Merlin's Children (The Children and the Blood) (33 page)

The restroom door opened.

Cole swung in as Spider hit the accelerator.

The SUV surged forward, pushing him back into the seat, and suddenly, a spike of pain rushed past him, fading almost as fast as it came. He twisted in the passenger seat, looking back to the gas station. By the restroom, a scrawny teenage boy gaped at the lot as though he couldn’t see his SUV racing away.

Cole glanced at Ashe. Staring out the window, she seemed oblivious to everything, but as the vehicle shot past the trees and left the station behind, he felt the faint buzz of magic disappear.

He turned back in the seat and looked to Spider. Her eyes on the reflection of her friend in the rearview mirror, she said nothing.

“You never answered my question,” he told her.

She didn’t respond.

“Where are we going?”

Spider’s gaze returned to the highway. “I know a place south of here where we can stay.”

He watched her for a moment, but something made it clear he wasn’t going to get more. And maybe it didn’t matter. It wasn’t like he had a suggestion for where to head anyway.

Miles slid by in silence as the sun gradually sank below the horizon. Signs for Yellowstone began to dot the sides of the highway, growing more frequent the longer they drove. Cars sped past in blinding flashes as darkness took hold, and on the hillsides, light glowed from the windows of distant cabins.

Spider kept driving.

As the mountains fell behind them and the sky opened into an expanse of stars, he blinked tiredly, realizing they were leaving the country road they’d been following for longer than he could recall. A small town lay ahead, almost lost in the darkness and barely large enough to have a few streets to its name. A handful of decaying businesses peppered its sidewalks, joining the houses in having their windows darkened for the night.

At a street like any of the others, the girl turned and, half a dozen houses later, she pulled the SUV to a stop.

“Give me a second,” she said.

Pushing open the door, she climbed out and headed for a two story block of house that could have been cloned from any neighborhood in America. Climbing the steps to the porch, she reached the door and then hesitated, almost as if preparing herself, before lifting a hand to knock.

A minute passed, followed by another. She knocked again.

Incrementally, the door crept open.

The first thing he saw was the barrel of a shotgun.

His hand went for the door handle, though he knew he’d never reach her in time.

Spider didn’t move.

Neither did the gun.

Heart pounding, he watched as the girl said something to the person beyond the door. A moment crawled past after she spoke and then, ever so slowly, the barrel retreated into the darkness.

Spider walked back down the stairs.

“They’ll let us stay the night,” she said flatly as she reached the SUV.

An incredulous noise escaped him.

“It’s the best option,” Spider snapped.

Roughly, she grabbed her bag from the footwell and then slammed the door.

His eyebrows rose as she strode away. Exhaling, he glanced to the back seat.

Ashe hadn’t moved. Her gaze on the middle distance, she gave no sign she’d noticed they’d stopped at all. Resting her head on her sister’s lap, Lily was asleep, and absently, Ashe was running her hand over the child’s hair.

He paused, seeing for the first time something of the girl he’d rescued six months before.

Discomfort grated through him. He turned and climbed out of the vehicle.

A moment passed and then he heard her follow.

Evenly cropped bushes fronted the house and a tall wooden fence blocked any view of the backyard. No light was visible through the thickly curtained windows and the porch was bare except for a faded welcome mat whose message belied everything he’d just seen.

Carefully, he pushed past the front door, half expecting the shotgun to reappear.

Instead, there was only a couple who, like their house, could have been cut from a mold for stereotypical white, middle-class Americans from anywhere. A terry-cloth robe of pale pink covered the woman, with a corresponding one of dark blue hanging off the man, and while their hair was neither curly nor straight, it was such a completely unremarkable shade of brown, the effect was a bit incredible.

He suddenly found himself thinking that his adoptive mother, Melissa, would have been jealous as hell.

Tension charged the air like an electrical hum, though the yawning golden retriever lumped in the corner didn’t seem to care. As Cole and Ashe came in, the couple ran their eyes over them in mirror image of one another, and when Lily peeked around her sister, their faces went rigid with alarm.

“Annie, Gary. Summer, Snake and Flower.”

Spider motioned between the two groups by way of introduction, and then crossed the entryway to the stairs.

“We’ll be gone by tomorrow,” she called tersely as she climbed the hardwood steps.

Uncomfortably, he followed Ashe and Lily after the girl.

The couple’s gazes tracked them the whole way.

A small lamp sat in the bedroom at the far end of the hall, casting dull light on the flowered wall paintings and providing the only illumination for the corridor. Ignoring it, Spider rounded the landing and headed into the first room by the stairs. Bringing Lily, Ashe trailed her, while by the doorway, Cole paused.

Holding aside the edge of the curtain, Spider swiftly scanned the neighborhood, though from the way her gaze flicked back to her friend almost immediately, he could tell her attention to the street was on autopilot. In the glow of a nightlight, Ashe led Lily to the bed and helped her climb beneath the cream-colored quilt. As Lily situated herself, Ashe sank down beside her and, when the girl’s eyes finally closed, she gently resumed running her fingers over the kid’s hair.

There wasn’t a trace of expression on her face the entire time.

Stepping farther into the room, he glanced around, searching for somewhere to be. The staid block of a dresser met his gaze, with closet doors framing it on either side, and except for the additional blankets hanging from the bed’s footboard, the rest of the room was bare. Without options, he crossed to the second window and joined Spider in watching the sleepy town.

Minutes passed. Outside the door, the floor creaked as Gary and Annie crept to bed.

“I need you to do something for me,” Ashe said softly.

He glanced over to see her watching Spider in the darkness.

The girl’s brow drew down. “What?”

“Take Lily.”

Spider’s expression cleared. “No. Ashe,
no.
You’re not doing what I–”

“I have to stop him.”

“So stop him!” the girl hissed, trying to keep her voice low. “But not like this. Not without any backup or–”

“You’re not coming with me.”

“I’m not letting you do this alone!”

“You’re not coming with me, Spider.”

The girl made an incredulous sound. “And you’re going to stop me?”

He saw Ashe’s gaze twitch toward the door.

Spider scowled. “You…” she started furiously. “You can’t do this, Ashe. Just because some old woman–”

“He’ll kill her, Spider. And you. And everyone I…”

Ashe grimaced, looking away.

“He can’t.”

She turned back sharply.

Cole blinked, the words feeling like they’d come from nowhere. Uncomfortably, he hesitated.

She had to know. If he wanted to keep her from going after his father, if he wanted to stop his dad from doing what he thought he needed to do, she had to know.

Because she wouldn’t ever have done the same.

He shivered. She wouldn’t, and he should have known it. Trusted it. Seen it at all, when it’d been in front of his face so many times. But he just hadn’t wanted to risk it. To believe he’d been that horrifically wrong.

To believe he’d actually given a girl who was just fighting to hang on in this nightmare, a girl who was just struggling to survive the same as he was, up to die.

For things she’d never even done.

He blinked hard, trying to find words and not be sick at the same time. She never could have done it. Not what she’d been accused of, nor what the old woman insisted she had to do to end the war. He’d read it on her face the moment Thelma told her, and watched it in the way she bolted at the words.

Mass murderers didn’t react like that. Not when offered absolute victory for the cost of only one victim more. Mass murderers wouldn’t have even batted an eye.

He knew. He’d seen the alternative.

And he should have known.

Cole swallowed. “He can’t do the spell. Not without you. He researched it with my mom, back before the war, and learned that what Merlin did… it’s something only your family can control. That’s why they needed you. Or Lily. They were going to force you to do it, once they found my grandparents and got their information too.”

Ashe stared at him. “You… you
knew
that?” she whispered. “And you never said–”

“Why do you think I was trying to make sure his people didn’t get Lily that day?”

Disbelief flashed over her face and then she paused, her brow furrowing as she processed what he’d said.

He cursed internally, realizing it too.

“You son of a bitch,” Spider growled.

“What was that day, Cole?” Ashe asked, her quiet voice unsteady. “In Banston, when the others died?” She hesitated. “Was I supposed to be dead too by the time you got there?”

He looked away.

“Was that your plan?”

A heartbeat passed.

“It was,” she said, her voice gaining strength. “Wasn’t it?” She gave a choked gasp. “What else did you tell him while you were there? Did you tell him where the Merlin were hiding? What our defenses were? Where to find those kids who died in Austin, or those families who burned alive in Omaha?
Huh
? What’d you say?”

Trembling, she stared at him, her face a picture of old horrors and hurt gone on too long.

He shook his head, not taking his eyes from her. “No.”

She waited.

“I told him…” He swallowed again. “I just told him about those three wizards and Katherine. And you.”

“
Why
?”

“I thought…” He drew a breath. “I thought you’d killed all those cripples. That they’d made you – taught you – to do it. I thought…”

Cole looked away, his skin crawling at the pain-filled incredulity in her normally so expressionless eyes. “I heard what everyone said you’d done. The stories Harris and my dad told, and I thought you were a monster. A–” He glanced to Spider and then regretted it. The girl looked like she was trying to decide which of his limbs to shoot off first. “A feral.”

“But–”

“You torched people in front of me, Ashe.”

“I was trying to protect my sister!”

“I-I know. I get that. I just…” He grimaced. “When I heard the stories they told–”

“You thought you’d just have them kill me?”

“I was trying to protect people too!” he countered desperately, fighting to keep his voice low. “The other cripples and Lily–”

“You thought I’d hurt
Lily?”

“No! I thought you’d–” He grimaced again. “I thought you’d make her like you.”

A gasp escaped her. Rising, she walked away from the bed.

“They made it sound convincing, alright? And how was I supposed to know they were lying when even your own people claimed it’d all been okayed by you!”

She spun toward him and then paused. Her brow drew down ever-so-slightly as her gaze slipped from him to the floor.

“You really wanted to trust him,” she said quietly. “Didn’t you?”

“He’s my father.”

Ashe’s gaze climbed, meeting his own. “He killed my family.”

Cole looked away.

“Why’d you go back there?” she asked.

“I told you.”

“You–”

“I didn’t know. About you or the others. And he…” Cole’s mouth tightened. “I just wanted his side.”

“But you didn’t try to take Lily.”

The words were as much statement as question, and at them, he glanced up again.

“He killed your family. I wasn’t going to risk her. Not till I knew what was going on.”

She stared at him for a moment. “Elias said that, you know,” she told him, her voice tight. “That maybe you were trying to protect her. That we shouldn’t assume the worst of you.”

He turned away, the words hurting like she’d probably intended them to.

“They were good people, Cole.”

His jaw clenched. “Just stay away from him, alright? Take Lily and run to the other side of the world if you have to. Just don’t let my dad get his hands on you.”

He looked back when the girl didn’t answer.

She was watching Lily.

“Ashe. Please.”

A moment slid by.

“Okay,” she whispered.

He let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

Pulling her gaze from Lily, Ashe blinked as though trying to refocus her thoughts. Wizard expressionlessness gradually reasserted itself over her face as she searched the room, only to falter as her gaze caught on Spider.

For a heartbeat, neither girl spoke.

“The ferals will still be out there,” Spider said, a note of apology in her voice.

Ashe looked away and after a moment, Spider did the same.

“I’ll think about it,” she added quietly.

Ashe hesitated and then nodded. “We, uh…” Her brow furrowed as she regarded the floor. “We should probably head back to Banston then. Just in case Bus…”

He could read on her face what Spider thought the answer would be, but the girl nodded anyway. “Yeah.”

Silence filled the room.

“I can take watch tonight,” Spider offered.

Ashe didn’t look up as she shook her head. “You need sleep too.”

“Wake you in a few hours then?”

“Sure.”

Ashe walked to the bed, pausing before she lay down at Lily’s side. By the window, Spider returned to watching the street.

Cole closed his eyes with relief before looking back outside. It wasn’t much, getting Ashe to agree to leave the war like this. It didn’t mean everything was fixed or that his dad’s plans would suddenly disappear. But it would keep Lily safe, and Ashe, and protect his father too.