Just astral travelers, not Aedh, I guessed. Which was logical, given that the only spell we had to keep the Aedh out was the one we were using around our home, and that had originated from my father. Which meant my father and the Raziq could get to me here. I shivered and tried to ignore the premonition that I’d be confronting both far sooner than I’d want.
Still, some protection was better than nothing, and at least we could plan our next move without the Cazadors passing every little detail on to Hunter. “There wouldn’t happen to be a mobile version of that spell, would there?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
Of course not. Why on earth would fate throw me a lifeline like that? “Then I guess I’d better give the bitch a call ASAP.”
And pray like hell she didn’t have another job for me. I really didn’t need to be chasing after escapees from hell right now – especially, I thought bleakly, when chasing hell-kind was all I had to look forward to in the long centuries after my death.
Besides, I needed to find the sorcerer and snatch the second key back. While he might not know which one of the items he’d stolen it was, there was nothing stopping him from taking them all to hell’s gate and testing them out one by one.
And while my father and the Raziq had been relatively patient so far when it came to my lack of progress on the key front, I doubted that would last. They’d already threatened to destroy those I loved if I didn’t find the keys. I wouldn’t put it past any of them to actually kill someone close to me, just to prove how serious they were.
As if tearing me apart to place the tracker in my heart hadn’t already proved that.
“Calling her should definitely be a high priority,” Ilianna agreed. “But come and eat first. You look like death warmed up.”
No surprise there, given I nearly had been. “So what’s stopping Hunter or the Cazadors from physically finding us?”
“She probably could, given enough time. While the spell is designed to confuse astral senses, they’d still have a general idea of location.”
“But all she has to do is hack into my phone —”
“Which was left at home,” Ilianna interrupted. “Along with anything else that could be used to track you. We’re not that dumb.”
No, they weren’t. And Hunter was undoubtedly hassling Tao simply because she couldn’t get to anyone else. Even she had more sense than to contact Aunt Riley. I might not be related by blood to Riley, but she and her pack were the only family I had left. They would not have reacted nicely to the news that Hunter was after me. “Knowing Hunter as well as I now do, I’m surprised she hasn’t done more than merely threaten him.”
Hell, she probably considered a spot of bloody torture a good way to start the day. Although, given that Tao was rapidly losing the battle with the fire elemental he’d consumed, maybe I should be hoping the bitch did attempt to torture him. Crispy fried Hunter was a sight I wouldn’t mind seeing.
“She’s given him until tonight to find you, so there’s time. You need to regain some strength before you run off to confront that psycho bitch.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” I muttered. “Especially now that I have to do it alone.”
Ilianna hesitated, then said quietly, “Look, I don’t know what actually went on between you and Azriel, but —”
Something twisted deep inside me. Pain rose, a knife-sharp wave that threatened to engulf me. No, I reminded myself fiercely, you can’t go there. Not just yet. Not so soon after waking. I needed at least some time to mull over the implications of my actions by myself.
“Ilianna,” I said, when I could, “leave it alone.”
“But he wouldn’t have left you —”
“He did, because he had no choice. I banished him.” How I’d actually managed that I had no idea. I mean, he was a reaper, a Mijai, and me telling him to leave me alone had never worked before now. So why the change?
“Why the hell would you do that? Damn it, Ris, you need —”
“Ilianna,” I warned, the edge deeper in my voice this time.
She drew in a breath, then released it slowly. “When you want to talk about it, I’ll be here. But just remember one thing – he’s not human. He’s energy, not flesh, and he doesn’t operate on the same emotional or intellectual levels as we do. But whatever he did, he did for a reason. A good reason. And no matter how absolute or final his actions may seem to you, it may not be a truth in his world.”
“The truth,” I replied, bitterness in my voice, “is that the keys were always first and foremost to him.”
And I wanted more than that. Wanted him to feel about me the way I felt about him. But was love an emotion reapers were even capable of?
I blinked at the thought. I loved him. Not just cared for him, but loved him.
When the hell had that happened?
I’d spent far more time with Lucian than I ever had with Azriel… I paused at the thought. No, that wasn’t true. Not really. I may have spent more time sexually with Lucian, but for every other part of the day – and night – Azriel had been by my side. Somewhere, somehow, he’d snuck past my guard and stolen my heart. How that was even possible when we were still little more than strangers, I have no idea. It wasn’t like love and I were on familiar terms. Quite the opposite really, given the only other man I’d loved had been Jak – the werewolf reporter who was one of the people we’d pulled in to help with our key search – and that had turned out to be a complete and utter disaster.