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Amaya flared brighter, her flames a furious swirl. I could’ve sworn that just for a moment she moved.
I hugged my arms a little tighter. I knew what was coming. Knew, and feared it. And part of me needed to delay it for as long as I could. Maybe if I did, Azriel might find me. Save me.
A false hope was better than no hope.
I swallowed heavily and said, “What is it you want?”
He paused, as if that was a question he hadn’t been expecting. “We wish your help in finding your father.”
“That’s not exactly true. You want the keys.”
“That is our ultimate objective, yes. To achieve it, we need Hieu.”
“My father might know the general direction of the keys, but he can’t actually find them for you. Which means you need me, as well.”
And that meant that no matter what they did to me, they couldn’t actually kill me. It wasn’t much comfort, however—not given what they’d already done.
“Your father knows the location of the keys, so actually finding them should not present a problem for him. You are not so much of a concern.”
“I beg to differ—if he could find the keys himself, he would have done so by now. But only one of his flesh can find the keys and, thanks to you guys, he can no longer take on flesh. So, logically, that leaves me.”
Of course, it was a statement that presumed he was actually telling the truth when it came to the keys, and I had a vague suspicion he wasn’t. Not entirely, anyway.
“What has been undone can be redone,” the disembodied voice said evenly. “That is not a concern.”
I was betting it was, because otherwise I’d have been dead. “You held my father prisoner, so why didn’t you force him to help you then?”
A slight shimmer of energy snagged my attention, simply because it wasn’t the darker energy belonging to the Raziq. I frowned, my gaze scanning the little cavern before coming to rest on Amaya.
She was definitely closer.
I had no idea how the hell she was achieving it, but I wasn’t about to question it. Having her in my hand probably wouldn’t make any difference to my situation, considering how the Raziq had divested me of her in the first place, but my fingers still itched to wrap around her hilt. She gave me strength and made me feel safer—something I’d never thought possible when Azriel had first produced her.
“That,” the Raziq said, his voice no different and yet suddenly so filled with menace, “is knowledge you do not require.”
I licked my lips and said, “How am I supposed to find my father when he’s always been the one who’s contacted me?”
“We will give you a device that will notify us when you are in his presence.”
“Exactly what sort of device?” Amaya was almost within reach of a sideways lunge. I shivered and resisted the temptation to move. “And how does it work?”
“It is attuned to Hieu’s life force and will react when he is near. We will be notified.”
“My father is smart enough to realize what the device is the minute he sees it.” She was close, so close. My fingers twitched and tension began to wind through my muscles. “He’ll get the hell out of there before you lot ever make an appearance.”>I snorted softly. “Good-bye, Lucian. Talk to you soon.”
“Hopefully, sooner than you—”
I cut him off in midsentence, tossed the phone and purse over onto the passenger seat, then climbed into the car.
And only then realized I wasn’t alone in the car.
Chapter 10
For a moment, fear froze me to the spot. And that’s all it took for the Ania to wrap tightly around me and prevent movement. Amaya was screaming inside my head, her fury burning through my body and her flames flickering across my skin like angry fireflies.
“Azriel!” I screamed, physically and mentally, even as the Ania ripped me free of the seat and the car. I felt the heat of his approach. Then power exploded and there was no Azriel, no world, only darkness and an uneasy sense of movement.
It stopped with a suddenness that made my stomach lurch, and then I was dropped rather unceremoniously onto a surface that was cool and dry. Dirt, I thought, spitting it out of my mouth in between groans. I drew Amaya, then rolled onto my back. Her purple light spread across the black, parting it like glue. Rock surrounded me—above and around. I was in a cavern of some sort, and there didn’t seem to be either an entry or an exit point. My tomb—for that’s what it suddenly felt like—was about four feet wide and about the same height. I could kneel, but I couldn’t fully stand. But a breeze stirred sluggishly across my skin, which meant there was a link to the surface here somewhere, even if the air had a stale, somewhat old scent. And that in itself suggested not only that there wasn’t a whole lot of fresh air getting down here, but also that I was deep underground.
