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“If you don’t do it soon, I’m not going to have any fucking wrists left.”
Azriel touched Valdis’s tip to the links. The hissing ramped up, becoming fever-pitched, then the links simply exploded. Shrapnel spun through the darkness, embedding itself into the walls but somehow avoiding skin.
“The notification spell was in fact a minor demon,” Azriel said. “It has left to warn the Charna. I can trace its path.”
I blinked. “There was a demon spelled to the cuffs?”
“Yes. It is a messenger, nothing more.”
“Glad no one told me,” Tao muttered, gingerly pulling his shirt away from his torn and bloody wrists. “I think I would have freaked out.”
“So once warned, won’t the Charna attack? That’s what we want, right?” I asked.
Azriel didn’t answer immediately, his expression intent and his head cocked to one side, as if he were listening to something.
Unease raced through me, and I glanced nervously over my shoulder. The corridor beyond remained shadowed and quiet, and I had no sense that there was anyone or anything in the warehouse but us.
And yet …
I shivered, and resisted the temptation to rub my arms. The silence suddenly seemed charged. Threatening.
Tao climbed carefully to his feet. Flame danced briefly across his fingertips, and his smile was cold when his gaze met mine. “I hope she does attack. I’ll enjoy watching her burn.”
“It is not the Charna that is coming,” Azriel said. Valdis, still clenched in his hand, was running with angry blue flames.
That cold, hard lump tightened in my gut, and for a moment I couldn’t even speak. “Then what is?” I managed eventually.
“Hounds,” he said softly. “Hellhounds.”
“HELLHOUNDS?” TAO SAID, HIS VOICE INCREDULOUS. “As in rabid black dogs straight from the bowels of hell?”
Azriel glanced at him. “Yes. I can feel the force of them.”
So could I. That electric sensation in the air was getting stronger, and the air around us was beginning to stir. It was almost as if the hounds were preceded by a wind of evil. “Can you stop them?
“Yes.” He glanced at me. “But it will mean letting the Charna go free. Even now, the messenger’s trail is fading.”
“Then why are you standing here?” Tao said, with all the determination of a man who had never heard Aunt Riley’s stories about the hounds and just what they were capable of. “The sooner you trace and stop the Charna, the sooner those hounds will be sent back
to the hell they came from, right?”
“Right.” Azriel’s gaze didn’t move from mine. Waiting. Judging.
If he was looking for bravery, he wasn’t going to find it. I was terrified—so terrified that my legs were barely supporting me, my gut was churning, and I thought I might puke. But if the Charna was to be stopped, I couldn’t let fear sway my decisions.
I clenched my fist and said, “Do it. But hurry.”
He bowed, ever so slightly. For a heartbeat, I swear there was a glimmer of respect in his eyes. But maybe that was a trick of the firelight gleaming off Tao’s hands. “Do not attempt to use your Aedh gifts to reach into their flesh and rip them apart. It will destroy you.”
Tao glanced from me to Azriel and back again. “What the hell is he talking about?”
“If I take Aedh form, I can seep into flesh and tear it apart,” I said absently. Tao swore, but my gaze stayed on Azriel as I added, “Why not?”
“Because they are not flesh, nor are they energy. They are spirits—essences of evil, if you like. They cannot be pulled apart like flesh beings.”
“Okay, that’s a gruesome skill,” Tao muttered.
Azriel added, “Do what you must to keep alive, Risa Jones. I shall return as quickly as I am able.”
