spell had taken me to the north side of Low Town, but I couldn’t have told you my exact location. Twisting around, I took in the street of two-story brick homes and evergreen shrubs, willing my heart to slow down. It wasn’t my parents’ street. The killer wasn’t close to my family. Relief made me light-headed while my hands shook from something other than the cold. It was enough that I was constantly worried about Trixie. I didn’t need something new to throw on the fire.
Farther down the street, a car rumbled to life, the sound echoing off the buildings before it pulled sharply from the curb and headed away from me. I reached out, sensing the air, but the magical energy didn’t follow the car, so I didn’t think it was possible that the killer was escaping that way. The tang of death was heavy. I was hoping that I had acted quickly enough and he was still here.
Crossing to the sidewalk, I crunched through the frozen snow. The cold bit at my fingers and I fought the urge to shove them into my pockets. I needed my hands free if I suddenly found myself faced with the killer. Without Gideon at my back, I felt like I was at a distinct disadvantage against this insane fucker.
The thickest concentration of the energy was only a few houses down from where I’d arrived. It wasn’t as bad as when Trixie and I were initially hit at Asylum, but it was heavier than either of the times Gideon and I had shown up at the other two locations. My stomach lurched and churned, trying to force out its contents, while my heart hammered in my chest. An aching throb had started in my temples, threatening to split my skull. Whatever this magic was, it didn’t agree with my own magical inclinations and body chemistry.
A ripple of energy slipped down the street from behind me and I jerked around, my feet nearly slipping out from beneath me on a patch of ice. Gideon stood in the middle of the street, his cloak waving around him like a pair of ebony wings. The warlock looked pale in the fading light, probably feeling just as shitty as I did. Prior to the great revelation of this past summer, I had always thought that the warlock spent most of his time in his assigned Tower, but I was coming to the understanding that he actually spent the majority of his time here in Low Town to keep a close eye on me as well as to be close to his family.
Gideon took an unsteady step forward, his wand clenched in his left hand while his other hand was open and held out before him as if feeling the waves of energy shifting through the air. It actually took him a few seconds to notice me. At first, I would have been little more than a waver in the air before he pushed the cloaking spell aside to reveal a ghost-like image of myself.
Dropping his hands to his sides, he swiftly closed the distance between us. “You weren’t going to wait for me?” he inquired, looking around at the nearest houses.
“Neither were you,” I pointed out.
The warlock gave a nearly imperceptible shrug of his narrow shoulders. “I was confident that you would catch up.” He paused and looked over at me, frowning. “Though I thought you’d at least have the sense to change clothes.”
I grunted and continued down the block, heading toward the house from where the magic emanated. “I didn’t want to waste the time. We’ve been too close and just missed him.” A large two-story Georgian-style redbrick house with dark evergreen shutters rose up in the middle of the block. The front windows were dark, but dim light glowed from the back of the house, possibly the kitchen, and was leaking down the main hall. “Besides, we’re still in Low Town. Someone could recognize me.”
“If anyone happens to see us together, I promise to knock you around,” Gideon said with a little smirk. “Wouldn’t want to ruin your precious cover.”
“Fuck you,” I growled as I stepped around the smug warlock and walked up to the front of the house. I was just ready to get this done. I knew there was no chance of Trixie and I finishing our discussion until we were both done working for the night, but it would be nice to go back to her with news that at least