Darkness Splintered

us.

“I may be part werewolf, but even I can’t leap that far.”

“I’ll boost you.”

I raised an eyebrow as I glanced at him. “And how are you going to get up?”

“I’ll jump. You’ll catch me.”

“You’re putting a hell of a lot of faith in my catching skills.”

“Because I figure you would not want the father of your child staked.” He cupped his hands. “Up you go.”

I stepped into his hands and, with a grunt of effort, he flung me high. I grabbed at the ragged ends of the pit and hauled myself onto solid ground, then hooked my feet on either side of the doorframe and leaned back over the hole.

“Okay, go for it.”

He leapt up. A heartbeat later his outstretched hands were in mine. I gripped them fiercely, but his weight hit like a ton of bricks and just about ripped my arms from their sockets. I hissed in pain but slowly inched backward, drawing him with me. After a few seconds, he released one hand, caught the edge of the pit, and drew himself up beside me.

I rolled onto my back, breathed a sigh of relief, then scrambled upright. With the shield still in place, neither of us could shift to energy form within the building, so the sooner we got out, the better. I jumped over the loading bay railing, landed neatly, then ran for the gap in the door. Azriel followed me out, and a heartbeat later, we were standing in the burned-out remnants of my living room. I spun around, scanning the room, but couldn’t see anything different. And the front door still appeared locked. Which meant either my father hadn’t yet delivered on his promise, or it was sitting outside. I strode across the room, unlatched the door, then stepped out onto the metal landing to check. And there, tucked into the corner shadows of the top step, was a small brown box.

“Found something!”

Azriel appeared beside me as I opened the box. Inside were two black cords twined with a silverish thread that had an almost ghostly glow about it, and a note. I quickly unfolded it.

The cord will allow both entry into the temple’s inner sanctum and the rooms I shared with the chrani, it said. There is a second for the reaper, as you should not access the temples without his guidance. It is a dangerous place.

I glanced at Azriel. “Why would the temples be dangerous?”

“Because while the priests no longer physically guard the gates, there are… remnants… left behind.”

My eyebrows rose. “Remnants?”

He nodded. “They are not ghosts, as such. More echoes of the beings they once were.”

“So when Aedh die, their energy doesn’t return to the stars like the reapers?”

“They do, but the Aedh priests have sworn an oath to protect the gates, so remnants of their beings remain.”

“I wouldn’t have thought echoes of beings would be all that dangerous.”

“You have not yet encountered the echoes of the priests.” His voice was grim. “Trust me, if they decide you are an intruder, they can cause great harm.”

“Then let’s hope we don’t encounter them.” And that the sorceress did. I glanced down and read the rest of the note. “The third key lies in the southeast, on a palace whose coat of arms lies the wrong way around.”

“Which,” Azriel said, “apparently means as little to you as the previous clues, if your current expression is anything to go by.”

“Yeah.” I folded the note and shoved it in the back pocket of my jeans. “But Google helped us find the last one, so maybe it’ll help with this. Besides, finding the third key isn’t our priority right now. But there is another problem.”

Azriel raised an eyebrow. “The Raziq?”

I nodded. “The minute I appear on the gray fields, they’re going to know. We need a distraction.”

“I could —”

“Not you,” I cut in. “My father. He keeps telling me how mighty and powerful he is, so how about we give him a chance to prove it?”

“Neither he nor the Raziq will be fooled for long. As you have noted, they will feel your presence on the field.”

“Perhaps, but we can always hope they’re too busy fighting each other to immediately do anything about our presence. Besides, what other option have we got?”

“None.” His voice was grim. “You had better contact your father quickly, as the sorceress might already be on the fields with the four items.”

I spun around and headed for my bedroom to retrieve the communication ward my father had given me. Azriel appeared, a knife he’d found who knows where held in one hand, as I sat cross-legged on the floor and placed the ward in front of me. The rainbow colors within it seemed to run faster, as if it knew what was coming.

“Thanks,” I said, accepting the knife. With little ceremony, I jabbed the point into my finger, then, as blood began to well, turned my finger upside down and let the blood drip onto the communication ward. As the droplet hit, the rainbow stopped moving, and everything was still. Silent.

Then light erupted from the center of the stone and briefly blinded me. When I was able to see again, I was encased in a cylinder of white.

“Father, are you out there?”

There was a pause, and then he said, “You have found the second key?”

“Yes, but I need your help to retrieve it.”

“I cannot interact with your world – it is the reason you were bred.”

I snorted softly. Nice to know the only reason I existed was because my father had a feeling he’d need an extra pair of hands here on Earth. “The problem isn’t here on Earth. It’s on the gray fields.”

“Explain.”

“We suspect the sorceress has two gateways onto the fields. The Raziq currently guard one. The other, however, is in your rooms —”

“Impossible. No one can get into my temple residences without the proper —”

“Lucian could,” I cut in. “And he was working with the sorcerers.”

“He would not —”

“You keep saying that,” I interrupted again. “Trouble is, time and again he was doing exactly what you said he shouldn’t or wouldn’t be.”

Annoyance swirled around me, thick and heavy. But all he said was, “What is it that you want?”

“The location of the gate the Raziq guard is -37.7925000, 144.98635. We need you to provide some sort of distraction.”

“Such as?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t particularly care. Hell, you can take the bastards out for all I care. You keep saying you’re far more powerful than either Malin or her people will ever be, so how about proving it?”

“That is a truth not even she would deny.”

There was no conceit in my father’s voice, no hint of boasting in his words. He merely stated a fact as he saw it. I dare say Malin held the exact same opinion about her prowess. Aedh, from what I’d seen, certainly weren’t backward about admitting their strengths. Their weaknesses were a different matter entirely – in fact, most seemed to think they didn’t actually have any.

“Whatever you decide to do, I just need them kept occupied while we go to the second gate and try to capture the sorceress.”

“And the key.”

“That goes without saying.” Whether he got it was another matter entirely. I’d sure as hell be making sure Mirri was safe before I handed the key over to anyone.

“When do you wish this to happen?”

“Now.”