Eye of the Storm Read Online Free PDF

under a gag spell," I say. Gags are illegal, though the Summit uses them on the leaders to keep the plebes like me from finding out their dirty little secrets. Like the territories being controlled by spell-drugged tea and coffee.
    Asher doesn't even answer me, but I know I'm right. Whatever she's under must be strong. She looks like she wants to bite off her own tongue.  
    "Shit," says Mira.
    "Tell me that my mother would have had the ability to speak freely to me." I watch Asher's face closely.
    "Your mother would have been able to tell you anything she wanted." Asher speaks the sentence with so much prompt decisiveness that I believe her.  
    I don't bother asking Asher about the gag; she won't be able to tell me, and she might barf or pass out if I prod her.  
    "Switch to a subject you can talk about, then," I say.  
    "I've already told you the most important parts."
    "You haven't told us about Evis," I say.  
    Asher gives me a slow, calculated nod. "Eve kept digging into everything about the Summit she could find and beyond. She was probably the foremost expert on demonology in the United States when it happened."
    "When what happened?"
    "One of the librarians disappeared last spring. He'd helped her with her research into demonology and the theoretical physics of the hells. When he vanished, she discovered that he'd become a hells-zealot. She blamed herself for not noticing. At first she — and the police — assumed he'd been killed by demons. But then she got a note from him telling her he was okay and that he was going to bring a new being into the world and not to look for him." Asher's face is set in grimness, and every one of us knows the end of this man's story.  
    "Let me guess, she didn't listen." I feel a surge of respect for my mother. It's one thing to go after hells-worshippers when you're a Mediator who's been trained for decades. It's something else altogether to go searching for them when you're a librarian.
    "She didn't listen," Asher says softly. I see that grief again. "Eve went after him She didn't find him in time, but she found someone else. I never met the witch and her flunky who cornered Eve. They were ready to sic that newborn shade on her, but she saved herself with her knowledge. She convinced them she was a hells-worshipper."
    Oh.  
    Next to me, a tiny bit of the tension goes out of my brother. Finally, something Asher said pings something he knows. He remembers what she's saying. Something in me relaxes marginally.  
    "How the fuck did she make the jump from demonology just saved my life to hey, let's splat myself to bring a shade into the world ?" Mira says what I'm thinking. Again.
    Asher looks at me this time, though the tenderness in her eyes is new. I wonder what she's seeing. I wonder if she's seeing tiny bundle of baby Ayala or just a reflection of her lifelong friend. Her gaze moves to Evis, but the tenderness stays.  
    "She thought she found a way to help you."
    "By dying?" I can't keep the incredulity out of my voice.  
    "By sending you a brother who she felt certain would love you and fight beside you. She couldn't reach you. He could."
    Evis and I look at each other.  
    "She loved me," he says.
    "She did," I tell him.  
    "I almost ruined everything." His face falls, and his whole body looks ready to crumble in on itself.  
    I put my arms around his shoulders. "You didn't almost ruin anything," I say into his bare shoulder. "Gregor ruined everything. And he's dead now, so don't you let him keep ruining things."
    Asher looks confused, but I don't feel like explaining right now.  
    I turn back to her, one arm still around Evis. "You helped her."
    Asher nods. "She was going to do it with or without my help. I thought that if I helped her, maybe there was some sort of chance. Looking at the two of you together, I'm glad I did. I don't think he'd be standing here if I hadn't."
    Even though she's pretty much tooting her own horn for saving Evis's life, I can't blame her.