Merlin's Children (The Children and the Blood) (28 page)

“You’re doing fine, Lil,” she said, her eyes on the gravel track.

The little girl glanced between them and then turned back to the road. “I… I didn’t think it was too much farther.”

“Lily, I’m sorry, but I really mean it. We’re wasting our time. That turn back at the highway was a lot more familiar than–”

“Please shut up,” Spider sighed, not looking at anyone in particular.

Ashe fought back a grin. More than just for being able to trade off driving with the girl, Spider had been about the only thing that’d gotten her this far, mostly by keeping her from going insane. Katherine had yet to answer any calls, though that hadn’t stopped Cole from badgering her about asking the wizards to search the southeast. The car had barely held together over the past thousand miles, and lately emitted smoke from beneath the hood whenever they stopped. She was fairly certain Cole wasn’t to blame for it, though holding him responsible anyway was tempting. They had little if any plan to speak of, and no matter what Cole said, there weren’t any Merlin left that she knew how to reach.

But they were close. And as naïve as it seemed, she still had to hope that counted for something.

“Slow down,” Lily said.

Ashe slowed accordingly and winced as the engine shuddered.

The little girl leaned forward in her seat. “There was a gate…”

“I’m telling you, Lily,” Cole said with frustration. “We should go back. There’s nothing down–”

Ashe hit the brakes as the car came around the curve. Black and imposing, a metal gate stood a few feet away, with petite security cameras mounted on either side. Near the edge of the gravel road, a decorative pole stood, a small speaker box mounted to its top.

Spider looked over at Cole dryly. “Obviously, your sense of direction sucks.”

He didn’t respond.

Creeping the car forward and trying to ignore the wisps of smoke already rising from beneath the hood, Ashe eyed the security cameras as she pulled up next to the speaker. Their lenses focused on the forest, neither device moved.

She glanced back at Spider in the rearview mirror. The girl shrugged.

The window crank squealed as she wound the glass down. Cautiously, she pressed the microphone button. “Hello?”

Silence answered her.

“Turn around,” Cole ordered, all trace of theatrics gone from his tone.

She glanced back at him and then looked to Lily and Spider. “Stay here.”

“Ashe–” Cole protested.

The hinges screeched as she pushed open the door. Watching the forest, she climbed out and approached the gate, letting her magic surround her. Birds chirped in the distance, joining the growl of the engine and the crunch of her shoes on the gravel as the only sounds. Ahead, the path twisted around a blind turn and disappeared into the thick cover of pine trees. Cautiously, she put a hand to the black metal fence, and then tensed when it yielded instantly to her touch. Still watching the forest, she pushed the twin sides of the gate open, and then retreated to the car.

“– try that again!” Spider snapped as Ashe pulled open the door.

She looked from the girl to Cole. Her hand on one of the weapons under her jacket, Spider was eyeing the boy as though she’d like nothing more than to shoot him, while Cole just looked as if he wished he still had the gun Spider had taken from him two days before.

“What happened?” Ashe asked as she climbed back in.

“Your friend tried to make a run for it.”

“I wasn’t–”

Scowling, Ashe shut the door on his words and then put the car back into gear.

Shifting position, Cole started forward and then halted at a warning noise from Spider. “Ashe,” he urged as the car rolled past the gate. “Think about this for a minute. Something’s wrong here. Turn around.”

Watching the gravel road, she didn’t answer. There wasn’t any point.

“Dammit!” he snapped, ignoring Spider as he leaned forward again. “Listen to me! My grandparents would
never
turn off their security. They’re the most paranoid freaks in the world. And you know who else was headed here. Please, just stop the car and–”

“I’m not leaving her with you,” Ashe said, glancing to the motionless security cameras hanging in the trees.

He made an infuriated noise. “This isn’t just about her, alright? You both–”

The car came round the turn and his words died.

Lily made a small noise, but Ashe didn’t look over. Her irritation drained away, leaving a void. On autopilot, she let the car come to a stop.

Beneath the cloudless blue sky, pulverized bricks lay everywhere, crumbled into enormous mounds or scattered across the yard as though backhanded by a giant. Blackened struts of wood protruded at odd angles from the heart of the fallen house, along with twists of pipe that looked as though they’d been ripped in half. Ruts showed in the grass where emergency vehicles had come and gone, and at the edge of the yard, a single lamppost stood incongruous watch.

She pushed open the door.

Cool wind swept around her, making a half-broken pipe in the wreckage creak as it swayed in the breeze. She pulled her jacket closer and stepped away from the car as, behind her, she heard the others shut the doors.

Gravel crunched as Lily circled to her side. “I-I didn’t…” she whispered, taking her sister’s hand. “It wasn’t like this…”

Ashe looked back.

One hand on top of the car and his face bloodlessly pale, Cole stared at the destruction. On the other side of the vehicle, Spider was watching them and the forest equally, her guns already drawn.

Ashe headed for the house.

Charred shingles littered the bright green grass, the pieces cracking beneath her shoes. Blackened clusters of twigs showed at intervals where bushes must have been, and broken stumps of metal and wire stood where other lampposts had once circled the yard. Through the trees ringing the property, the wind returned, stirring the ashes and sending the acrid stench of old smoke into the air.

She closed her eyes, faltering as the smell brought back the memory of another place the Blood had taken away.

The wind died. Tightening her grip on Lily’s hand, she walked closer to the wreckage.

Bricks had crushed the house when they fell, and fire had taken care of whatever survived the collapse. Several yards in, a sudden drop showed where the basement lurked, though the majority of it was choked with debris.

Her eyes ran over the ruins as she circled the perimeter of the massive house. A bit of charred paper was caught between two bricks, the beautifully calligraphic writing saying nothing sensible, and half-crushed beneath a ceiling strut, the arm of a display stand twisted upward, its occupant long since gone. More remnants of the historians’ archives met her gaze, from picture frames blackened by fire to warped leather backings for books whose contents were only ash.

She slowed, drawing an unsteady breath. She’d known there was a strong chance he’d get here first. She’d known it before the four of them ever left Banston, though she’d still had to try. And it was possible Jamison hadn’t done this. The historians had pretended to be dead before. After Lily and Cole left, they could have razed the place and run, just like Cole claimed.

Her gaze landed on the charred scrap of a painting, its edges eaten by fire till all that remained was the desperate image of an old man, his lifted hands pleading with the sky.

She strode back to the car.

“What now?” Spider asked quietly.

Ashe didn’t respond. “Do you know where they would’ve gone?” she asked Cole shortly.

Blinking, he pulled his focus from the wreckage. “Sorry?”

“The historians. They faked their deaths before, so…”

He paused, his gaze sliding to the house, and then he drew a breath, nodding. “Right,” he said, returning his attention to her. “They, um…” He trailed off, his brow drawing down as though something about her upset him. More than usual, anyway. He blinked, looking away again. “I don’t know.”

She grimaced, clinging to the surge of irritation to stave off the powerlessness she was trying to ignore. “Then who would? Neighbors? Other relatives? You have to know something.”

He didn’t answer. His eyes were back on the rubble.

“What about Ben and Sue?”

Cole flinched at the soft sound of Lily’s voice, and Ashe saw him hesitate.

“Who are Ben and Sue?” she asked them both.

“They’re people we stayed with for a while,” Lily explained. “They knew his grandparents.”

Spider cast Cole a disgusted look. He didn’t seem to notice.

“Would the Blood know about them?” Ashe asked.

“I’m not sure,” Lily said.

Ashe glanced to Cole. His gaze on the ruins, he gave no sign he’d heard the exchange.

Irritation increasing, she made herself look away from him. It wasn’t like he’d tell the truth anyway. And as far as everything else was concerned, they didn’t have a whole lot of choice, given that none of them could exactly go to the cops for answers and they hadn’t seen a neighbor for twenty miles.

“Where are they?” she asked.

“Um… back down the highway,” Lily answered, eyeing Cole worriedly. “Maybe a few hours south.”

“Alright,” Ashe said. “Let’s go.”

The little girl hurried around to the passenger side while Spider tugged open the door.

Ashe drew a breath, reaching for the rusted handle, and then paused. Cole hadn’t moved.

“After you,” she said acidly.

He blinked again and looked over. Her eyebrow twitched up, and a flicker of anger tightened his expression in response.

And then he got in.

She closed her eyes, willing herself not to hurt him, and then climbed into the car.

*****

The engine clanked and smoke rose from beneath the hood. Every light on the dashboard had given up hours before, though the temperature gauge was still screaming bloody murder. Behind the wheel, Ashe looked like she’d come to the conclusion she was holding the bronze clunker together by willpower alone, while in the seat beside him, Spider occasionally muttered something about thanking Blackjack for his generosity in giving them the car.

As the vehicle shuddered over another bump, Cole shifted on the musty seat and returned his gaze to the window. In the time since they’d left the manor, the landscape had slowly flattened around them, with the familiar spread of farmlands gradually replacing the spruce-covered hillsides the Carnegeans had called home. Cows and harvested fields surrounded the country road, both of them touched with gold by the sinking sun.

And no matter how he tried, he couldn’t let himself be calmed by any of it.

He didn’t know why the deaths – possible deaths – of the Carnegeans bothered him so much. His grandparents had been monsters. Egomaniacal to an extreme, they hadn’t cared about their own daughter, let alone the rest of the people dying while they hid in luxurious safety. And that didn’t even bring into it the fact they’d tried to kill him and Lily.

But for some reason, that reality wasn’t making his discomfort go away.

His dad might not have killed them. Ashe could be right – about that, if nothing else. They’d hidden once. And they must’ve made it look convincing that time too. For all he knew, the bastards actually were living it up in a mansion in Orlando or wherever, just like he’d been trying to make Ashe believe.

He shifted on the seat. Though, what the hell did it matter if the Blood
had
killed them? His dad still didn’t have Lily or Ashe. Wouldn’t, if Cole had anything to do with it. The rest was immaterial. The world was better off without them.

And Lily’s family. And the councils. And his…

He shoved the thought away swiftly. He didn’t know anything about his mom. Clara had been a victim of the war, according to his dad. That didn’t mean Victor had killed her too. And just because he’d never answered any questions about it, and just because his people had possibly wiped out her parents like a demolition team from hell, didn’t mean she was gone.

Drawing a breath, he forced himself to refocus. He was getting upset over nothing.

Except having handed them over to his father.

He paused in the middle of reading a billboard for an apple farm, the words becoming instant gibberish. He’d told his dad about the Carnegeans. About their location, their archives and everything he knew. And, two days later, they were possibly dead. Very, very possibly dead.

Breathing hard, he turned his gaze from the window, though it just caught on Ashe. Gripping the wheel, she was trying to give Lily a reassuring smile as an engine belt squealed, but even he could see the worry fracturing her expression.

She wasn’t a good person either. She
wasn’t
. She’d killed people, untold numbers of people, and there was still every chance she’d do worse than his dad if she got her hands on the spell. Just because he’d given up information on her too didn’t mean he’d been wrong.

His stomach rolled. He pulled his gaze back to the window, silently cursing it.

The Carnegeans
weren’t
good people, though. For pity’s sake, they’d tried to kill their own grandson. Surely that counted for something on the grand scales of the universe? Made this karmic justice in a way.

That argument settled even worse than the previous one.

He scowled. He just needed to get over it. Chances were, the bastards were fine. They were probably tucked away in a palace somewhere, whining about their deplorable conditions and suffering, and if they’d known he was beating himself up over their possible deaths, they’d have just chalked it up to his cripple inferiority and laughed.

Really, he should hope they were dead.

The car bounced over another pothole, sending a spring jabbing into his leg.

“Much farther?” Ashe asked Lily tensely.

Clutching the door and her seat as though to keep from falling from the car, Lily shook her head. “Uh-uh. It’s just a – there. See it?”

She pointed toward the pinnacle of a brown-shingled roof beyond the trees, and then gripped the seat again.

“You’ll like Sue,” the little girl added hopefully. “She kind of reminds me of Rose.”

Ashe glanced over, giving Lily a smile, though the expression didn’t touch the fleeting pain he saw in her eyes. Returning her attention to the smoke separating them from the road, she eased the car around the turn into the long driveway.