forced to fight Billy with magic, I didn’t care if I was being watched by Gideon. I needed to find Trixie, to hold her, but I wasn’t going to search for her with another man’s blood on my hands.
Lifting my clean hands from the water, I sent it dripping back to the earth while I wiped them on my jeans.
“That’s a pretty neat trick,” Trixie said.
My head popped up, searching the area until she stepped out from behind a large tree. I sighed with relief, my shoulders slumping. I was grateful that she had run, but I’d known down in my bones that she wouldn’t go far.
“I’ve tried it with dishes, but I get water everywhere,” I said, forcing a smile onto my face. My first instinct was to run across the remaining few yards that separated us and pull her against me, but I forced my legs to remain locked in place. I needed her to come to me. Every time this shit happened, every time she was faced with violent evidence of my past, I expected her to reject me, to run screaming in the opposite direction, because it was the smart thing to do. She hadn’t . . . yet.
Trixie walked toward me, carefully picking her way over fallen limbs and brush to reach the edge of the trees. My hands were fisted at my sides and my teeth were clenched in the effort to hold still.
“Are you all right? Did he hurt you?” she asked, stopping just out of arm’s reach.
“I’m fine. Not a scratch. You?”
She nodded. “Fine.” But when she looked up at me, I could see the tears in her eyes. My willpower crumbled. I took a step forward and roughly jerked her into my arms while she wrapped hers around my neck, pulling my face down to her shoulder. A shuddering breath racked her body as she tightened her hold on me.
“I was so scared,” she said in a broken voice. “I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t help you. He could have—”
“I’m safe. We’re both safe. He’s dead and we’re safe,” I kept repeating, waiting for the reassurance to sink into both our brains.
“This has been the worst day ever,” she said, wiping away her tears.
“Definitely.”
“But I don’t understand. What elf are they searching for?” Trixie asked, pulling away so that she could look up into my eyes.
Reaching up, I cupped her cheek with my right hand, wiping away a stray tear with my thumb. “We should get going. The cops are going to be here soon and I’d rather not have to answer too many questions.”
“No,” Trixie said sharply as she stepped away from me. “You’re not evading this. This had to do with what you warned Arianna about. Why do they suspect elves of threatening them?”
My right hand fell back to my side while fear tightened in my stomach. She was right, but I was afraid to utter the words, afraid of her reaction, but if I couldn’t trust her, then I had no one in this world. “It appears that a group has managed to locate the Ivory Towers,” I said