indication that anyone had ever stood there. I glanced at Markel. You should have known this would be a waste of time. You’ve been following me around long enough to get some sense of how I’d respond.
He shrugged. Reminding you of your options – and the fact we can and would do our best to make it a more even fight – can never be considered a waste of time.
Give me an army at my back and I might consider it. But one-on-one? No fucking way.
You would hardly be alone given the reaper rarely leaves your side.
And you think Hunter wouldn’t be canny enough to have a means to nullify his presence? Magic can restrain him, Markel, and I’m betting Hunter has been around long enough to know such a spell.
More than likely. He hesitated. However, if you have no intention of ever going up against her, then do nothing more to antagonize her. She walks a knife edge of sanity at the moment.
If you know this, the fucking council must. Why won’t they do something about her? Surely if they ganged up on the bitch they could defeat her.
As Harry said, we are bound by rules and conventions. It is not that simple.
I snorted. And do you think Hunter plays by the rules? Or even cares about them?
Perhaps not, but if we play her game, then we are no better than her. And she is not without her supporters. He hesitated. Be wary of what you say. We hear every word here on the plane. You would not want her other followers to realize anything untoward has happened.
I know. I studied him grimly for a moment. What happens if they do suspect anything?
Then I will have to take care of them.
Kill them, you mean.
He shrugged. There is little other choice. Besides, it is what I do.
But won’t it alert Hunter that something has happened?
If an astral traveler is killed on the plane, then they die here on Earth. It would not be the first time such a death happened, and I daresay it will not be the last. It is a risk we all take when traveling.
That didn’t actually answer the question.
Yes, she will suspect and more than likely question me. But she has no reason to question the loyalty of the Cazadors, and she will not suspect my involvement.
No, she’d suspect me.
Perhaps, but we work twelve-hour rotating shifts. If the kill is timed right, it would be at least ten hours before the body was discovered. The plane is an ever-shifting environment. There would be no evidence left to find.
There’d be a ghost. Ghosts can be questioned.
It would be a fragmented ghost, and insane. They would get no information from it.
I frowned. What the hell is a fragmented ghost?
It happens when the part of the soul that walks the field is killed. The traveler not only dies in flesh as well as spirit, but it sends the remainder of their soul mad. It is the source of the ghosts who wail. They can do little else. He bowed slightly. Until next we meet.
And with that, he disappeared. I shook my head and imagined myself back in my body. I whooshed back quickly – a little too quickly, as it turned out. My eyes sprung open as I gasped in shock.
“Whoa,” I said, swallowing heavily as my stomach leapt up into my throat. “Forgot all about the side effects of doing that.”
The bed dipped as Azriel sat beside me and held out a can of Coke. “Would this help?”
“If I was a normal person, no it wouldn’t.” I pushed upright, and ignored my rebellious stomach as I accepted the Coke. “I, however, happen to have this stuff running through my veins.”
He smiled. “And here I was thinking it was junk food that fueled you.”
“Speaking of which, where’s the pizza? If I don’t eat it, you’ll nag me.”
He nodded toward the bedside table, then added, “What did Markel want?”
“He was basically warning me to get a move on with the keys.” I leaned sideways and snagged a thick slice of pizza, then, just in case one of my astral watchers was near, silently added, And playing middleman for Stanford. It doesn’t take a genius to guess what he wanted.
You said no?
Of course. Just because I sometimes choose to ignore consequences doesn’t mean I’m not aware of them. I munched on the pizza and added, And I think the consequence of me going up against Hunter would be me getting dead.
Death in this form, maybe, but you would live on in energy form.
Sorry Azriel, but that’s not something I want right now. Especially given it meant me becoming a Mijai. I frowned. If I did happen to die, what happens to our child? Would he die, or would he also become energy?
He would also become Mijai – although obviously not a serving one. Not until he reached maturity.
So by saving me, you condemned our son to a life you hate?
Yes. His gaze met mine, blue eyes hard. Better the life of a Mijai than no life, Risa.
It would have been better to have left things as they were meant to be – both of us dead. But then, if the Raziq had the power to call my soul back into this world, what was to stop them doing the same to my son? I might not agree with what Azriel had done, but I could certainly understand his reasons. Now that he’d actually explained them, that is.
I snagged another piece of pizza. “So, I guess the next thing we have to do is go see if we can get into that warehouse near Stane’s.”
“And if we can’t?”
“Then unless dear old Dad comes through with a key to get into his quarters in the temples, I’m fresh out of ideas.”
He studied me for a moment, then said, “What of your uncle?”
I frowned. “What of him?”
“Did he not study to become a priest?”
My confusion grew. “Yes, but that’s not going to help us get into my father’s quarters.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Azriel replied. “But it is very rare for a half Aedh to undergo priest training, and that alone suggests he’s more than likely extremely powerful.”
Which was something I’d never really thought about before. I mean, sure, I knew he’d undergone training, but it had never struck me to ask why a half-breed had even been allowed near the temples. Unless, of course, the priests were in short supply even back then.
“Powerful or not, from what my father said, we won’t be getting into his and Lucian’s quarters without some sort of access code.” I finished the slice of pizza and licked a few cheese remnants off my fingers. “Besides, we don’t need Uncle Quinn to get into the temples. You can do that, can’t you?”
“I can, yes, but it is unlikely I would be able to access the inner sanctums, and that is no doubt where your father’s quarters are. Only the initiates are quartered in the outer rings, and we Mijai rarely have need to go any farther.”
So once again my father hadn’t been completely honest. What a surprise. “I really don’t want to involve Uncle Quinn, if only because it’ll drag Riley into the equation.”
“Your uncle is more than capable of keeping information from your aunt,” Azriel commented. “He is Aedh as
