pit of my stomach. He’d love to see the council wiped out so that he could place himself on a throne to lord over the entire world.
“There are plenty in the Towers like Courtland,” Gideon conceded with a shake of his head. “I don’t see how using Death Magic would help him achieve his goal. There are easier ways to amass power.”
“But everyone in the Towers knows about them,” I countered. “It would be a lot harder to fight him if we don’t understand what he’s using. Besides, if this magic can raise Lilith to this world, she might have promised him something that he couldn’t walk away from.”
Gideon paced back and forth in front of the spell, tapping his wand against his jaw. “That is a frightening idea, but I don’t think we should limit our search to just the Towers.”
“Then who could be doing this? I mean, Death Magic isn’t common, so it’s likely that it has to be someone who has been around long enough to have seen it performed or at least hear about it. Right?”
“Yes, making it one of the long-lived races,” Gideon agreed.
I glared at him and got to my feet. “I hope you’re not about to point a finger in the direction of the elves. They’ve been through enough because of the Towers and this kind of thing isn’t their way.”
“They have been through a lot, which would give them an excellent reason to strike back at the Towers. Raise Lilith, and they’d have all the firepower they need to strike back at the Towers.”
“Except that this isn’t their way,” I argued, pointing at the words that seemed to radiate evil.
“True.” Gideon frowned and made an exasperated sound. “Well, except for the dark elves. There isn’t much that I would put past them.”
“True, but since Gaia’s gift, I think all the elves are more focused on increasing their numbers the old-fashioned way.”
“Then what are we left with?”
“There are others out there that could remember it, but I don’t know who would take this ugly path,” I said, flopping back in the chair.
“We can’t pursue this line of thinking anyway,” Gideon said with disgust. He stood with his fists balled at his sides, facing the writing. It was like he thought he could pull out the killer’s secrets if he could just intimidate the writing enough. “What if we figure out a race or two that could be capable of this? What then? Tell the council so the Towers can launch another genocidal purge like what happened to the dragons, unicorns, and too many other races to count? We can’t allow that, not when I’m sure that this is only one person acting.”
“I agree, but we haven’t been able to find a thing from these sites that would identify the killer. We don’t know who he is and we are only guessing that his goal is to free Lilith. And he’s been killing kids as he works his way north,” I listed, anger increasing in my voice with every word. To say I was frustrated would be an understatement. It felt like I was wasting time chasing after a guy I couldn’t anticipate while another killer was running loose in Low Town . . .
“Oh fuck,” I gasped as the thought finally clicked into place. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I flew to my feet, my hands clenched in my hair as my brain attempted to sort through the newest horror to dawn on me.
“What?”
“He’s heading to Low Town,” I whispered.
“How can you be sure?”
“The serial killer in Low Town. She’s killed at least two pregnant women. They were in their final months of pregnancy and the babies died as well.”
“Oh shit,” Gideon said in a low voice.
“I don’t think she knows about the Death Magic user, but the killings in Low Town have been making the national news because of the victims. This killer has to have heard about them,” I said, pointing at the wall covered in spell notes. “What if he’s making his way north to Low Town so he can meet with her? What kind of power is he going to stir up if these two meet up?”
“We need to keep these two apart, Gage,” Gideon said with a frightening urgency.
“No shit, Sherlock! But how the hell are we going to manage that if we can’t catch this guy?” I snapped.
“I guess you just need to catch the female.”
I nearly smashed my fist into his face. If it was that fucking easy,