Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,99

not how you’re willing to risk Trixie’s life.”

“What are you talking about?” I snarled, balling up my fist at my side.

“If you throw your life away on this trio, who is going to protect your girlfriend? And your brother? And your friends? Does she mean that little to you?”

I shouted, rage pouring through me. I was angry at the Towers, angry at the deaths occurring just yards from me that I could do nothing about, angry that I was so helpless in this horrible world despite all my abilities. I swung my fist at Gideon. The warlock wasn’t quite fast enough and I clipped the edge of his jaw. Pivoting on the balls of my feet, I shifted, throwing my weight behind another swing, but something had changed in his expression. His head was turned away from me and slightly tilted as if he were listening to something. I froze, watching him as my billowing fury deflated.

“They’re gone, aren’t they?” I said numbly.

He nodded and a part of me hated him. He’d pulled me away, hidden me, and then distracted me when I was determined to run to my death.

“You’re going out there,” he said in a low voice, but I think he meant it as a question.

“Yeah.”

“Don’t use magic, even if it is to help them. They won’t see you as a savior. You’ll just be another warlock.”

I turned to look over at him, to tell him to fuck off, but he was already gone. With stomach churning, I walked down the alley and headed down the short block until I came to the street that contained Diamond Dolls. Closing my eyes, I swore softly, hating myself a little.

In less than five minutes, two witches and one warlock had turned the little commercial district into a war zone. The windows in every building had been shattered and most of the buildings were burning. Cars were overturned and a few trees had been uprooted so they could be thrown into storefronts.

Diamond Dolls was split open like a festering wound and was smoldering as whoever remained behind struggled to put out the flames. I briefly thought of Chang, but pushed the thought aside. The old man knew how to take care of himself. There was no way he was ever going to be caught by the Towers.

Bodies littered the area, broken and torn. Blind eyes stared up at the darkening sky while blood spread steadily across the fractured pavement. Old and young. Human and other. The spell weavers had killed indiscriminately, striving to cause as much damage as possible.

Scanning the area, my eyes lit on a little girl in a dirty dress, sitting in the middle of the street next to the dead body of a woman. The child’s face was streaked with tears as her little hand smoothed the hair back from the woman’s face. I started to walk toward her, but I stopped myself after two steps. How could I comfort this child when it was my fault that her mother was now dead? If I had come out to face the killers, would they have stopped? Would most of the victims at least have escaped this brutal death?

Maybe Gideon was right. Dying today would not have fixed anything. It wouldn’t have saved these people. The attack on Low Town was only the start. The warlocks and the witches of the Ivory Towers were going to keep coming, tearing apart the world until they located the person who had breached their defenses. People were going to be violently tortured and killed. Cities were going to be destroyed while others were starved. No one would be left until they had what they wanted.

If I wanted to help the tear-streaked little girl, I had to find Reave and stop him before a new war ripped this world apart.

Emergency vehicles screamed, announcing their approach to the scene. People who could offer more immediate help were coming to put out fires, mend broken bodies, and gather up the dead.

Swallowing back the bile that had risen in my throat, I forced myself to turn back and start walking toward my car. I hadn’t been alive during the Great War, hadn’t witnessed it firsthand, but the destruction of this little block was only a faint glimpse of what was coming. I knew the image of the little girl and her mother was going to haunt me for the rest of my life. Things had to change. If my world was going to survive, things had