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“Fate does not like being thwarted too often, and she exacts consequences if she is. Alston’s death will be quick. If we change the timing, her next one may be long and painful.” He hesitated, then added softly, “Your mother knew that.”
“Don’t you dare bring my mom into this!” I snapped, clenching my fists against the sudden rush of anger and futility.
The elevator reached the ground floor and the doors opened. I stormed out, desperate to get away from Azriel. Desperate to ignore the confirmation of what Mom had already told me, and what I knew deep down to be true. Because it didn’t make me feel any better right now to know she couldn’t have been saved no matter what I’d done. Which was totally irrational given that the same knowledge had made me feel better earlier.
But I guess it was an irrational sort of day.
By the time I’d gotten back to my bike, I’d calmed down a little. I took a deep breath, released it slowly, then said softly, “I’m sorry, Azriel. I shouldn’t have jumped down your throat like that.”
He reappeared beside me, one dark eyebrow raised. “Jumping down someone’s throat is a difficult task at the best of times. I certainly would have noticed if you’d done it to me.”
I chuckled softly and shook my head. “Two funnies in one day? Be careful, Azriel, or I might just begin to think you’re not as emotionless as you let on.”
“Just because I am not created the same way as you doesn’t mean I am emotionless,” he said, with a hint of censure in his voice. “We are not the Aedh.”
No, he certainly was not. Although Lucian—the full blooded Aedh I was spending time with—not only had a somewhat wicked sense of humor, but he could and did enjoy sex with humans. Then again, he’d spent a whole lot of time—centuries of it, in fact—trapped here on earth. Which must have knocked some of the emotionless edges off him.
Reapers didn’t have that sort of interaction with us, however, and I couldn’t ever imagine them thinking about sex, let alone doing—
The thought stalled as his eyebrow lifted again. Heat seeped into my cheeks. Damn it, I really was going to have to watch what I was thinking around this particular reaper—especially when my thoughts headed in that direction.
I shoved on my helmet and said, “I’m heading home to get the locker key, then into Melbourne to check out the locker. You’d better keep your distance, just in case my father changes his mind and decides to turn up.”
“You will call if he does?”
“Trust me, I have no desire to be thrown about like an old rag a second time.”
“As you wish, then.”
He winked out of existence. I climbed onto my bike, then headed home. Our place was a square, two-story brick building situated in the heart of Richmond, and its somewhat bland gray exterior belied the beauty of its internal space. Ilianna, Tao, and I had purchased it fresh from college and had renovated every inch of it, filling it with the latest and greatest in technology and design. And that included the latest in security, although it wouldn’t keep me safe from a determined Raziq.
After parking in our garage, I ran up the stairs to the thick alloy door that was both fire- and bulletproof and looked into the little security scanner beside it. Red light swept across my eyes, and a second later the locks tumbled and the door slid silently open.
The huge industrial fans that dominated the vaulted ceiling were on full, creating such a breeze that it whipp
ed my hair out of its ponytail—although it didn’t do a lot to erase the two voices harmonizing, or the sharp scent of roses, honey, and rum.
I knew that scent and stopped cold. Ilianna and Mirri were making love potions in the kitchen again, and there were certain moments in the creation of such potions that you really didn’t want to walk in on. Not unless you wanted to fall hard for the next male—or female, if your tastes ran that way—that you met.
Although a lot of people might still mock anything connected to witches and magic, Ilianna’s potions and charms were extremely popular simply because the damn things worked. Ilianna was a witch in the truest sense of the word, and she’d been trained in magic since she was very young. I might not have tried a love potion—and had never actually wanted to—but I’d always relied heavily on the charms she made to keep me safe while walking the gray fields.
Of course, these days I supposedly had the Dušan to do that, but the dragon had so far been untested. And even if it had been proven, I think I’d still wear Ilianna’s charms. In my opinion, you could never have enough protection when walking a place as potentially dangerous as the fields between life and death.
Even now the simple charm—which consisted of a piece of petrified wood to connect me to the earth, and small pieces of agate and serpentine for protection—was nestled between my breasts. And right beside it was the gold filigree droplet that my father had given to my mother on the night of my conception. It was shaped like two wings, and very much represented my heritage.
“Hey, ladies,” I yelled. “Is it safe for me to come in?”
Mirri’s head popped into view as she leaned around the kitchen doorway. “Totally,” she said, her smile bright against the richness of her skin. “Or at least, it is for you. We’re brewing potions aimed at men seeking men.”
“I didn’t know you could make gender-specific potions, let alone preference-specific.” My boots echoed on the wooden floors as I walked toward the kitchen. “And I hope you’ve forewarned Tao. He’ll be totally pissed if he gets caught in the backlash.”
Mirri made a face then disappeared, her voice floating back to me from the depths of the kitchen. “I doubt there’s a potion alive that would turn him away from the ladies.”
I laughed and leaned a shoulder against the door frame; the rich scents were just too strong to go any farther.
“So,” Ilianna said, her green gaze meeting mine as she glanced over her shoulder. Like Mirri, she was a horse shifter, but she was a rich palomino where Mirri was a mahogany bay. “How’d it go today?”
“Good and bad.” I updated them briefly on my father’s visit and Hunter’s mission. Mirri frowned. “If your father wishes your cooperation, why would he do that to you?”
