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“The chrání 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 chrání. 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 the 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 chrání’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 imagine doing it to a brother or sister.
“Okay, so hit me with the clues.”
“As I said in the book you destroyed, the second key bears the semblance of a dagger. It was sent to the northwest, where the alluvial fields run deep and the soil is stained by rebellion.”
He stopped, and I waited. He didn’t go on. “That’s it? That’s all you’ve got?”
