"It has come to my attention that the elves have been cursed with a rather nasty spell over the past several decades, long before even the start of the Great War. I'm sure you've noticed."

The king was perfectly still, as if he was made of marble, but there was a tension in that stillness that said I definitely had his attention. There was movement deep in the shadows behind him and I had a feeling that it was Reave, but I couldn't see the figure clearly.

"You've been having trouble bearing children," I continued in an even voice as if I were trying to put him in a trance. "More and more years pa.s.s between the birth of offspring. Your people are dying, going extinct without the need for a long, b.l.o.o.d.y war. The Ivory Towers will wipe all the elves from this world without needing to fight you."

I c.o.c.ked my head to the side as I stared at him, a new thought coming to my mind. "That's why you've risked coming so close to the Summer Court. You're desperate for children, so you've decided what? Steal members from the Summer Court to bear children? That must have been a hard decision, to willingly mix your bloodlines."

"I don't see how we've been left with any other choice." The king's voice was low, but there was a strong undercurrent of anger and hate boiling among his words. Despite the close relation between the three courts, there was no love between them. "As you've already said, great warlock, my people are fading away with no offspring to fill these woods. So, what's your service? You've come to break the curse you set upon my people."

"Unfortunately, because of the nature of the spell, I can't undo it," I admitted with a shrug. "However, I've spoken with someone who can. She's already unraveled the curse and your people are free to repopulate the earth without being forced to sully your bloodline." I was hoping that I was telling the truth. Gaia had said that she would meet with the Summer Court elves today and undo the spell. I was hoping that she could not only fix it in one day, but that she was going to help all the elves, including the dark elves. The only thing that was working in my favor was that the leader of the Svartalfar couldn't immediately prove me a liar.

The king laughed, a cold sound that sc.r.a.ped along my arms and sent chills down my back. "Seeing as you are fixing a mess that your people made, I don't see how I should feel obligated to give you anything."

"My goal was to help the Summer Court. I didn't have to help the Svartalfar, but I have."

"And now you expect payment."

I clenched my teeth. He was right and I felt like s.h.i.t trying to force him into handing over Reave for fixing a curse that his people didn't deserve in the first place. "I'm trying to give you an amicable solution to our problem."

"It appears that you are the only one with a problem here, warlock, seeing as you've so kindly solved ours." He chuckled, but there was nothing happy in that noise. "I'm feeling generous tonight. Leave now and we won't kill you where you . . . float." He finished with a wave of his hand.

"I can't do that," I said with a snarl. I didn't want to kill the dark elves gathered around me, but I'd do it to get to Reave. "I can't leave here without Reave. You hand him over to me now or you will find this valley flooded with warlocks and witches before you can even signal your people to attack me."

"So you've moved from bribery to threats," he said, sounding as if he were bored with the entire conversation.

"It's no threat. Just a statement of fact. I can't leave without him, and if you keep him, you risk the life of every last Svartalfar. The Towers are searching for an elf. They don't yet know the elf they seek is Svartalfar. If I were to tell them, they would kill every dark elf on the planet rather than bother to search out their true target. You know this."

I smiled at the king, a grim, cold thing as he glared at me. My voice dipped a little lower so that I was nearly whispering but everyone in the valley could hear me. "Or did Reave not tell you the true reason for his return to the bosom of his people? Didn't you know that he's the reason Indianapolis was destroyed?"

"Noooo!" The scream echoed throughout the cave before flying free into the night air. A tall, lithe body ran past the king and jumped from the edge of the cliff. There was no time to react as my mind struggled to accept that fact that Reave had thrown himself at me. I noticed the knife clenched in his fist a half second before his body crashed into mine. I grabbed his wrist and arm with both hands to stop him from plunging it into my chest, but I had no way to compensate for his. .h.i.tting me. We flew backward into the darkness, smashing into tree branches as we fell to the earth in a tangle of struggling limbs. Pain exploded across my back as we hit a tree, while more pain slashed across my face as we pa.s.sed branches. We had moved out of the light I had created, so I could no longer see Reave, but I had my hands on him, holding him away from me.

The impact of hitting hard earth and rocks threw us apart. Grinding my teeth against the pain, I rolled to my feet, eyes searching the woods for a sign of the d.a.m.n dark elf. My heart pounded like mad and my breath was coming in shattered gasps. Pain seared through my chest with each inhale, making me think that one or more ribs were broken, but I couldn't worry about it. I wasn't sure if Reave would run or come at me again. He certainly had an advantage in fighting me in the woods, but it would be next to impossible to spot him if he ran.

The wind shifted and I twisted around to see a shadow lunging at me. The knife winked briefly in a shaft of light as he attempted to plunge it in my stomach. I sidestepped the blow, but Reave only turned and slashed the knife through the air. I raised my right hand to block his arm, but I wasn't fast enough. The knife sliced through my wand, sending a ma.s.sive jolt through my body. Breaking your wand sucked in the worst way, but you never wanted to be holding it when it happened. Any energy acc.u.mulated in that little instrument instantly shot back through the wielder.

I dropped the remains of the wand as everything became numb from my fingertips to my right shoulder. With my arm hanging limp at my side, I swung my left fist, hitting Reave on the side of the face with enough force to cause him to stumble past me. The deadweight was throwing me off balance and there was a buzzing in my head that wasn't great for my concentration, but I was keeping a close eye on Reave now that I had him in sight again.

The dark elf turned toward me, knife raised. Everything in me screamed to cast a protective spell, but the jolt from the broken wand felt like it had fried a few circuits in my brain. I was worried that I'd only do more damage if I tried something before the buzzing pa.s.sed, or worse, that nothing would happen.

Reave slashed at me with the knife, pushing me backward until I was pressed against a tree. He lunged again and overextended himself when he missed me and embedded the knife in the tree trunk beside my head. With a grunt, I kicked him in the stomach, sending him wheeling. As he tried to regain his balance, he tripped over a half-buried log and fell into the small clearing blanketed with golden light.

I followed after him into the light. The elf easily rolled to his feet and squared off against me. He didn't look armed, but I wasn't willing to stake my life on it. His black eyes were narrowed at me and spittle was running down his chin. Fear and anger were making him careless. It was the only reason that I was still alive after a hand-to-hand fight with a dark elf.

"Come on, warlock. Kill me," he growled. "Or did you not reach that part in your training?"

"Don't worry. They teach us how to skin a Svartalfar the first day," I said with a mocking smile.

With a guttural cry, he charged me. My right arm was dead to me and my buzzing brain was like a hive of honey bees. I didn't have a lot of options. As he drew close, I dropped into a baseball slide so that my foot slammed into his knees. The dark elf screamed in pain as he was thrown off balance. He flew through the air over me and landed on his face in the rocks and dirt several feet away. Reave rolled until his body crashed into another tree. His moans echoed through the silence. If I had hit him right, at least one knee was now hyperextended, leaving it completely useless. It also looked like he'd broken his nose and maybe an arm from that impact.

A part of me wanted to laugh. I'd spent the past few years studying different forms of martial arts, and it turned out to be my six years of playing interspecies softball that saved my life.

Pushing to my feet with my left hand, I remained in the middle of the circle of light, watching Reave's ragged breathing. With a sigh, I drew in a trickle of energy and was instantly relieved to find that the buzzing steadily dimmed. The magic in my brain had rebalanced itself, so that I felt safe casting spells. Feeling was starting to come back into my right arm, but I didn't welcome it because pain was replacing the numbness.

Lifting my left hand above my head, I sent a quick summon spell out into the ether before turning my full attention to Reave. I cast a second spell that lifted the elf out of the brush and held him above the ground before me. Blood poured down his face from his swollen nose and an array of scratches. His breathing was rough and shallow while his eyes remained unfocused, lost in the grips of severe pain.

Lightning forked and spiderwebbed across the sky, followed by a loud boom of thunder. The elves I could see jerked and stared at the sky, missing the sudden appearance of Gideon at my side. There was a sharp gasp when they noticed him. They shrank back into the shadows. Only the king remained standing in the open at the mouth of the cave.

"You look like h.e.l.l." Gideon's eyes swept over my torn shirt and dirty jeans. He then looked briefly at Reave and gave a shrug. "Well, better than him at least."

"Always a pleasure, Gideon," I said sarcastically, feeling both exhausted and nervous. Step one of my plan was complete: capture Reave. The hard part was coming next: survive a meeting with the council.

"I need you to do me a favor," I said, pulling my thoughts free of my growing fears. "Call an emergency meeting of the council." Gideon didn't move a muscle. I was asking a lot. I was putting his life at risk because he was supposed to be the one policing me. "It's okay. You're taking me . . . with him."

The warlock's eyes darted to Reave, who was starting to sweat despite the chill in the air. "He's the one?"

"Yeah."

For a second, rage filled Gideon's cold, gray eyes but the rest of his face was like stone. He turned those hard eyes on me. "Are you sure?"

He wasn't asking if I was sure Reave was the culprit. He was wondering about my decision to go before the council. I shrugged. "We both know I don't have a choice."

"Do you have your wand on you?"

A sigh escaped me as I looked over my shoulder at the dark woods. I was half tempted to call the broken pieces to me, but there was no point. The magic from the wand had already discharged back into my body. The only thing resting on the forest floor was a pair of broken sticks. "No. No wand."

"Good." Gideon reached over and placed a hand on my shoulder, preparing to teleport both me and Reave to whichever Tower was going to hold the meeting. By now, the information would have come back to Gideon. I could have done it myself, but I was afraid that if I announced that I was coming to the Towers, they'd ambush me and kill me on sight.

"Wait!" I shouted, and stepped away from Gideon while staring up at where the king was watching us. "I'm taking Reave and I will be sure the Towers know he acted alone, but . . ." I frowned, feeling helpless. "Well, it's the Towers we're talking about. If I were you, I'd move my people tonight."

The king nodded, then stepped away from the edge of the cliff and disappeared into the shadows of the cave. He would move his people, disappearing deep into the forestlands of the surrounding area to protect them from any potential retaliation from the Towers. I was praying the council would be content with Reave's life. And potentially mine.

I walked back over to Gideon and nodded. The warlock placed a firm hand on my shoulder, giving it a slight squeeze before the world went dark as we crossed a vast distance in a heartbeat. I said a silent prayer to Lady Luck that she might see me through this nightmare. I was doing the one thing that I swore I would never do. I was willingly walking back into the lion's den after I'd barely escaped with my life the first time. Letting the Svartalfar kill me was starting to sound pretty d.a.m.n good right about now.

29.

THE WIND WAS bitter cold as it swept across the black field, and I wouldn't have been surprised if snowflakes started drifting down from the sky. Based on the fact that it was still night and f.u.c.king cold, I knew we were standing outside the upstate New York Tower. The gleaming white monolith rose up toward the heavens. It should have looked like a beacon of hope to the world, but the world couldn't see this structure because of the thick web of protective spells that stretched around the area. Of course, if the world could see the Tower, they would have viewed it as a giant bony middle finger. They would have been right.

Gideon pointed his wand, his face expressionless as he motioned for me to lead the way through the wood-and-iron-banded door in front of me. A giant could have walked through the ma.s.sive opening without needing to duck his head down. I never understood why they had made it so big since everyone who entered walked on two human feet. I guess it was made to intimidate, but sadly warlocks and witches didn't intimidate easily.

This was my first visit to the New York Tower, but all the Towers looked the same. The exterior was a mix of white marble and pale granite, while the interior halls were covered in red-veined black marble. The individual rooms were customized to the tastes of the inhabiting witch or warlock, ranging from the spartan to the extravagant.

It was after midnight and the halls of the Tower were nearly silent, but then the Towers were rarely ever noisy, as if idle conversation had been forbidden by the council. A few people paused as they pa.s.sed through the halls to stop and stare. Lips curled with disgust at the sight of a beaten and bleeding dark elf, but eyes narrowed speculatively when they spotted me. I doubted anyone would recognize me. Oh, all the people of the Towers knew my name, but few had ever seen me and even fewer knew of my altered appearance.

We moved silently down the hall to a large opening. There was no elevator car as you would expect, just an empty shaft that ran from the top of the tower to several floors below the earth. Without hesitating, I stepped into the emptiness, my feet finding an invisible platform. Gideon and Reave were immediately behind me.

"Council chambers," Gideon said in a strong voice.

The invisible floor fell away and we dropped into the darkness, my stomach instantly becoming swept away. Reave screamed, the horrible sound echoing throughout the shaft, so that everyone within the Tower could hear it. I closed my eyes and clamped my mouth shut, willing myself to trust the magic despite my own desire to scream. The worst had always been when a new apprentice was brought to the Tower. The child's screams could be heard for weeks echoing through the building until the apprentice grew accustomed to this mode of travel.

Just when you were sure you would slam into the earth, breaking every bone in your body, a gentle force surrounded you, slowing your descent so you landed softly on another platform at your desired floor. I opened my eyes to find us on the bottom floor. Torchlight danced along the walls of the narrow hallway that ended in another set of enormous black doors. The walls and floor were black. The wall sconces were black iron. The only color was the flickering flames.

I stepped out of the shaft first with Reave floating just above the ground behind me. Gideon hadn't bothered to heal his knee and kept him in a physical binding spell. There was no reason to heal him so long as he could talk and scream. As we walked down the hall, the doors automatically opened to reveal a room almost as big as the entire Tower was round. When we entered, it was like walking into a wall of noise after pa.s.sing through so many silent halls. A quick glance revealed that all twelve members of the council were present. Only one seat was vacant, but then a new member had yet to be elected following Peter's death. They were all dressed in the cla.s.sic black robes, but in place of their wands were long wooden staves topped with different-colored orbs.

The twelve council members were on a dais so that they could easily look down on the supplicants and accused. Before them was an open floor that was a strange mix of a courtroom floor and an arena for gladiators. At the opposite end of the room were several rows of seats for people to watch the proceedings. To my displeasure, every seat in the place was taken. I had prayed that due to the lateness of the hour, I would come before only the council members, but I had a feeling that because of the high stress caused by recent events, everyone was waiting for news with bated breath.

As we neared the center of the room, one of the council warlocks pounded his staff on the floor twice. A moment later, the double door banged closed, sending a horrible echo through my chest. Please, let those doors open for me again.

"Mr. Powell, this is an unexpected visit," Henry Fox called down to me. I clenched my jaw, fighting the urge to make a snide remark. These a.s.sholes weren't going to make it easy on me, but starting a fight with the council would not help me see daylight again. "And you even dressed for the occasion."

I stood, stiff and sore, staring straight ahead at the cold, black stone wall that made up the front of their dais, refusing to acknowledge Fox's comments. I knew as soon as I said one word to the p.r.i.c.k, he'd bring up the fact that I'd used forbidden magic in a fight that he witnessed-getting both myself and Gideon in trouble. Sure, that f.u.c.king a.s.shole started the fight, but I wasn't sure there were many in the room who would care about this technicality.

"Master Toussaint," one witch on the council started a bit wearily. I nearly looked around to see who she was addressing when it dawned on me that she was talking to Gideon. I knew his last name, but I hadn't heard it used in a long time. "It seems that Mr. Powell has finally given you a reason to bring him before us. It's a shame it couldn't wait for a more agreeable hour."

There was a soft rustle of material behind me, making me think that Gideon had bowed to the council. "I am sorry about the lateness of the hour, but I felt that due to the urgency of our current situation, it would be best if this were handled as soon as possible."

It was a struggle not to roll my eyes. The warlock could be as smooth as silk when he wanted to be, not that he ever wasted it on me. He was diplomatic, with only the faintest touch of lips to a.s.s to keep all the feathers unruffled. It was yet another reason why I couldn't survive in the Towers.

"Really?" another warlock said.

"Yeah, I heard that the Towers were in a bit of a fix," I said, my gaze darting up to the sour faces glaring down at me.

"And how would you know about the concerns of the Towers?" the same warlock demanded, his voice growing stiffer as he straightened in his high-backed wooden chair. You'd think if they were going to be stuck in those chairs for hours on end, they'd make them out of something more comfortable, but then I guess a cushioned recliner didn't look as intimidating.

"Well, having Indianapolis destroyed was kind of a giveaway," I said with a shrug and a grin. "But then, you hear things when you're living among the puny mortals. Things I'm sure you don't want the ma.s.ses to know, but one way or another, those whispers find their way to my ear."

No one spoke for several seconds as the members looked at one another. Their faces were blank, but the buzz of energy in the air grew. A couple orbs at the end of the staves held by the council members glowed, tying a fresh knot in my stomach. The light indicated when a witch or warlock was drawing energy to her- or himself. The council members weren't necessarily starting to cast a spell. High emotions also tended to draw and excite the energy in the air, but a glowing orb was rarely a good sign.

The council chamber was supposed to be a magic-free zone in the hopes that people could speak freely there without the fear of being vaporized. It didn't exactly work out that way, but it was a nice idea. The room was black because it was intimidating, but I had a feeling that its designers had also chosen the color because it didn't immediately reveal spilled blood.

"Why are the problems of the Towers your concern?" a witch asked. It was the same one who had addressed Gideon with such a tired voice. Her black hair was pulled back into a severe bun with a few thick streaks of gray threading through it. Her skin was the color of rich mahogany and she looked as if she'd be pretty if she smiled, but there was something about the lines surrounding her dark eyes that said the witch didn't smile much.

"I guess because I would rather not see the town I'm living in wiped from the map," I said with a little more bite than I had meant to use. Frowning, I walked over to Reave and grabbed a handful of the back of his torn and b.l.o.o.d.y shirt. "Let's cut the c.r.a.p. Someone found out the locations of the Towers. Seven of them. With my usual rotten luck, I tripped over the b.a.s.t.a.r.d who wormed through your glamour spells and I've brought him to you." As I spoke, I gave Reave a little shake. The dark elf snarled at me, trying to twist around so that he could hurt me, but Gideon's binding spell was holding him in place.

"Now, that is extremely generous of you, Mr. Powell," commented a warlock with a heavy dose of sarcasm. Somehow, he managed to lounge in his chair, looking as if he were nine months pregnant and proud of it. He had been at my hearing ten years ago, but I couldn't recall his name. He had been an a.s.shole then too. Funny, that.

"Yes, well, since I've had a few witches and warlocks appear recently looking for my head because of this fiasco, I thought it would be in my best interest to clean up this mess for you."

A little less insulting, if you don't mind, Gideon growled in my head. I'd like to live through this nightmare.

I wanted to telepathically tell Gideon to f.u.c.k off, but I had a feeling that I was being very closely monitored-the council members would know if I was secretly speaking to my warden.

Instead, I clenched my teeth and pushed down my anger. Sure, I was the one being unjustifiably hunted and had a right to be p.i.s.sed, but Gideon's fate was largely tied to my own. If I fell tonight, there was a good chance Gideon would fall as well. Against my better judgment, I was starting to like the a.s.shole and didn't want to be the reason he was roasted.

"I think many who came knocking on your door felt their arrival was justified since you most likely supplied the information about the Towers' locations," Henry Fox said blandly.

I smiled at Fox, but it was little more than a baring of my teeth, like a dog guarding a bone against an unwelcome guest. "I may have not wanted to be a part of your club, Master Fox, but we all know that I wouldn't betray the secrets of the Towers. That would help no one."

Fox grinned back, a cold, evil thing. "I don't think anyone would put betrayal past you following the death of Master Thorn."

"When I left, I retained the right to defend myself against attack. Simon Thorn came hunting for me when he wasn't supposed to know where I was. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d got what he deserved. I struggle to believe you're mourning his death considering that he kicked your magical a.s.s on more than one occasion."

A low wave of noise crashed behind me, a mix of gasps, chuckles, and angry words that rippled through the room. Gideon even swore under his breath and I knew he was longing to punch me, but he held it in. Henry Fox jumped to his feet, the orb on the end of his staff glowing bright red in his rage. Everything in me screamed to gather up some energy for a defensive shield, but I was afraid that if I tried to do this, the council wouldn't look too kindly on it. I had a right to defend myself, but I was already skating on thin ice, no reason to punch through to a frigid death.

"Master Fox!" snapped the black witch, causing his head to jerk around and look down the row to her. The orb on her staff glowed an icy, bluish white. Her slender body was extremely rigid as she stared down at him. "Sit," she said with a hiss that silenced everyone in the chamber. Henry glared at her for several seconds before resuming his seat. The red glow dimmed at the end of his staff, but didn't completely fade.

I won't do that again. Curb your tongue or I'll cut it out myself. The words drifted through my brain, cold and sharp as if someone had shoved a knife through my temple. The witch who was glaring at Fox never looked directly at me when she sent the message, but I knew she was the one who sent it.

My gut told me that she was part of the same movement as Gideon and Peter, but I wasn't willing to bet my life on it. She may have just been concerned about determining the source of the information leak and would have been happy to see me impaled on my own wand at a later time.

"Back to the issue at hand," Pregnant drawled as if bored by the whole affair, but I had seen his smile at my dig at Fox. I wasn't stupid enough to think that he was on my side. He was only amused at Fox's embarra.s.sment. "I'm a.s.suming this thing that has been dragged before us is the one who located the Towers. Do you even know how he managed it?"

"Gage did it!" Reave shouted. He had been silent for so long that I had forgotten that he had the power of speech. "He told me where to find the Towers. Sent me to each location. He forced me!"

I lunged at Reave, hammering my fist into the side of his face with enough force to make him slump against the binding spell. He wasn't unconscious, but he was close. "You f.u.c.king liar!" I snarled. "You brought this on yourself. I won't let you drag me down with you."

Reave's mouth moved as if he were trying to smile. "I won't be the only one to die today."

I raised my fist to hit him again, but energy wrapped around me and I slid across the floor as Gideon drew me away from Reave. I wasn't helping my case.

"Read his mind," I said between clenched teeth as I glared at Reave. The Svartalfar was breathing in short gasps as if the pain was getting to him. Either that or it was a rising tide of panic pressing against his chest. My head snapped up to look at the council members. "Read his mind and see the truth," I said louder. They didn't look particularly pleased with my "request," but one after another, each orb glowed a neutral yellow as they cast the spell to read the dark elf's mind.

It was several seconds before anyone on the council spoke again. "Powell wasn't involved in the information leak," one warlock said, almost disappointed. He hadn't spoken since I entered the room and he didn't look particularly pleased with the revelation that I wasn't involved. Of course, I had a few other strikes against me.

"But he did work for the elf," murmured a witch at the far end of the row of council members. Her voice was soft and thoughtful, as if she were carefully considering the things she was seeing in Reave's mind.

"Not willingly," I said. "A daylight attack by Simon Thorn forced my secret out into the populace. Reave used blackmail to force me to work for him."

"So I saw." Her voice hardened. She didn't look at me when she spoke, but was looking over my shoulder at Gideon. My heart pounded in my chest and a cold sweat broke out between my shoulder blades. If she was seeing Reave's anger about my activities at the fix house, then she was likely drawing some interesting conclusions about Gideon's failure to report what had occurred at the house to the council. f.u.c.k.

"Reave is the one who discovered the secret locations," I said in a rush, pushing forward in hopes of distracting the rest of the council from whatever the witch had seen. "I humbly request that the Towers punish the Svartalfar called Reave and send a message to the leaders of the world that you've captured the enemy that brought destruction down on the world's people."

A low chuckle rippled over me, drawing my gaze down to the opposite end of the row of council members. A lean warlock sat back in his chair, watching me through dancing green eyes. He wore the same black robes as all the others and his staff wasn't much different from theirs, but when I looked at him, the only word that came to mind was dandy. Something in me wanted to believe he was harmless, which only set more alarm bells. No warlock or witch was harmless.

"I didn't think you knew such a term, Mr. Powell. Humble," he said with another laugh.

I didn't recognize him, so I didn't think he had been at my hearing. Of course, the memory of my hearing was a terrified blur, so he could have been there.

"Can you be humble?" he asked with a grin.

I bowed to the council a bit stiffly, bending low at the waist. "Please, consider my request. Let people sleep easily in their beds again." I was looking at the shiny floor as I spoke, but they heard me. Bile rose up in my throat and I wanted to scream. Hatred and shame battled in my chest until I was nearly choking. I hated having to abase myself before these a.s.sholes, but if it kept everyone safe for a little while longer, I could swallow my pride.