down, it confines him to Earth, and gives me more time to find him and the key.”
“Why shut it down, when all we have to do is find it, and then wait for him to step through?”
Well, there was
And I mentally crossed my fingers that Azriel was right, that the Raziq and my father
“Even so, all we would have to do —”
“No,” I cut in. “You’re not getting it. Our sorcerer was working with an Aedh – someone
Dark energy flowed around me, thick and threatening. Amaya’s mental hissing ratcheted up another degree, and my heart began to pound a whole lot faster.
Azriel’s fingers entwined through mine and he squeezed them gently.
Wisely, he refrained from saying anything about
“How will finding the sorcerer’s entry point on the fields help you find this sorcerer?” Yeska eventually asked.
Great question. I hesitated again, then mentally shrugged. The Raziq probably knew as much about dark magic as I did, so a little bit of improvisation wasn’t going to hurt. And hey, there just
“And get us the key,” he added.
“And get the key,” I agreed. Who I gave it to was another matter entirely.
I snorted softly.
He didn’t answer. Maybe he couldn’t, simply because there
“If you do
His words chilled me to the core. Yet fury rose, and it was all I could do not to throw Amaya. Threatening my life was one thing. Hell, I could understand them threatening the lives of my friends – even if I didn’t like it – but stripping them of all their futures and making them ghosts? That was totally unacceptable.
And it had to stop. Somehow, somewhere, I had to find a way to end all this and make my friends – and the world – safe.
“Fine,” I muttered. “Just let me know where the sorcerer’s entrance onto the fields is, and we’ll take it from there.”
“Do not double-cross us,” Yeska warned.
“I get it already,” I said, voice tight. “Now just get us out of here so we can get on with the business of tracking the key.”
“The reaper can get you out,” he replied. “Once we retreat, the shield will go down.”
“What, don’t you trust us?”
But there was no reply. The dark energy that was the Raziq had gone. I sheathed Amaya and let out a slow breath. “Well, that certainly went better than I expected.”
“Yes.” Azriel pulled me into his embrace and wrapped his arms around me. “I fear, however, you have only delayed the inevitable.”
“I know.” I closed my eyes and listened to the steady beat of his heart, feeling so safe it had tears stinging my eyes. But it was an illusion. None of us were safe. Not even a Mijai warrior with centuries of fighting behind him.
A second later we were standing outside the Brindle. It was a white four-story building that had been built in the Victorian era – a grand old lady from a bygone time that was a whole lot more than she seemed. It was the home of all witch knowledge, and was protected by a veil of power so strong that there were very few in this world – or the next – who would dare test its boundaries. Though I’d never considered myself overly sensitive to magic, I’d always been aware of its presence here. But the sensation I got from the place now was weirdly different. It wasn’t just awareness – it felt like the power was alive. Energy crawled across my skin, its touch sharp, electric. Probing. The Brindle didn’t suffer evil to enter, but it had never reacted to me like this before Azriel’s presence in my life.
“It happens because you are now Mijai in waiting.” Azriel pressed his fingers against my spine, lightly guiding me toward the steps.
“But this was happening before you pulled me back from death.”
“Possibly because I was linked to your chi.”
It was more than that, and we both knew it. He’d been linked to my chi – or life energy, as Ilianna called it – from the beginning of this mess, and it was only very recently that the Brindle had begun reacting to me.
But I let the matter drop – at least for now – and took the steps two at a time. The huge, medieval-looking, wood and wrought-iron doors were open, and a slender, brown-haired, tunic-clad figure waited to the left of them – for us, I suspected.