Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,89

This trip had been a disaster. Reave had fled and I had no idea if he was even going to remain in the area now. Robert had the information, making him a massive target. I was hoping my brother thought he still needed me. Strangling Reave sounded so good, but a living Reave with brain intact was the only thing that was going to stop the Towers. But now that seemed impossible since I didn’t have a clue as to where he had gone.

As I stood there, trying to pull together the energy to move, I heard a strange, leathery, flapping noise. Wincing, I pushed back to my feet and twisted around, looking for the source of the noise. I didn’t think it was Reave—the bastard had to be at the edge of town by now—and it wasn’t the sort of noise that would come from an ogre. As the sound got closer, I looked up to see something I had never expected to see within the confines of Low Town.

The creature pulled its batlike wings in, swooped down toward me, and then threw its wings back out again so that it stopped barely a foot from my face. I lurched away, slamming my back into my SUV. The hobgoblin cackled with mischievous glee, his little face split with a wide grin while his almond-shaped black eyes flashed at me. Collapsing his wings a second time to his back, the hobgoblin dropped to the ground and landed lightly on all four limbs like a cat.

He quickly scurried over and climbed up the front of the car until he was seated on the hood. Hobgoblins were strange little fey creatures that were never seen within the city limits, as they preferred deep, undisturbed woods. This one was the first one I had seen up close. I had caught a glimpse of a couple over the years while camping and that was enough to give me nightmares. While prone to playing silly pranks when the mood hit them, they were rarely dangerous.

It was their appearance that I found frightening. Between their large leathery wings, the small horns on their heads, enormous pointed ears, and the pumpkin-orange scaly skin, they looked like demons escaped from an underworld amusement park. This one sat on the end of my hood, his legs crossed in front of him while his long, pointed tail idly swung from side to side.

“You Gage?” the hobgoblin asked. His voice was low and earnest as he leaned forward a bit.

“Yeah.” The word came out slowly as I tensed, waiting for something new to attack me. It had been one of those days when someone was always waiting around the corner to remove my head or turn me into a magpie.

The hobgoblin tipped backward, his little feet kicking up in the air as he laughed and clapped his hands. “Ha ha! I told her I would find you! She had her doubts, but I knew I could!”

“Who? The queen?” The queen of the Summer Court was the only person I could think of who might have dealings with a hobgoblin, let alone had the ability to get them to complete a task. According to most textbooks, they didn’t much care to obey anyone.

He instantly stopped laughing, but was still smiling broadly at me. “Oh, no.” He then said something in this high, squeaky voice, but I shook my head, not understanding. “Her,” he said, and then the two-foot-high hobgoblin disappeared and was replaced by a three-inch-tall violet pixie hovering in the air as her little dragonfly wings beat a mile a minute. A second later, the pixie was gone and the hobgoblin was back to sitting on the hood of my car.

“Her? The pixie?” I asked, and he nodded. “She was at that fix house, right?”

“Yes, she said you rescued her. Saved her life.”

“Okay, but why did you need to find me?” The little devil wasn’t making any sense, but he seemed pleased with himself over something.

“She was worried over you. She thought you’d be in trouble with that Svartálfar. I told her that I’d find you, keep an eye on you.”

“Why?”

“To help her clear her debt with you. She’s a good friend.”

“And you’re doing this out of the kindness of your heart?” I said, looking down at the hobgoblin through narrowed eyes.

The little fey grabbed his long tail in both hands and looked away from me, seeming almost embarrassed. “Well, she said you were a warlock and that you were taking