The Gray Tower Trilogy: Books 1-3

by Alesha Escobar

  Neal tilted the blade and saw a faint green glow. The corner of his mouth twitched, and blood suddenly poured from the corners of Neal’s eyes like tears. “Clever...you changed the enchantment.”

  I raised myself up on my knees and threw my arm around my father in a half-hug position. I kept him close to me, but also held my knife ready. I shot out a rush of energy to mend as much damage as I could, but it was no better than putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound. My father needed someone with stronger healing abilities to save him from bleeding to death, and he would need it fast.

  “Whatever that enchantment did...I hope it kills you.” The words spilled from my lips like venom as I watched Neal cough up blood.

  Neal wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’m very sorry, Isabella, but some things are worth a broken friendship.”

  “Dad,” I whispered. His head slid onto my shoulder and he groaned in pain. I managed to stem the blood flow, but not by much. “We need to get out of here. You need a proper healer.”

  Neal drew a gun and pointed it at his own head. “The enchantment he placed on that dagger is called Lex Talionis. What happens to Carson will also happen to me, and vice versa. He has anticipated that I would rather save my life and heal us both, but he is mistaken. I intend to save the world.”

  “Neal, don’t do it!”

  A shot rang out just as a blast of wind knocked the gun out of his hand. The green silhouette surrounding the dagger subsided, signaling that the enchantment had been broken. Brande rushed toward us and peered at both my father and Neal. He probably wanted to make sure he didn’t have to break any other enchantments.

  Neal turned and faced Brande. “Are you here to stand in my way, or are you here to do your job?”

  Brande stared at him. “Go and signal the other trackers, Warren. That’s an order.”

  Neal faltered as he rose to his feet, and he threw Brande a suspicious glance. He spoke a Word and disappeared in a flash. Brande started toward us; with his tall, muscular build, he was dangerous, even without using his magic. I gulped and laid a Circle of Protection. My fingers trembled as I brandished my knife.

  “What are you doing? Why did you send Neal to get the other trackers?” As far as I was concerned, Brande should’ve killed Neal the moment he broke the enchantment that intertwined Neal’s life with my father’s. Of course, that was assuming Brande was on my side to begin with. Did he truly stand with me?

  Brande halted. “We don’t have much time. All of the trackers are magically bound so that we could never kill each other. It would’ve been futile battling with Neal.”

  My father raised his head and rose to his feet. He almost collapsed, but made his best effort to stand and face Brande. “Are you also a true believer, Brande Drahomir?”

  Brande eyed him with distaste and reached into his pocket. He tossed a familiar tiny pouch toward my father and he caught it. Brande always carried that pouch with him and had even given me a similar one before. My dad stepped outside of my Circle of Protection, and when I saw that he had no fear of Brande, I relinquished my hold on the Circle, but I still gripped my knife and readied a spell in my mind.

  “Get out of here, Carson.”

  “Not without my daughter.” My father swallowed the jade powder from the pouch. He would be fully healed within minutes.

  “Isabella!” Rachel raced toward me from the direction my father had come in. Dirt caked her hair, and streaks of muddy tears ran down her face. She stumbled halfway, but managed to regain her balance. When she reached me, she held onto me and seemed ready to pull me away.

  My father glanced at Rachel and me. “We must go. Now.”

  “Carson,” Brande growled, “Neal has already signaled the other five trackers. I can feel it. You’re the one who needs to go.”

  My father glared at Brande. “I know why they chose you. Are you certain that I’m the one who can’t be trusted?”

  I gazed at Brande. He had disappointed me in the past. But then I thought of everything I had been through with him, how we even risked our lives for one another. Did that mean anything to him? Or did he want to play both sides?

  I looked straight into Brande’s eyes. “Are you here to help us? Because if you are, then you need to do something about those trackers.” I prayed he didn’t turn out to be like Neal.

  “I’m helping you now. Tell your father to go, and I’ll stay with you.”

  “No,” my father said. “You know what’s at stake, Isabella. Come with me.”

  “What about Rachel? I can’t just take off and leave her.” I held onto her, worried about what I could’ve missed when I hastily healed her, and hoping that nothing had happened to that budding life inside her.

  “If you trust Brande,” my father said, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward him, “then he can take Rachel home where she’ll be safe.”

  I shook my head. “Just go, before Master Priya gets here with the others. You’ll have to meet up with me later. Just use the ring again.”

  My father let go of my arm. “Have you read Veit’s diary? Do you understand the meditations?”

  Before I could get in another word edgewise, Brande spoke up. “That’s enough. They’re near. If they see her fleeing with you, then they’ll treat her no different than you.”

  Brande was right. Back in France, when I had first reunited with my father, Master Priya had caught up with me and was ready to drag me to the Gray Tower for an interrogation. If Brande hadn’t stepped in and blocked Priya from taking me, I would probably be rotting in the Tower dungeon--or dead.

  My father gritted his teeth in frustration. He stared at the ground, and I imagined him reworking his calculations. He looked up at me. “Put your Fire into the water, and into your heart. Make the ripples and pulses burn.”

  “Go,” Brande said. “I’ll stay with her.” He stepped back, but still eyed my father with wariness as if expecting an attack.

  My dad faced Brande. “If anything happens to my daughter--”

  “Then it means I’m dead,” Brande said.

  My father looked like he would rather have that happen, and then softened his expression when he gazed back at me. “Remember what I said--Fire, water, ripples, pulses.”

  “Okay,” I said, nodding at his cryptic words.

  Tiny wrinkles etched my father’s face and his dark hair had become sprinkled with grays. His eyes betrayed his emotional exhaustion, though physically the jade powder returned him to his full strength. He lifted his hand and extended his fingers in a gesture, and the overturned car flipped right-side up. The broken parts reconnected and repaired. He formed another gesture, and a streak of lightning flashed across the sky, carrying the essence of his magical energy, which the trackers would sense and follow. I could already feel them coming in from the East, and the amount of raw power I felt from all six of them combined made me afraid for my father.

  My dad started running north, along the road, with an agility and speed of someone half his age. He voiced an enchantment, and a gust of wind carried him away. Now, I could both see and feel the presence of Neal and the other trackers--it was like watching smoke and lightning dance together in a storm. Brande gestured toward them, and they bypassed us and turned north. I hoped that my dad didn’t have to stop to fight all six wizards.

  “I’m sorry, Rachel.” I half-expected her to draw away or flinch. She knew that I was associated with the Tower, but witnessing events like today probably made her want to have nothing to do with another wizard.

  “That...that was your father,” Rachel said with a look of confusion. It would probably take her a while to process it all. Her gaze went between Brande and me. “Who is this?”

  “Let’s go to the car,” Brande said, gently taking Rachel’s arm.

  “Where’s Neal? Is he hurt?” She looked ready to cry again.

  I flanked Rachel and walked along with them toward the car. “Neal is alive. There are a few things I have to explain to you.”

 
“Isabella,” she said, opening the door and getting into the back seat with me. “Do you think I should still go to Dr. Caine?”

  Brande shook his head and got into the driver seat, but I ignored him and said, “Yes, just to make sure everything’s okay.”

  Brande started the car and then faced me. “This can’t wait?”

  “No, I need to talk to you before I let you near my home or my father.”

  He opened his mouth to argue, but then seemed to change his mind. He pulled off and began driving the last quarter mile toward Dr. Caine’s farm property.

  Brande and I waited in Dr. Caine’s sitting room. The office was attached to his house and he had been practicing from there for some time. The doctor was pleasant enough when we met him, a cheerful and elderly man. We gave him a false story about a minor car accident, and he bandaged my hand and gave me a hot wet cloth to wipe my face with. I assured him I was fine and that Rachel was the one who needed the most attention. He ushered her into his exam room.

  I wanted to start asking Brande questions, but an elderly woman in a floral dress sitting across from us made it a little difficult. When she left for the restroom, I laid a Circle of Silence around us. I decided that now would be the time for him to tell me everything he knew, and to reaffirm that he would side with my father and me. I bitterly thought about Neal and his betrayal, and wondered if I should just cut Brande out of my life altogether. The only reason why I even allowed him to come with us was because he had just saved my father’s life...and mine too. The other trackers would not forget that Neal almost had my dad when Brande stepped in. They would lay the blame of my father’s escape at Brande’s feet.

  “Why did you even send Neal to me?” I peered into his gray eyes, and watched for any signs of nervousness or untruthfulness.

  “I didn’t send Neal to you. He had stolen the Agate stone ring and replaced it with a fake. I can’t taste metals like you, so I didn’t know the difference until the fake stone was shattered in a fight yesterday.”

  I cursed at Neal in my head. He had lied to me and made me believe he was my friend. I was just beginning to trust him, and now it’s all been ruined. I saw the unease in Brande’s expression and said, “Neal’s been with me for days. At my home, with my family. He showed me the ring and said that you had sent him to look after me.”

  “What else did he tell you?”

  I shook my head. “Let me ask the questions. Tell me about the spells that bind the seven trackers. You can’t kill each other...what else is there?”

  “We can’t reveal another tracker’s identity to outsiders. We also have two oaths to keep: we won’t turn to forbidden magic to carry out our task, and we will not leave the group unless dismissed by one of The Three.”

  “Well, not all of you have been keeping your oaths. Hotaru went rogue and killed innocent people when he tried to track down my father in France. He killed Ken Aspen.” My throat constricted and I felt my eyes brim with tears.

  He lowered his gaze. “I...didn’t know. If I had been there--”

  “I know you wouldn’t have stood by. I don’t blame you for what happened to Ken.”

  “I’ll make sure Hotaru regrets what he’s done. I’ll speak with the Masters myself.”

  That made me feel a little better, but he wasn’t off the hook just yet. “And what about you? I don’t need a partial ally--I need all of you.”

  “I meant everything I said, and nothing’s changed.”

  “You’ll continue helping me? And my father too, even though you apparently hate each other?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “You know why,” he said in his deep voice.

  I most certainly did, and I felt something for him as well, but I needed to guard myself. And, even though it might’ve sounded crazy, part of me still felt like I was tied to Ken. Suddenly I was at war with myself, trying to make sense of why I couldn’t just look Brande in the eye and tell him to leave me alone. That’s what I should’ve done, but instead I raised my hand to his face and caressed his cheek. He reciprocated the gesture by pressing his warm lips against the palm of my hand in a slow kiss. I ignored the shiver of excitement that ran through me, and I withdrew my hand. I felt guilty again.

  “My father said they chose you for a reason. I think I know why.”

  He tensed, as if already guessing what I was about to say. “Isabella--”

  “Some of what you trackers do is not too far off from spying. If I had to guess your role, it would be to remain close to me because the trackers knew my father sought me. If Master Priya, Hotaru, and all the others failed, you would at least still be with me and able to make the final strike against my father. They didn’t care if you befriended me or seduced me--just get the job done. Am I correct?”

  His gaze held steady, though I could feel he was uncomfortable. “After I stopped Master Priya from apprehending you in France, I think he gave that task to Neal. He grew suspicious of me.”

  “They’ll blame you for my father getting away today.”

  “It depends on the perspective. I saved another tracker’s life and helped signal the others to Carson’s trail.”

  “What about staying behind with me? What will Master Priya say about that?”

  “Priya will know that you no longer trust Neal, so it would be useless to send him back to you.”

  I frowned. “Yes, and the one I do trust is sitting here with me. How convenient.”

  I wasn’t going to deny that I had learned new things about him, that I had gotten a glimpse of who he truly was when I last saw him in Paris, and he was a good man. I didn’t know at what point he had developed feelings for me, but I knew they were genuine. However, I still had a nagging feeling that Brande struggled with whether or not he’d fully side with me or submit to whatever the Gray Tower wished. It was no secret he was a candidate to one day head the Order. For most people, that would be something difficult to walk away from.

  “I understand why you feel that way, and I think this will be the only way to convince you otherwise.” He unbuttoned the top of his shirt.

  “Brande, this is neither the time nor the place...”

  “If this won’t convince you, then nothing will.” He grabbed my right hand and guided it to his firm chest, right over his heart. The palm of my hand tingled as it rested against his skin. I realized what he wanted to do, and I tried to pull my hand back.

  “Brande, you can’t do that.” I tried to wrest my hand away once more, but he held it in place.

  A heart-bind was a spell rarely used nowadays. It had been done in the past by ancient communities to bind wizards to their oaths or as a good faith offer to ensure a certain task would be completed, and by foolish lovers who’d promise themselves to one another only for one of them to end up dead. If Brande did a heart-bind with me, he would be giving me the power to kill him with the force of my will. I didn’t want that type of power over him.

  “I promise I won’t bring harm to you or your family, and I will not work against you.”

  “I don’t think you should do this,” I whispered, though I made no further attempt to break free. With each heartbeat I could feel tendrils of energy, as smooth as silk, sliding over my hand and sealing the bind.

  He released my hand. “Now, are you convinced?”

  I sighed and began buttoning up his shirt. “I’ve gotten angry with you over little things. What if you piss me off and you drop dead?”

  He smiled. “Something tells me you’ll be more forgiving from now on.”

  I released the Circle of Silence. I glanced over at the old woman sitting across from us who had returned; she was pretending to read a magazine. Although she couldn’t hear the tail end of our conversation, our physical gestures and actions must’ve given her an eyeful.

  Rachel and Dr. Caine emerged from the exam room. I immediately stood and approached her, noting the smile on her face. “Everything’s fine, Isabella,” she said.

  “So far,”
Dr. Caine said. “I told her to phone me if she has any of the symptoms on this list. I’ll come down to her house for a check up tomorrow.” He handed me the sheet of paper.

  “Thank you, doctor.”

  “You’re welcome, and congratulations, Rachel.”

  “I’ll drive,” Brande said, heading for the exit.

  I faced Rachel. “I’m sorry...about everything.”

  She grabbed my hands and squeezed them. “I think there are a few things you need to tell Mom and Jonathan. Don’t you? You owe them the truth.”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  We got into the car and drove home. We pulled into the driveway, and as soon as the car stopped, Rachel hopped out and ran inside. I grabbed my black handbag and walked inside with Brande. Instead of seeing Rachel making her announcement in excitement, she stood rather subdued and quiet. When I saw who sat on the couch next to my brother, I understood why.

  “Ian. What are you doing here?”

  My boss folded his hat in his hands and stood. He looked pale, and his eyes were red with fatigue. “Isabella, I’m very sorry to intrude like this. Is there somewhere we can talk privately?”

  My heart froze in my chest. “Y-yes. Of course.”

  32

  My shoulders tightened, and I prayed he wasn’t here to deliver news of someone’s death. I thought of all my friends at SOE, and wondered what would prompt Ian to come all the way from London. I led him past the study and the kitchen, and out through the back. Brande followed in silence.

  My mother sat at the veranda table, sharing a bottle of wine with Delana. “Isabella, I was wondering when you were coming back. Is Rachel all right?”

  “She’s fine, Mom.” I forced myself to smile and gestured toward the two men. “This is Ian and Brande.”

  “Yes, Ian, from the ambassador’s office.” My mom shook his hand and then Brande’s.

  “A pleasure to meet you, Mrs. George.” Ian inclined his head.

  “Ian and I need to discuss some important matters...work matters. Excuse us.” I gave Brande a sidelong glance when he continued following, but I didn’t bother to send him away.