Merlin's Children (The Children and the Blood) (21 page)

“And him?” the man asked.

“Snake.”

Cole struggled to hide his growing confusion, despite feeling like the man and Ashe were speaking some kind of code.

“And the little one behind you?”

Ashe hesitated. “Requires explanation.”

Cole saw her eyes dart to him. Cautiously, she inched to the side.

The men cursed, their weapons swinging up, while in the galleries the guns shifted on the balustrades as their owners tightened their aim.

Ashe stepped back in front of Lily and internally, Cole swore. Cripples. He was a moron. The whole damn room was full of gun-wielding cripples who’d obviously think the little glowing girl was a threat, and Ashe just…

Ashe just…

Oh hell.

His ears tuned back in as his heart tripped over itself to go faster. Ashe was telling them some story about finding the girl. About how the Blood had killed the kid’s family. Which was true, and so very false at the same time. But the cripples’ guns were lowering. Incrementally, but they were lowering.

They were buying her story.

Oh, oh hell.

This must have seemed perfect to her. She knew enough to spot their hiding place, and now she had a building full of people at her disposal. People she’d use to bolster her power so that every wizard in a hundred miles wouldn’t stand a chance. It was why she hadn’t shown any trace of magic, why she’d not flinched when guns were pointing at her head, and of course, why she hadn’t dared tell them her real name.

She was working to get farther inside.

Exhaling sharply, he tried not to curse as the man motioned for the cripples in the gallery to stand down. Damn good liar that she was, she’d done it again. And he couldn’t yell her identity any more than he could shoot her to bring this farce to an end. She’d kill him as readily as the rest, and in the ensuing gunfire, Lily would absolutely be the cripples’ target as well.

He was trapped, just like everybody else in this building.

She wouldn’t kill them in front of Lily, though. He paused at the thought, hoping more than ever that it was true. Lily loved her sister. Clung to her sister. Her world depended on Ashe being the good guy, and on some level, Ashe seemed to realize that.

Which might give everyone here a chance.

His jaw tightened as the man told them to follow. Irony didn’t cover it. He wasn’t sure what did. After everything he’d done, the crazy stuff he’d gone through to protect the little girl, the survival of everyone around him suddenly depended on keeping Ashe’s sister as close to her as possible.

The gun in the back of his jeans feeling heavier than ever, his gaze tracked Ashe as she started after the man, pulling Lily along. The whole thing was sickening. Twisted and sickening.

But it was only for now.

*****

Shadows closed around them as they headed between the columns on the side of the room and overhead, Cole could hear the guns disengage as their owners retreated from the gallery. A thin layer of debris ground beneath his shoes as he walked farther into the darkness, and the crunch of the footsteps ahead of him were the only other break in the quiet.

He blinked as his eyes adjusted. A faint bluish glow paled the shadows, emanating from behind a black barrier that could have been a wall. Their guide, who’d enigmatically identified himself as Blackjack, walked toward it and Cole followed, pausing as the source of the illumination became clear.

A single, blue emergency light shone dimly at the base of a wide stairway. Blackjack continued down, the dogs trailing him, though at the top of the steps, Ashe hesitated. She drew a breath, as if considering whether to go on, and then she started after the man, keeping Lily close to her side.

Cole’s gaze tracked her. There still wasn’t any magic coming from the girl, and even with the wizard impassivity clinging to her face, she’d somehow contrived to look like a beaten-up teenager struggling not to be afraid of following a bunch of strangers into the dark, rather than a mass murderer quietly working on a way to kill them all.

At his back, the burly man called Shale made an impatient noise. Fighting to keep his frustration from showing, Cole headed after the girls.

The steps came to an end, with an opening to the right as the only possible direction to go. As he rounded the turn, his eyes swept the eerily silent space of cement columns and cracked tile. His brow twitched upward. The abandoned subway station was utterly still, and thick shadows hung beyond the island of light by the stairs. Up ahead, he could faintly discern the ledge where the floor disappeared, and as he followed Blackjack, he caught a glimpse of dim orange emergency lights farther down the tunnel on either side of the platform.

Quickly, the man jumped to the tracks and headed left. Waiting for the dogs to go ahead, Ashe dropped down and then turned, bringing Lily after her.

Feeling like he was falling farther and farther into a mistake from which he couldn’t escape, Cole slid off the edge of the platform and followed.

Rubble carpeted the ground, fallen in disconcerting chunks from the ceiling above, and occasional dust rained down as subway trains flew through the newer tunnels nearby. Gripping Lily’s hand, Ashe continued ahead of him, her form silhouetted by the orange glow and flanked by the dogs. In the shadows between the emergency lights, larger pieces of debris began to appear, like boulders cast through the tunnel as though they were dice, and along the wall, crazed and gaping fissures marred the water-stained concrete.

The man turned and disappeared behind one of the boulders, while the dogs took up positions by simply flopping to the ground and fastening their gazes on the tunnel’s end. Cole’s brow drew down. Cautiously, he walked closer, glancing uncomfortably to Ashe at her proximity and then returning his attention to the shadows behind the stone.

Only a lucky trick of physics had kept the boulder from falling farther and blocking the steel door by its side. Towering higher than the door itself, the mass of concrete was littered with graffiti and sprigs of rebar that protruded like antennae from its edges. Ignoring the precariously balanced slab, Blackjack knocked a quick rhythm and then pushed the door open, sending golden light spilling into the tunnel.

Cole blinked in the sudden glare and then tensed at the sight of the people standing around a table in the room beyond.

To a person, they were armed.

His gaze flicked to Ashe. With one hand holding Lily behind her, she scanned their faces, an intensity he wasn’t sure he wanted to understand flashing through her eyes. But after a heartbeat, the impassivity crept back and with an expectant glance to him, she started inside.

Without any other option, he paced her, keeping Lily out of sight.

The room had been a storage space once, or perhaps a maintenance area, if the dusty switches and dials along either of the side walls were any indication. But sleeping bags and backpacks filled the space now, and the only illumination came from the brilliant yellow utility lights strung between the struts overhead. Near the far wall, a ladder ran to the ceiling, ending in an access hatch to whatever lay above, and in the center of the room, an old metal table balanced on unsteady legs beneath the weight of weapons and maps of various parts of the country.

“We’ve got visitors,” Blackjack said.

Silence made it clear that the statement was obvious. Turning, the man raised an eyebrow to Ashe, caginess slipping back into his gaze. For a moment, she hesitated and then eased over, bringing Lily into view.

Weapons came up around the room. Instantly, Ashe stepped back to Cole’s side.

“Hold it!” Blackjack called, raising his hands to forestall any gunfire.

No one moved.

“This here is Summer and Snake. They found this little one hiding out after the Blood killed her kin. So take it easy. They say she doesn’t mean any harm.”

The guns lowered, though only slightly.

“Why would the Blood attack their own?” a scruffy-faced man growled distrustfully.

“She doesn’t know,” Ashe answered.

The scruffy man’s expression didn’t change.

“Look,” Blackjack said, glancing to Ashe. “Why don’t y’all just start at the top? Where–”

Metal clanked as the access hatch on the far side of the ceiling swung open. Boots appeared, and swiftly, a man slid down the ladder, turning as he hit the ground.

The gun went off before Cole could move.

Ashe’s shields surrounded her instantly, sending the bullet ricocheting into the defunct monitors on the wall, and around the room, the other cripples stumbled away, their weapons coming up to aim at the wizard girl. Shoving Lily back, Cole retreated toward the corner, knowing that with Shale and the dogs behind them, they’d never make it out the door.

Magic still hovering around her, Ashe stood motionless.

His muscles tense beneath the barbed wire and chain tattoos twisting down his dark arms, the man lowered the gun, nothing but ice in his eyes. As boots clanked on the rungs above him, he walked away from the ladder, his gaze locked on Ashe as though she was the only person in the room.

“I almost didn’t believe it,” the man said quietly.

A girl in a white tank top dropped off the ladder behind him, a shotgun strapped on her back across an extensive tattoo of spider webs made into wings. Yellow light played over the thick, blonde dreadlocks of her hair and as she turned, her expression was as guarded as any Cole had ever seen from Ashe.

“When Spider told me you were back,” the man continued. “I almost didn’t think it was possible.”

He stopped in front of her, and though her magic must have hurt like hell, his face gave no sign. “Ashe.”

Grips tightened on the weapons all around. Heart pounding, Cole clenched Lily’s arm, willing the girl not to move.

They knew who she was. What she’d done. His gaze slid to Ashe, dreading what she was going to do now.

“Hello Samson,” Ashe said softly.

Rage seethed under the ice in the man’s eyes. “Where are the others, wizard?”

Ashe’s gaze didn’t leave him. Cole couldn’t tell if she was breathing.

“There are no others,” came her reply.

“Bullshit.”

She said nothing.

“You’re dumb as hell, coming here,” the man growled. “There isn’t a person in this room who’s going to let you leave this place alive.”

Cole swallowed, his eyes flicking between the man, the wizard, and the cripples who looked ready to shoot the first thing that moved. He didn’t stand a chance of reaching his gun in time, even if he’d been so stupid as to think it’d do a shred of good.

Or known who he’d shoot anyway.

Ashe was silent, as though she was trying to decide how to respond. “I didn’t do those things, Samson. And I never ordered them.”

Her gaze flicked from him to the other girl and back. “I went to the Merlin council because Carter told me to. It’s the only reason I left. And they took what I told them, and some of them…” Her jaw muscles jumped. “I didn’t know.”

Cole watched her, uncertain what to make of her words, but at the mention of the name Carter, the rage on the man’s face grew stronger.

“You didn’t know,” Samson repeated, disgust dripping from his tone.

“They said it was Taliesin. They…” she stopped, and Cole could see the emotion on her face swiftly being smothered back inside. “I made a deal,” she continued more levelly. “With Darius, the council leader. He promised to work with the cripples to prove to the rest of Merlin that the Blood existed, but only if I stayed and tried to recreate the binding spell. I couldn’t leave or fight, but I could do what Carter asked. Because of the trust I’d built with your people, I could bring our sides together to destroy the Blood once and for all.”

Her expression tightened, old loathing surfacing briefly in her eyes. “So I agreed. And a few weeks later, Darius came to say it’d happened. A cripple shot at a Blood wizard, and when he defended himself, the Merlin were finally convinced the Blood were real. Darius told me the Merlin had started fighting them, and that they were working with the cripples side by side. He claimed it was brutal, but we were winning, and that even though I couldn’t go out there, I could rest assured that everything Carter had wanted was coming true.”

She paused. “Wizards are bastards, Samson,” she finished, deep anger threading through her voice for the first time. “You were the one who told me that.”

For a moment, the man said nothing, and then derision crept into his eyes. “Convincing. Really. Especially with the little Blood at your side.”

His gun twitched toward Lily and Cole pushed the girl farther behind him as instantly, Ashe’s magic strengthened. A few feet away, Blackjack winced.

“Don’t,” she warned.

Samson’s eyes narrowed.

“She’s not a Blood,” Ashe said, an edge to her voice. “She’s my sister.”

From the corner of his eye, Cole saw confusion flash across the dreadlocked girl’s face.

Samson scoffed. “And he’s your long lost brother,” he said with a jerk of his chin to Cole. “And we’re all just supposed to believe the bloody queen of Merlin is innocent because, what? She looks like hell and claims to be the victim here?” He made a disgusted noise, the hatred in his eyes deepening. “Try something else, you lying bitch. As I remember, that was your act last time, and I think we all know what came of it. Or was Carter just one more dead cripple to you?”

Everything about Ashe went still, and then slowly, she began to tremble. Like a wall coming into existence in front of her, her magic intensified, till sweat dripped down Samson’s face with the effort of not retreating from the pain. Around the room, the other men backed away, while by the ladder, the dreadlocked girl’s grip on a metal rung tightened till her knuckles showed white. Behind him, Cole felt Lily start for her sister and he snagged her arm, watching Ashe in wary alarm.

From within its protection, her magic barely hurt at all.

A breath escaped Ashe and the magic dissipated. Still shaking, she blinked, looking to the other girl.

“I’m sorry,” Ashe said tightly. “I… I’m glad you stayed away.”

Turning, she took Lily’s hand. Drawing the little girl along, she walked past Shale out of the room.