Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,87

information to,” I demanded, taking a step toward the dark elf.

“Information? What information?” he replied with a grin.

“The locations of the Towers. How many do you know?” I didn’t care that the trolls and ogres in the area could probably hear me. I would take them all out, destroy the entire building if I had to in hopes of protecting the people of Low Town. And to do that, I had to stop the information that Reave was trying to traffic.

The dark elf’s voice was low and cold when he spoke. “All of them. All seven.”

I kept my face blank, but inside I breathed a sigh of relief. He was still missing one. Unfortunately, knowledge of even one Tower location was one too many.

With a wave of my hand, I shoved some raw energy at Reave, pushing him across the floor until his back was pressed against a support beam in the middle of the warehouse. His arms were pinned to his sides. Gritting his teeth, he struggled against the spell that held him captive, but he was trapped as long as I could concentrate on holding him to the beam.

“Who are the people trying to buy the information?” I asked again.

“And why should I tell you?”

“Because this has to end. These people trying to directly assault the Towers need to be stopped before they kill us all in another war.”

“You’re right. This does have to end, but it’s the Towers that need to fall. The people of this world won’t continue to bow to their whims. We’re done,” he said with a low growl.

“I understand your frustration and hatred, but—”

“You understand?” Reave tipped his head back and laughed, the horrible and slightly mad sound echoing through the large room. “You understand nothing. You’re one of them. You’re only trying to protect your own interests in hopes that they’ll let you into their exclusive club again.”

“Not if I can help it.” I reached back with my right fist and plowed it into his face, hitting him across the cheekbone and snapping his head back so that it bonged off the metal support beam. “Tell me their names!”

“No,” Reave grunted. “The Towers need to be stopped.”

I fisted my hand again to hit him but didn’t. Beating Reave senseless wasn’t going to get the information out of him and I wasn’t skilled enough with the kind of enchantment spells I would need to go digging around in his brain for the information. He needed to be handed over to the Towers so that they could pry out the information and stop the chaos that was swirling around the world.

“Fine,” I said, dropping my hand back to my side. Reave watched me through narrowed eyes, waiting for me to attack again. “You’re the only one who knows all the locations. The information has been contained. I’ll hand you over to the Towers. They’ll kill you and stop hurting the rest of the world in an effort to protect themselves.”

The Svartálfar gave a low chuckle that made my skin crawl. I took a step back, glaring at him, as his laughing ground to a halt. “That’s where you’re wrong, warlock.”

“What are you talking about?”

“After the destruction of Indianapolis, I had a feeling that you’d come knocking on my door and I needed a little insurance.” Reave paused and licked his lips as he watched me like I was a bug under a magnifying glass. I was hardly breathing, waiting to find out who else he had blessed with this damning information, but I was afraid that I already knew. “Dear Robert has been such a valuable employee and he has such a hatred for the Towers that I knew he’d want to help. So I pulled him aside and helped him memorize each location. Now he’ll spit out the information to anyone who asks and he won’t be able to stop himself.”

I sucked in a harsh breath as I stumbled a step backward. That was where my brother had disappeared yesterday. It wasn’t about getting a change of clothes. He was checking in with Reave.

I cursed, suddenly sick to my stomach. If I took Reave to the Towers now, they would pull loose the information on Robert as well. They would demand his life along with Reave’s. My mind scrambled, trying to find a way to hand over Reave without trapping Robert as well but I couldn’t think of anything. If I killed Reave myself, I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to convince