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“What would it matter to you if I was?” I snapped, and yanked my arm free again. “But as it happens, he was informing me that Razan have arrived. Wouldn’t be yours, would they?”
His expression darkened. Meaning he wasn’t overly excited by this news and, warped or not, it cheered me up no end. I mean, anything that pissed him off had to be a good thing, if only marginally, right?
“I do not have enough magic left to create Razan,” he said. “So if they come, they are not mine.”
“But has your dark sorceress got enough magic to create them? Or something similar to them?”
He shot me a glance, his expression unreadable. “What makes you think that?”
“Call it an educated guess. You’re the one who said you don’t do anything without reason. Perhaps your apparent lack of magic strength—by Aedh standards, I’m guessing, not human—is the real reason you’re making out with a very powerful sorceress. I bet she could create all manner of magic with a little help from you.”
“Perhaps,” he said. “But those Razan are not here under my orders.”
“Yeah, but maybe they’re here under hers.”
He didn’t answer that particular accusation, meaning I’d hit the nail on the head. And if she was behind the creation of the twisted Razan who’d run interference when the first key was stolen—and who were here now—then maybe she was more involved than we’d thought. After all, there had been male clothes in her Gold Coast apartment. Maybe Lucian was being played just as much as he was playing us.
“Just find that key,” he growled.
“It may not even be here,” I reminded him. “And don’t stand so fucking close.”
“Or you’ll do what?” he mocked. “Let’s not forget who holds all the cards here.”
“Not all the cards,” I retorted. “You still need me to find the damn keys, and standing so close, radiating tension all over me, is interfering with that.”
He stepped back, but only a pace or two. Still, it gave me not only breathing room, but room enough to draw Amaya if I needed to.
From downstairs came a shout, then the sound of fighting. I knew Azriel was involved, but I resisted the urge to reach out to him. Distractions were the last thing he needed.
I walked on, scanning the displayed weapons, finding nothing, sensing nothing. Then, as I reached the end of the aisle, energy slithered across my skin—a caress so light, it barely brushed the hairs on my arm. But the Dušan stirred in my flesh and my gaze swept the remaining aisle. It was in one of them, somewhere.
“You’ve found something?” Lucian said, excitement in his voice.
“Not exactly.” I hesitated as another wash of energy ran over my skin, but this one was stronger and darker. “There’s something wrong.”
“Aside from the hullabaloo your reaper is causing downstairs, you mean?”
“Yes.” My gaze swept the room. There were still a dozen men up here, and none of them seemed overly interested in what was going on downstairs. In fact, they appeared to be deliberately ignoring it. Even the guards. Unease stirred. “It just doesn’t feel right.”
“The wards your father so kindly created have stopped the Raziq. Your reaper is taking care of the Razan. There is nothing and no one else here to worry about, Risa.”
He was wrong. Totally wrong. But I guessed he knew that. Guessed whatever or whoever I was sensing were either his people or his magic, or those belonging to his dark sorceress.
I forced myself to keep moving and tried to catch the elusive sensation that would lead me to the next key. The awareness of danger grew until it was a pulse beating in tune with my heart. My skin itched and sweat began to trickle down my spine, and all I could smell was fear. It was thick and rich and it was all mine.
I walked down the next aisle, drawn by the growing pull of power. The Dušan’s movements grew stronger, and she appeared to be moving from the left to the right. Knowing that the last time she’d done this, she’d actually been hinting at the key’s location, I walked to the end of this aisle and into the next one.
And stopped abruptly. The key was here.
But every sense I had screamed that pinning down its exact location was not a good thing to do right now.
“You’ve found it.” It was a statement, not a question, and again suggested that Lucian had not been altogether truthful when he’d said he couldn’t read my thoughts. Like that was a surprise.
“It’s there somewhere.” I pointed to the largest of the three remaining display cases.
But the words were barely out of my mouth when the shit hit. The dozen strangers in the room turned as one, and for the first time I saw their faces. They weren’t just men. They were the half-human, half-animal beings that had attacked us the first time.
Fuck.
