Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,77
slowly. Her mouth dropped open and her breathing became heavy. “They chased one of the surviving members involved to Indianapolis but lost him. They were afraid that he would tell others before they could find him, so they destroyed the city.”
“But I don’t understand. Was he an elf?”
I shook my head. “They believe it was an elf who found the Towers, but they never saw him.”
“What?” she cried. Her beautiful features twisted in anger as she paced away from me into the woods and then back again. “This is ridiculous! If they never saw the person, how the hell do they know he’s an elf? They’re using this as an excuse to continue to hunt my people.”
“Trixie, the elves are known to be the best at working glamour and that’s what’s hiding the Towers. It makes sense. Without being a trained witch or warlock, elves are among the few races that could see through the glamour.”
She drew close to me, rising up on tiptoes so she could glare at me in the eye. “How can you defend them?”
“It’s logical,” I snapped. “Logical and true.”
Trixie gasped, jerking away from me as if I’d hit her. She stared at me through narrowed eyes before they widened with an idea. “You know,” she whispered. “You know who found the Towers!”
“I have a strong idea, yes, and he’s an elf. Technically, a dark elf, but the Ivory Towers don’t see much difference between the Summer Court, Winter Court, and the Svartálfar. If they don’t have their hands on the actual culprit, then they’re going to start wiping out elves until they’re all gone so they don’t have to worry about this problem again.”
“What are you going to do?” Her tone had softened as the anger seemed to seep out of her.
My shoulders slumped and I shoved one hand through my hair. “Find him. Either kill him or hand him over to the Towers in hopes of preventing anyone else from finding out what he knows.”
“What?” She shook her head as she grabbed my arm. “You can’t do that. You have to let him tell others. Tell the world leaders. Let everyone know where the Towers are.”
“And then what?” I shouted, losing my grip on my temper as fear burned up the last of my restraint. “Let the world march on the Towers? Send their armies and bombs rushing toward the Towers? The only thing that will happen is that they will fail. All the soldiers will die and not a Tower will be touched by a bomb. And when the dust settles, the warlocks and the witches will come out of the Towers and then the real carnage will begin. The war that follows will put the Great War to shame.”
Trixie shook her head in denial. She released my arm but I grabbed her wrist, holding her in place. “Do you know how many it took to destroy Indianapolis?”
“Gage . . .” she started in a strangled voice, but I didn’t let her off the hook. I couldn’t let her hold on to this thought of taking on the Towers with force.
“I know the spell. Not well enough to do it myself, but I know it. It would have taken no more than six warlocks and witches to destroy the city. Six! There are hundreds of witches and warlocks around the world. Do you think the armies of the world honestly stand a chance? Hell, the Towers wouldn’t have allowed the countries to build them if they thought the countries could win in a fight against them.”
Tears slipped down her face and she stopped trying to pull free of my grasp. “Then what are we supposed to do? We can’t continue like this.”
“I know,” I whispered, releasing her wrist. She stepped back and I sighed. “Things need to change, but this way, taking on the Towers with force, isn’t the way. It will only make things worse. If I thought we had a chance, I would have blasted the locations of all the Towers out to the world years ago.”
“You know?”
I nodded. “I don’t think it occurred to any of them until recently that I might tell someone. They knew I didn’t like them, but I don’t think they thought I was capable of betrayal like that. They don’t think one of their own kind would do such a thing, and despite my separation, they still consider me one of them.”