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You take too many chances as it is.
Maybe, but what other choice did I have? It wasn’t like fate—or anyone else—was running around dropping clues at our feet. I drew my sword and stepped close to the gateway again. Fire flickered across Amaya’s dark blade, spearing lilac light across the pillars and sparking the quartz within the stone to life. They stood about six feet tall and, like the ones we’d discovered underground, were covered in writing and symbols that resembled cuneiform. It was ancient, that writing—and powerful.
I swept Amaya in an arc around the floor, using her light to check if there was any sort of protection circle present. She was unusually quiet, which meant she detected no immediate threat. It should have been comforting, but it wasn’t. Not when Azriel’s tension flowed through me like a distant storm.
These pillars have no protection circle. The others did.
Maybe Nadler—or whoever else rents this storage locker—thinks the magic encompassing the perimeter was enough.
I frowned at the stones. I wonder if these stones are a means of transport like the first ones we found were.
That, he said, voice sharper, is not something you should be discovering. Not when you have no idea of the type of magic involved or where it actually goes.
Yeah, but as I’ve said, we’re not likely to discover our answers by sitting here staring at the fucking things.
Risa—
I know. I know. I’m doing it anyway.
He didn’t reply, but then, he didn’t need to. His anger came through so thick and fast, it damn near suffocated me.
I gripped Amaya tighter. She began to hiss, the sound soft but fierce, filled with expectation. I continued to stare at the stones and hoped like hell I was making the right decision.
Then, before my courage gave way to common sense, I forced my feet forward and stepped in between the two stones.
Chapter 3
Nothing happened.
No light flare, no caress of magic, nothing. The stones were silent. Inert.
I raised a hand and tentatively brushed the stone’s surface. Life pulsed under my fingertips. It was almost as if the rock had life and heart. The magic was there and ready to react. It just hadn’t. Yet it had before . . .
I closed my eyes as the realization of what that meant sunk in. I’d been Aedh when they’d reacted, which meant these stones had been attuned to that form rather than human.
And there was only one being—one man—who had one, if not both, of those forms and who was also involved in the search for the keys.
Lucian.
Fuck! He really had taken me for a ride, and in more ways than one. The bastard had told me—constantly—that he couldn’t take Aedh form, that the ability had been stripped from him by the Raziq when they’d tortured him for information. It seemed that might be yet another lie in a growing list of them.
He was not lying about being tortured, Azriel said. Your father all but confirmed that.
I raised my eyebrows. You’re actually defending him?
In this, yes. And it grieves me greatly.
Amusement spun through me. What about the whole “stripped of his powers” spiel? How much truth was there in that?
I think it was skillfully mixed with untruths. I do not, however, believe he can attain full Aedh form.
So these stones might not be for his use? And did that mean we had another Aedh—someone we didn’t know about—lurking in the background?
Azriel hesitated. I am no expert in magic, but I suspect that if Lucian does use these stones, then they would be attuned to a full Aedh, in whatever form they might be in.
Which might explain why they didn’t react when I was in human form, but not why they did when I was in Aedh.
As I said, I am no expert in magic, but there would be little difference between you and a full Aedh when you take on Aedh form.
