“Now what?” I said it out loud, though I wasn’t sure Azriel could hear me.
“He cannot,” my father said.
I jumped and looked around wildly. Normally I could sense my father’s presence the second he entered my vicinity, so why the hell hadn’t I this time?
“Because I am not in your vicinity,” he answered. “This is little more than a communication sphere. It allows you and me to talk without interfering with the energy of the device within your heart.”
I snorted softly. So my father was once again ahead of the game when it came to the Raziq. “Where the hell are you, then?”
“It is unwise for you to know.” He paused. “I see you have been in Malin’s presence. She plays a dangerous game.”
“No more dangerous than you, apparently.”
“Ah, so she has outlined my intentions. Or what she knows of them.”
“She did. And I have to ask, why lie? Why say you wanted the keys destroyed when the opposite is true?”
“I thought a gentler approach might be wise.”
I snorted. Yeah, that whole throwing-me-around-the-bathroom episode could definitely be described as gentle. “So can the keys be destroyed? Or was that also a lie?”
“It is not a lie, but it is also not possible. Not unless you wish to destroy existence.”
Of course, I thought wearily. Why on earth I’d actually expected the destruction of the keys to be a simple thing with few repercussions, I have no idea.
“Why would destroying the keys destroy the gray fields and earth?”
“Because blood was used in their creation, and it now links the keys to the structure of the portals. Destroy the keys, and you will more than likely shatter the power of the portals.”
“How is this different from the sorcerer forcing the gates open or the Raziq wanting them closed?”
“In either event, the link shared between portals and keys is not altered or disrupted. But destroy them, and the portals—which are woven into the very fabric of existence—are endangered.”
Well, fuck. What was I supposed to do now? Let a dictator win? Or worse still, the Raziq or the dark sorcerer?
“Am I not the better option for humanity? At least the portals would still remain viable.”
Until he decided it was better for him that they weren’t. Whatever else my father might be, I very much doubted that he’d be a benevolent dictator.
But that was not an argument I was going to get into. “Malin did something to me, but I can’t tell you what. She erased the memory.”
“She more than likely sharpened the frequency of the device so that its call would be more instantaneous. That’s what I would have done in her place.”
“Maybe.” Maybe not. I wasn’t trusting an Aedh to do the expected, my father included.
“Nor should you.” He paused. “I see that you have had a parting of the way with the Aedh. That is unfortunate.”
It was, but why the hell would my father think that? Had I been right in my earlier suspicions? And did I really want to know just how much Lucian had played me for a fool?
No, I thought. But I asked all the same. “What Aedh are we talking about now?”
“You are not stupid, Risa. Please do not act like it.”
“Lucian.” God, I thought, had every single moment with him been filled with nothing more than lies and schemes?
“As you have partially gue pq or the dessed, he and I are adversaries.” There was cool amusement in his voice, and I wasn’t sure why. “But what you do not know is that once we were allies. In fact, he was my chrani— what you would call either a student or protege.”
Shock coursed through me. “You and Lucian? Allies? Then why in the hell does he hate you so much?”
“Because I never intended to share domination. Once the keys were safely in the possession of my Razan, I betrayed him to make my own escape.”
He was the reason Lucian had been stripped of his powers. Fuck, the hate I’d seen had been aimed at me as much as the Raziq—not only because I was Hieu’s offspring, but because I’d also betrayed him by not using his sorceress’s ward.
“Then how did you get caught? Or was that another lie to get me to do your bidding?”
“The chrani knew more than I thought, hence I was captured. I was stripped of my flesh form during Malin’s attempts to gain the location of the keys, but I could not give what I did not have.”
“Why did they keep you alive? After all, I was born by that time. They didn’t need you to get to me.”
“Yes, but I was the only one who knew the clues. Malin, for all her power, could not take that information from me.”
And then he’d somehow escaped his prison. But thanks to his capture, he’d missed his meeting with his Razan—who had, as he’d ordered, killed themselves to protect the earthly location of the keys. “Why was Lucian left alive?”
“As I said, he was my chrani. I have no doubt that Malin thought I might attempt to contact him again.”
“Well, that’s a stupid thought given how much he appears to hate Raziq.”
“She would not understand such emotion. Few of us do.”
Because they didn’t do emotions. And yet Lucian did. Was it simply a result of being made less than he was, or were there deeper reasons?
My father was obviously following my thoughts, because he said, “For an Aedh, being less than you were is a far worse fate than being dead.”
Which explained the fierceness that drove my father. He wanted domination—particularly over those who had made him less than he was.
“Even as I am, I am far more than Malin and her rabble will ever be.” 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. From the little I’d seen of the two parties, he did seem the stronger. And he was certainly more cunning.
“Why didn’t you warn me that Lucian was an adversary? He’s linked sexually to my thoughts, and no doubt tracking your intentions through me.”
“As I was tracking his movements and thoughts—and therefore the movements of the dark sorceress he plays with—through you.”
I frowned. “Why would you be tracking her movements? She’s not t Shs he plahe one who took the keys.”
“You are sure of this? Because I am not.”
“Her energy wasn’t the same.” It was almost stubbornly said. I knew what I’d felt, and Lauren’s energy wasn’t what I’d sensed when the key went missing.
So why did she seem familiar to me? I didn’t know, and that niggled.
“I still would not erase the possibility that she is involved, especially considering the chrani’s liaison with her. Everything he does, he does with intent.”
“Like master, like student,” I muttered.
“Indeed,” my father agreed. “I taught him well.”
Too fucking well. And the worst thing was, he was yet another person who was going to create trouble for me in the weeks ahead.
I rubbed my forehead wearily. “Look, you called me here for a reason. What is it?”
“What else would it be? You need to find the next key.”
“You still want me to find it after the shitty mess I made of the last attempt?” It was a stupid question, but I couldn’t help asking it all the same. I mean, miracles did occasionally occur, and there was always the faint hope that my father would decide I was useless and try to find someone else.
And by tomorrow, pigs will have flown.
“You are my only child, and therefore my only option.”
Meaning if he’d had another option he probably would have taken it. And as much as I’d always longed for a sibling, I was suddenly glad that I was an only child. It was bad enough risking the lives of my friends; I couldn’t
