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Chapter 13
The Arms and Militaria Exhibition was being held in a beautiful redbrick building that had once been a post office. It sat on one corner of a street that was a mix of old architecture and more modern—but infinitely uglier—concrete buildings, a grand old lady that time had not diminished.
The street itself wasn’t crowded, although the parking lot across from the old post office was full, and I doubted they were all here for the nearby florist or the computer shop.
A roundabout was situated at the right end of the old building, but to the left there was a small metal gate and a green covered pathway that led—presumably—around to the back. Handy, given I had to set up the ward somewhere it wouldn’t be noticed—presuming it was a ward in the box my father had sent, and not something else.
“Whatever lies in the box,” Azriel said, “it certainly involves some form of magic. It crawls over my skin.”
I frowned. “Why would it have that reaction? It’s supposed to keep the Aedh out, not you.”
Azriel’s smile was tight, without humor. “Your father does not want me in possession of the keys any more than he does anyone else.”
I rubbed my head wearily. “You know, I hadn’t even thought of that possibility.”
He shrugged. “It is better to have us all locked out than none of us.”
“You can bet my father won’t be locked out. Or the Razan.” Not to mention the dark sorcerer. I doubted he was going to miss out on the action, given his success stealing the first key.
And then there was Lucian, the joker in the mix.
My gaze dropped to the box Azriel still held. “Should we use it, then?”
“Yes.” He handed it to me. “I can patrol the perimeter and cut any off who attempt to breach the wards.”
“What about my father?”
“Your father can’t gain flesh form, so even if he has created a back door in the ward’s magic, he still needs you to actually find and retrieve the key.”
“He needs me to find it,” I said darkly. “But he has Razan to retrieve it.”
“And if any do get past me, the Aedh will be beside you to stop them.”
I gave him a surprised look. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
“I would rather Tao be in there beside you, but it is an inescapable truth that the Aedh wants the keys for himself. He will fight anyone who gets in his way.” He regarded me steadily. “Do not turn your back on him.”
Definitely not. The bastard was just as likely to fuck me as kill me. I glanced down at the box in my hand, then took a deep breath and, with slightly shaking fingers, opened it. Inside were four small stones in varying shades of gray and a note. I tucked the box under my arm and opened the note.
Place these wards on each corner of the building, it said. Activate them in sequence, light to dark, with a drop of your blood.
Losing more blood, even if it was only a couple of drops, wasn’t exactly what I needed right now. Especially to activate damn wards. Still, if it kept the hordes out, then I guessed it was worth it.
I rolled the stones out onto my hand. They felt extraordinarily light and yet oddly warm. I couldn’t sense any magic in them, but my skin still crawled at their touch. I forced my fingers closed around them, then glanced up at the building again. Placing stones on three sides of the building would be easy enough, but the last side was right on the intersection corner, with only a small strip of pavement between it and the roundabout. Placing a stone there, however close to the building, was risking it either being kicked away or picked up by some curious kid. Not that there were actually kids in the street at the moment, but knowing my luck, they’d flood the place the minute I started activating the wards.
“What about the roof?” Azriel said. “He did not define that the corners had to be the base of the building.”
I glanced up. The roof was tiled and not particularly steep, but it was very visible from all parts of the street. If I got up there, I’d attract all sorts of unwanted attention.
“Then you must risk the last stone at the corner.”
I guess I did. I took another deep breath that did next to nothing to release the tension in me, then said, “Let’s get this done before Lucian turns up.”
I walked across the road, glanced up and down the footpath to see if anyone was paying undue attention to us, then pushed through the old wrought-iron gate and quickly headed around the corner. Ivy and shrubs crawled all over the fence lining one side of the path, which would have been the perfect place to hide a stone except for the fact they had to be on the corner of the building. I found a crack in the concrete that was as close as I was ever going to get and wedged the lightest-colored stone into it. “Blood,” I said suddenly. “Amaya won’t cut me, will she?”
“She is incapable of doing so, even if requested.” He drew Valdis and held her point down, near my leg. Her steel flickered with an odd purple fire. It was almost as if she were displeased. “She is.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Why is that?”
