Darkness Splintered

Chapter 12

Air hit with the force of a hammer and sent me tumbling backward. Wood, plaster, and dust rained all around me, and I threw my hands over my head in an effort to protect myself.

Amaya screamed in fury as her flames erupted to form a protective cocoon around my body. And none too soon, because it wasn’t just wood and plaster coming down, but concrete tiles. The fucking roof had collapsed.

Not that it mattered. Nothing mattered right now, except the reaper who had gone into that room a heartbeat before it exploded.

Azriel! Desperation filled my mental scream. Are you okay?

For several seconds there was no reply, and my fear skyrocketed. Then he said, his mind voice somewhat groggy, Yes. Valdis shielded me from the worst of it.

What the hell were you trying to do? I pushed into a sitting position. Several large sections of wood rolled off Amaya’s shield and dropped onto the top of the mess that surrounded us. There wasn’t much left of the hallway – just several skeletal wooden frames bereft of plaster. Wires dangled from the ceiling, and I fervently hoped they were not going to attack me the minute I moved. Water was spraying from broken fire sprinklers, dampening down the worst of the dust, and somewhere in the distance alarms were ringing. The fire brigade and police would undoubtedly be here soon.

I was attempting to catch that sorcerer before she escaped. His voice was clipped. Angry at himself for not succeeding, I suspected.

So why didn’t you zap yourself to that room instead of running?

Because, as I have said, I cannot zap myself into unknown places without having at least some point of reference. When I was a reaper, it was the resonance of the soul, but in this case, I could not get a fix on her.

I frowned and rose. Amaya’s shield pulsated around me, moving as I did. Why couldn’t you get a grip on her resonance?

Because it was shifting.

Meaning she was?

I suspect so.

At the far end of the hall, a pile of timber and tiles began to move, sliding away as flames began to pulsate through the pile. A second later, Azriel appeared, surround by a halo of blue fire. It faded as he turned, his gaze searching the ruins and stopping when it met mine. Blood oozed from a wound near his temple, but other than that, he appeared unhurt.

“I guess from all this” – I waved a hand at the mess around us – “that she sensed me.”

“She might be powerful enough to summon demons at a moment’s notice, but the explosion would have taken longer to set up.” He stepped over a pile of broken plaster and tiles and walked toward me. “There was a transport gate in that room. I saw her step through, and had a brief glimpse of shadows and stone before the explosion.”

“She’s heading for hell’s gate.” My voice was grim.

“Undoubtedly – though the gate she just escaped through would not get her onto the gray fields. It was nowhere near powerful enough.” His voice held little emotion, but his fury and frustration echoed through me, as sharp as my own. “But she knows we’re close now, so I have no doubt she is headed to the gate that will. She would not want to risk us reclaiming the key before she has a chance to use it.”

“And if she does use it and the Raziq are waiting, the key is theirs.” I thrust a hand through my hair. “Fuck!”

“Yes,” Azriel said. “Our best chance now lies in finding her access onto the fields.”

“And how the fuck are we supposed to do that? There was nothing useful in either of the goddamn warehouses!” Nothing we could access without a lot of time and effort – the first of which we were running dangerously low on.

“We cannot be sure of that because we have not explored the entirety of the larger warehouse. Remember, there was a second pathway you did not explore.”

“Then I guess we have no choice but to go there now and do just that.” Only my skin crawled at the thought of doing it alone. That section of the tunnel had felt nasty. Besides, it was more than likely where the hellhounds had come from, and I certainly didn’t feel like facing more of them alone.

“Perhaps it is time to call in your uncle —” He stopped abruptly and spun, Valdis blazing brightly in his hand. “I sense your presence, Yeska.”

“Only because I intended it, Mijai.” Amusement, and perhaps more than a little contempt, was evident in the Raziq’s voice. “You would otherwise be dead.”

“You overestimate your skill yet again.” Azriel’s voice was even despite the tension so evident in his stance and in the flow of his energy through my mind.

“I overestimate nothing, Mijai. But I am not here to harm you.” He hesitated, and though he had no physical form, it was not hard to imagine a particularly nasty smile as he added, “Not at this present time.”

Azriel didn’t reply. He didn’t need to when Valdis burned black and her desire to kill was so fierce the air was thick with it.

“Look,” I said quickly, sensing it wouldn’t take much for either being to attack the other right now. “As charming as this little catch-up moment is, the bitch with the keys might now be readying to open the second gate.”

Yeska’s attention turned to me – something I felt rather than saw. It hit like a punch in the gut, leaving me feeling a little breathless. “If the sorcerer steps onto the fields, then he or she will be stopped.”

“You have found the location of her gate?” Azriel asked, before I could.

“On the fields side, yes. We have the location under surveillance.”

Meaning she hadn’t yet tried to access the fields. We still had time to stop her. “And are you going to share the coordinates or are you intending to keep the information all to yourselves?”

“I am here, am I not?”

“Then give us the grid reference, or face the consequences,” Azriel all but growled.

Yeska snorted. “You would not overstep your precious rules, Mijai, and we both know it.”

“I would not be so sure of that —”

“Guys,” I cut in again. “How about we drop the machismo and just concentrate on the keys? You can rattle each other’s chains all you want once we catch this bitch, but let’s just first catch her.”

“Indeed, let’s.” There was amusement in his tone. For supposedly unemotional beings, the Raziq – and Aedh in general – seemed to be full of emotion.

“The location of the gate is at -37.7925000, 144.98635. And remember, if you find this sorcerer first —”

“I’ve got to give you the keys or you’ll kill my friends’ present and future lives,” I cut in wearily. “I know, and trust me, I am trying to get the key.”

“Then try harder,” he replied equably, and disappeared.

“That conversation would have been so much more pleasant had he made the slightest threat toward you,” Azriel mused, sheaving a still blazing Valdis.

“Only because it would have enabled you to kill the bastard.”

“Yes. Yeska’s time is long overdue.”

“Well, you can blame your people for his presence here. You could have done something when you first held him for questioning.”

“With the advantage of hindsight, that is obvious.” He turned. “I suspect those coordinates will take us to the warehouse near Stane’s. Let us hope Rozelle and her friends have been able to break through that shield.”

Otherwise I’d be entering that damn place alone. Again. “It’s probably better to check the location on a computer first, just so we have some idea what to expect. And while we’re home, I can fix that cut on your head.”

He smiled. “It will heal soon enough.”

“Yeah, but humor me anyway.”

His smile grew. “I have heard it said it is unwise to argue with a pregnant woman.”

“I’m betting that’ll happen only when it suits you.”

“A statement I am about to prove. We have not the time to delay. Even now the sorceress could be at the gate, invoking the magic that will lead her into the grasp of the Raziq.”

He was right, damn it. I got out my phone, typed the coordinates into Google maps, and a second later we had our result. It was the location of the warehouse near Stane’s.

Two seconds after that, we were once again standing in front of the building. Rozelle spun as we appeared, one hand going to her chest. “You could give some warning before you pop in like that,” she muttered. “It’s enough to scare ten years’ growth out of a person.”

“We did not mean to scare you,” Azriel said.

“Under normal circumstances you wouldn’t, but in a place like this, when we’re dealing with a spell like this, then, yeah, arrival announcements are definitely appreciated.”

I glanced past her, and studied the three women sitting cross-legged within a protection circle drawn in chalk in the loading bay’s concrete driveway. Sweat beaded their skins and their expressions were intent.

“How is it going?”

“We’re close.” She glanced at Azriel. “Actually, you couldn’t have timed it better. We need to weave an echo of your energy into our threading spell so that you can cross through it unimpeded.”

“What do you wish me to do?” he asked.

“Take my hand.”

He did so. One of the women in the circle raised a hand; Rozelle clasped it, her fingers glowing slightly as she breached the barrier of the protective circle. For several seconds nothing appeared to happen; then the air began to hum with energy and electricity began to dance from Rozelle to Azriel and back again, forming a circle that looped around and around for several minutes. Then it faded.

Rozelle sighed and released Azriel’s hand. “Just a few more seconds, and we should be finished.”

I nodded but couldn’t keep still, and began to pace instead. Azriel merely crossed his arms and watched the witches impassively. I wished I had half of his calm. Right now, my stomach was so full of knots it was getting painful.

Then the witches in the circle sighed and rose. The oldest of the three stepped from the circle and stopped beside Rozelle.

“It has been completed,” she said, her voice etched with weariness. “The reaper’s energy has been woven into the spell surrounding this building. He may move about within freely, but must keep to flesh.”

“Thank you,” I said. “We appreciate —”

“Stop this person,” she cut in. “And that will be thanks enough.”

“We plan to.”

“Good.” She waved a hand toward the broken roller door. “You should enter and exit from that point. It was the weakest section of the spell, and therefore the easiest place to create our doorway.”

Azriel pressed two fingers against my spine, ushering me forward. I crawled into the loading bay yet again, then rose, dusting the dirt off my jeans as I scanned the area. Nothing had changed, and I couldn’t smell the shifter’s presence.

I glanced around as Azriel climbed to his feet. “The only way we can get into the tunnels is via that pit Jak and I fell into.”

“Given I must retain human form while in this building, our only option is to fall into it once again.”

“Or we could grab something heavy, and spring the trap first.”

“That would also work.” He paused. “There were chair remnants in the room next door, were there not?”

“Yes.”

“Then I will retrieve them.”

We headed up the stairs. Magic crawled across my fingertips as I opened the door to the pit room, its touch stronger and dirtier than before. Either I was becoming more sensitive to magic, or it had changed somehow.

Azriel appeared with the chair remains. I stepped aside, giving him room, and watched as he tossed them into the middle of the dark room. For a second, nothing happened. Then, with a crack, the entire floor dropped. As it hit the cavern floor far below, dust bloomed, making me sneeze.

Azriel drew his sword and squatted near the edge of the hole. Valdis’s flames fanned out, lifting the darkness and revealing the all too familiar pit. It was about ten feet square and smelled of earth and age. But there was something there this time that hadn’t been there the last – wooden stakes.

An over-the-top response to our previous intrusion into the place, no doubt.

“The bitch is getting nasty,” I muttered.

“She has always been nasty,” Azriel commented. “But I believe she is becoming desperate.”

“And desperate people make mistakes.” Or so the saying went. There didn’t seem to be much evidence of it so far. My gaze swept the floor. The stakes had been set in a semicircle that covered the area immediately below the doorway – the place where most people would fall. The other half of the small pit was unencumbered by any additional security measures. Nothing that was so blatantly obvious, anyway.

“Can you jump that far?” Azriel asked.

I nodded. “Just be there to stop me falling back onto the stakes.”

He nodded and rose. After sheaving Valdis, he took several steps back, then ran at the pit and leapt. I watch, heart in mouth, as he dropped down, hit the dirt, and rolled well clear of the stakes.

He rose, dusted off his hands, then glanced up. “Your turn.”

I pushed upright, and tried to ignore the twisting in my stomach as I backed away from the pit. I took a deep, steadying breath, then ran and leapt. I cleared the stakes by several feet, hit the dirt hard, and rolled a little too fast and far. It was only thanks to the fact that Azriel grabbed my arm and yanked me to an abrupt halt that I didn’t smack headfirst into the pit’s wall.

“Thanks.” I climbed to my feet and rotated my shoulder to ease the ache. “The concealed entrance to the tunnels is over here.”

I drew Amaya and walked across to the wall where she’d found the exit for us last time. Flames flickered down her dark steel, sparking brightly off the quartz that lay embedded in the pit’s walls. I ran the tip of her blade along the wall until she hit the exit and disappeared.

“Let me enter first,” Azriel said.

“For once, I am not about to argue.” I stepped back. “The hellhounds, if there are any, are all yours.”

“That is very sensible of you.”

I smiled. “I can be, when I want to be.”

“So it would seem.”

He pushed through the barrier and disappeared. I followed, sword first. As before, it felt like I was walking through molasses – the magic creating the illusion of a solid wall was thick, syrupy, and unclean. I shuddered, my skin crawling with horror as it clung like tendrils to my body, resisting my movements for several seconds before abruptly releasing me into the tunnel. It was a tight fit – there was little more than an inch between my shoulders and the tunnel’s walls. Azriel, several inches taller than I am, not only had to stoop but stand slightly sideways.

“Which way?” Valdis was ablaze in his hand, and her fire lent the dark stones around us a bluish glow.

“The transport stones Jak and I found were to the right, so we need to head left.” I eyed that end of the tunnel warily. The last time I’d been here, I’d had a sense of something waiting down that end, something that was inherently evil. Given the hellhounds had more than likely come from that direction, my senses had been right. While I wasn’t getting a similar sensation right now, something still didn’t feel right.

“No,” Azriel agreed. “There is magic down there. Dark magic.”

My gaze shot to his. “As in demons lying in wait to munch us up, or something else?”

He half smiled. “Something else. And demons hardly munch. They rend and tear, or swallow whole.”

“Oh, that’s so comforting,” I muttered, and lightly pushed him forward. “After you.”

With the twin blazes of the two swords lighting the way, we crept forward. The tunnel continued to narrow, forcing me to go sideways. Azriel, already sideways, was in worse shape, the rocks and debris in the soil tearing across his shoulders and back. The scent of blood stung the air, an aroma that would call to any demons who might wait ahead.

“They don’t,” he commented. “Whatever magic lies ahead, it has not the feel of either hell’s creatures or something living.”

“Meaning the sorceress isn’t here.”

“Or that she’s already gone through the gate, if that is the magic we sense.”

“If she’s gone through, the Raziq would have her.”

“If they did, I daresay we would know.”

I frowned. “How? It’s not like we’re in constant contact with them.”

“No.” He paused, squeezed through a particularly nasty narrow section, scraping both his back and his chest in the process. “But Yeska would inform us. He has a predilection for flaunting his victories.”

I snorted. “The more I learn about the Aedh, the more their reputation for being unemotional beings bites the dust.”

“They are unemotional, at least in the sense that humans view emotions. Love, desire, caring – they are unnecessary states in the minds of the Aedh. Hence the reason they do not live in family units.”

“So how come they developed a completely different mind-set to the reapers? I mean, you’re both energy beings, so I would think you’d both have a similar evolution.”

“Just because one comes from the same source does not mean evolution will follow a similar path.”

“True enough.”

It was my turn to squeeze past the tight spot. The stones that had torn into Azriel’s back now tore into mine. I winced and tried sucking in my gut in the vague hope it would also suck in my breasts, with little success. Thankfully, my sweater bore the brunt of the damage, the stones snagging the fleece and tearing several large holes into it. I guess I should be thankful I wasn’t overly endowed in that area, because the damage would have no doubt involved a lot more skin.

The tunnel continued to narrow, making me wonder if anyone else but hellhounds actually used this. The Razan Jak and I had seen in the other tunnel certainly hadn’t been thin, and yet he’d had none of the scrapes on his body that we seemed to be collecting. Maybe he’d been using a special oil or something that allowed him to slip through.

“The end is nigh,” Azriel said, after a few more minutes.

“I hope you’re talking about the tunnel and not anything else,” I muttered, and yelped as a particularly nasty stone caught my left breast. I rose on my tiptoes, squeezing past it without damaging my other breast, then sighed in relief as the tunnel immediately widened.

We finally came out into a cavern that had been hacked out of the stone and earth by something other than nature itself. The floor was mainly stone, and in the middle of it stood two massive stones. They were more than eight feet tall and a good four feet in diameter at their base, but rising to an almost needlelike point at the top. Unlike the stones we’d discovered in the other tunnel, which were mostly gray, these two glowed as brightly as a harvest moon. The flames of the two swords sparked the quartz within the stones to life, and sent rainbow-colored flurries across the earthen walls. These stones, like the others, were etched with symbols and markings. It was a form of cuneiform, and an ancient and powerful language that people from a long dead civilization had once used to call the Aedh to Earth.

My gaze swept the cavern’s floor. Surprisingly, these stones weren’t guarded. Not by a protection circle, at any rate.

“Perhaps not,” Azriel said, “but there is some form of magic active here.”

He took a cautious step forward. Energy trembled across my skin, its touch light and yet oddly distasteful. “Azriel —”

“I know.” He raised a hand. Sullen orange sparks danced across his outstretched fingertips as he moved to the left, feeling out the barrier’s dimensions. Predictably, it ringed the two stones completely. “I cannot feel any sort of break in it.”

I crossed my arms. “Unsurprising given neither of us knows much about magic. Do you think she’s already been here?”

He stopped beside me. “No. There is no lingering resonance in the air, and there surely would have been had these stones – positioned as they are on a major ley-line intersection – been used.”

I frowned. “So where the hell is she? I mean, she has to know we’re onto her now. You’d think her first port of call would be these stones and the gray fields. Surely she’d want that gate opened before we could stop her.”

“That is presuming, of course, she has created only one gate.”

I glanced at him sharply. “What makes you think she’d have more than one gateway?”

“Because, in many respects, it would make sense to do so.” He cupped my elbow and tugged me over to the far wall, away from the tunnel’s entrance and out of the immediate sight of anyone who might enter. Not that, I suspected, he actually expected anyone to enter.

“Why? I mean, creating gates that size” – I waved a hand toward the two stones – “has to take a lot of power, even if it is standing in the middle of a ley-line intersection.”

“Yes, but does it not seem odd to you that we found this building very easily? It’s not as if a great deal was done to conceal its presence.”

I frowned. “Well, it wasn’t exactly easy. I mean, the paper trail alone was hell —”

“Yes, but if she really wanted to hide it, she could have done so magically. Also, neither Ilianna nor the witches could find any great energy output coming from this area.”

I sat on my haunches and leaned back against the wall, even though my feet itched with the need to move, to do something other than just sit here. “Which was explained by some sort of spell restraining any visible output.”

“Perhaps.” He half shrugged, but his expression suggested he wasn’t buying it. “It also occurs to me that the Aedh” – he paused, his expression suggesting even the mere thought of Lucian was distasteful – “was never one to leave anything to chance. His actions in trying to impregnate you, Ilianna, and indeed the sorceress herself were indication enough of that. He would not be foolish enough to rely on only one entrance to the fields.”

Especially when he’d had centuries to plot every little detail of his revenge on both the Raziq and my father. “Yeah, but I thought gateways were straight-line things. You know, point A to point B with no offshoots or detours. And there’s only one gate here.”

“Yes, but a ley-line intersection holds enough power to create more than one gateway into the gray fields, so why would they not do so? The Aedh undoubtedly knew enough about magic to siphon the intersection’s energy down lesser lines. I cannot believe he would not have done so, especially given he knew – at least from the moment he became involved with you – that both your father and the Raziq were well aware of his presence.”

“And doing fucking nothing about it,” I muttered.

“They did not see him as a threat. In their eyes, he was lesser than he was, and therefore unimportant.”

And that lack of foresight had cost them – and us – the first key and might yet cost us the second.

Although to be fair, Azriel, at least, had seen Lucian’s true colors from the very beginning.

“If there’s more than one gateway, surely the Raziq would be watching both,” I said. “They want to stop this bitch – or bastard, depending on which form she’s wearing – as much as we do.”

“But what if the sorceress’s gray fields gateway is in the one place no one would ever think to look?”

“But there’s nowhere —” I paused, suddenly realizing what he was implying. “Surely even Lucian wouldn’t be that devious.”

“Why not? Are not the quarters he shared with your father as his chrání the perfect position for such a gateway? Your father cannot enter the temples without alerting the Raziq to his presence, and the Raziq cannot enter your father’s rooms. Nor would they even think to look there, given they do not think the Aedh a threat.”

“I wonder if that’s the reason he left the coordinates of that warehouse. It wasn’t so much the coordinates here on Earth that mattered, but the positioning on the fields.”

“It is possible, although that would mean there is a gateway somewhere in that warehouse.”

I jumped up. “We’d better go investigate —”

He caught my hand. “It would be useless to do so because we have not the means to get in or out of your father’s rooms.”

I frowned. “But if we find the gateway, it will take us into them.”

“Yes, but the private residences of the Aedh within the temple areas are all shielded. You cannot get in or out without the correct means of doing so.”

“Fuck it, why can’t something be simple in this damn quest?”

“Because that is not the way of your world or mine.” His voice held a slightly bitter edge. “However, your father said he was creating a means by which you could freely access his rooms. Perhaps you should check if anything has been left at your home while we were away.”

“That means going back through the damn tunnel. And risking the sorcerer coming here when we’re gone.”

“That is a risk, yes.”

Great. Damned if we did, and damned if we didn’t. I bit my lip, then half shrugged. “I guess we just have to take the chance.”

“We are right in this, Risa. I’m sure of it.”

I wasn’t, especially given lady luck hadn’t been all that generous to us to date. Still, what else could we do? It was either stay here – and risk losing her – or chase down our theory and hope like hell we were right. And at least with the latter, we were actually doing something.

Even if it ultimately proved to be the wrong something.

We made our way back through the tunnel. Progress was slow, and the delay ate at my nerves. The longer we were stuck here, the more chance there was of the bitch escaping us.

Although if Azriel’s theory was right, there was a good chance she already had. Our only hope lay in the fact that she hadn’t yet figured out which of the four items she’d stashed in her case was the key in disguise.

We finally reached the pit. I stood near the outer ring of stakes and glared up at the floor high above 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 chrání, 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.”

“I shall see what I can do.”

It was on my tongue to snap, “You’d better do your best,” but I restrained the urge. There was no point in antagonizing him when Mirri’s life still lay in his hands.

“I’d appreciate you hurrying. The Raziq are going to know the minute I step onto the fields.”

“They will be too busy saving their puny lives to worry about your presence.”

And with that, the white light died and I found myself blinking furiously against tears as I stared at Azriel.

“You were successful?” he said.

“I think so.” I pushed upright. “Do we head over to that other warehouse now, and try to find the other gate?”

“There is no need. I can transport us to the coordinates the Aedh left us once you are on the fields.”

I frowned. “I thought you said you could only transport to a place you have some physical point of reference to, like a soul?”

“Here on Earth, not on the fields.”

“Ah. Good.” I hesitated, then added, “I take it you can’t transport me onto the fields themselves?”

“No. If I were a reaper, I could guide your soul upon death, but that is not what we desire to happen anytime soon.”

I half smiled. “Been there once, and I’m in no hurry for a repeat.” I climbed onto the bed, made myself comfortable, then added, “What about the other Mijai? Will they be able to help us at all?”

He hesitated. “In the inner reaches of the temples, no.”

“What about if the sorceress reaches the gates? There are Mijai stationed there, aren’t there?”

“There is currently only one, as breaches have fallen over the last few hours. But if our sorceress gets that far, more will be called. They will aid us to stop her.”

So at least we weren’t going to be entirely alone. Which was a damn good thing if the Raziq happened to appear. They certainly weren’t going to be pleased the moment they realized I’d deceived them.

I hesitated, then asked, curious, “How will they react to my presence on the field?”

He shrugged. “You may or may not see them, depending on whether they decide to acknowledge your presence.”

Charming. “I’ll see you on the field in a few minutes.”

He nodded and disappeared. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. As I slowly released it, I released awareness of everything around me, concentrating on nothing more than the slowing beat of my heart and freeing my psyche, my soul, or whatever else people like to call it from the constraints of my flesh. It was similar, yet very different, to stepping onto the astral plane, mainly because the plane was of this world and the gray fields were not. On the fields, the real world was little more than a shadow, a place where those things that could not be seen on the living plane became visible. It was also the land between life and death, a place through which souls journeyed to whatever gateway was their next destination, be it heaven or hell.

As the awareness of my world began to fade, warmth throbbed at my neck – Ilianna’s magic at work, protecting me as my psyche pulled free from my flesh and stepped onto the gray fields.

The Dušan immediately exploded from my arm, her energy flowing through me, around me, as her lilac form gained flesh and shape, until she looked so solid and real that I wanted to reach out and touch her. She swirled around me, the wind of her body buffeting mine as her sharp ebony gaze scanned the fields around us. Looking for trouble. I wondered if she actually sensed it, or if she merely reacted to the growing knot of tension in the pit of my stomach.

I looked around for Azriel, and spotted him easily enough. He was a blaze of sunlight in this ghostly otherworld, a force whose very presence throbbed through my body. As if he, like the Dušan and Amaya, were a part of me. And I guess, given what he’d done, he now was.

He stopped in front of me and held out a hand. Though in this place we were both energy rather than flesh, when I placed my hand in his, it felt real and warm.

Just because we wear no flesh doesn’t make us any less real. His mental tone was gently chiding. Let’s go to your father’s chambers and see if our sorceress is there.

I’d barely nodded when the fields blurred, and suddenly we were standing in a place that was ghostly and surreal. A place filled with impossible shapes, high soaring arches, and honeycombed domes sitting atop floating towers.

I frowned. This doesn’t look like living quarters.

As you know them, no. But there are divisional walls here; you just can’t see them.

He was right, I couldn’t. All I could see was the wide expanse of ghostly, glowing buildings. Oddly, the temples appeared far more structurally heavy than the ethereal beauty of the reaper buildings I’d seen, even if their shapes seemed just as far beyond the realms of possibility.

I turned around, my frown deepening. I can’t see any form of transport gate here, nor does it appear as if the sorceress has arrived. I paused. And where the hell are the Dušan?

They are not able to enter this place. They wait in the temple grounds. He paused. There is energy coming from the right. I suspect our gate might lie there.

I followed him through the ether, and tried not to get distracted by the otherworldly beauty of everything around us. Azriel swung right, and the buildings disappeared, replaced by a honeycombed tunnel, along which ran various oddly shaped doors. Some glowed, some did not. And from one of them came a strange humming sound.

What’s that noise? I reached back for Amaya. She might not be needed, given I had Azriel to protect me, but I certainly felt easier with her in my hand – not something I’d ever thought would happen when she and I were first introduced.

It is not of this place, he replied.

Flames flickered down Valdis’s sides, and an answering hum came from Amaya. Whatever that noise was, the two swords were anticipating meeting it.

Have you any idea where it’s coming from?

From the star-shaped door. He glanced over his shoulder. There is movement inside. Be ready to fight.

My grip tightened against Amaya’s hilt, and her humming ratcheted up several notches. Is it our sorceress?

It is not a reaper or Aedh, so I would think it must be.

So you can’t tell from the energy itself?

No. He hesitated. It has not the feel of anything I’ve come across before.

If our theory was right, and both the sorceress and Lucian had been using dark magic to transform their beings into energy so that they could get onto the fields, then it was logical that he wouldn’t be able to recognize whoever or whatever waited inside that door. Azriel placed a hand on the odd-shaped door. It reacted to his touch, emitting a warm, nonthreatening light. I briefly wondered how it would have reacted had we not been wearing my father’s bracelets. He glanced at me. Are you ready?

I nodded and tightened my grip on Amaya. Her humming became a hiss of expectant fury, the noise jarring against the silence that surrounded us.

He pushed the door open and stepped through. I quickly followed, Amaya raised and my gaze scanning the surrounds. The room was large and circular in shape, with ghostly honeycombed walls defining its area. There was no furniture or adornments – or nothing that I recognized as such – nor did there appear to be anyone here.

But there was something here.

I may not have been able to see it, but I could damn well feel it. It was an uneasiness, a shadow, in a place that was bright and light.

Then that shadow moved, became two, and then three, and I realized what they were.

Dušan.

But these weren’t like our Dušan. These were dark and twisted, their beings radiating a wrongness that sickened me to the core.

And they weren’t alone.