“I will. And thanks.”
I turned and walked into Stane’s bedroom. It was very much like the rest of his apartment—filled with all the latest gadgets, and there was little in the way of dust, despite his claim to the contrary. Which wasn’t really surprising—dust could ruin the innards of expensive gadgets, after all, and there were lots of them up here.
I closed the door, shed my clothes, then tucked Amaya under the pillow and climbed into bed. It was big and warm and comfortable, and I was asleep in no time.
The sensation of movement woke me. For a couple of minutes I did nothing more than lie there, dizzy, confused, and feeling oddly transparent. Like my body had somehow disappeared and I was nothing more than particles drifting in the air. When I tried to wake, tried to move, I couldn’t do either. But as panic surged, the movement stopped, and suddenly I was full-bodied and fully aware.
I wasn’t in Stane’s bed.
Not unless it had suddenly turned to cold stone.
No, no, no! It can’t be happening again. They can’t have taken me again.
I opened my eyes. Realized my fears were all too real.
They had taken me.
The last time I’d been in this place the heavy blanket of darkness had been lifted only by Amaya’s lilac flames. This time there were torches on the wall. Why they were there I had no idea, but they sputtered and spat and threw an angry light, as if they had no desire to be in this place.
It was a desire I fully understood.
Because this was the place where the Raziq had torn my molecules apart to place the tracker in my heart.
My heart began to race so fast I could have sworn it was trying to tear out of my chest. But fear wouldn’t help me get through this. Truthfully, nothing would. They’d do what they wanted to regardless of what I said or did.
But I could at least face it with dignity and strength. If nothing else, it would make me feel better afterward.
I forced myself upright. I couldn’t stand—the ceiling in the cavern was far too low to allow that. The air was as stale as ever, and the torches only made it harder to breathe.
The Raziq were little more than a faint shimmer in the shadows, but the electricity of them crawled across my skin. This time, it was different, though—stronger. There was someone else here, someone I hadn’t met before. Someone more powerful than the other five combined.
And I was without Amaya.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
Once again I shoved aside the panic that threatened to overwhelm me and hugged my knees close to my chest.
“So,” I said, somehow managing to keep my voice conversational, although it wouldn’t have mattered if it wasn’t. These Aedh had about as much understanding of human emotion as a brick wall. “My posse has gained a new member—how lovely.”
“I am not new.” Though I’d been expecting a male, this voice was not only decidedly feminine, but surprisingly pleasant. “But I am here due to past actions, both yours and ours.”
“And do you have a name?”
She didn’t answer immediately. I had the odd impression she was considering the wisdom of doing so, as she no doubt knew I’d ask my father about her. But then, they wanted me in my father’s presence so they could capture him, so there was little harm in telling me.
It was a conclusion she must have agreed with. “I am called Malin.”
“And what do you want from me this time, Malin?”
“We want what we have always wanted—your cooperation.”
“And as I seem to be saying a lot lately, it isn’t like I have much of a choice to do anything else.” I considered the shimmer that was her presence. “How did you get past Azriel?”
“The distance the reaper kept between you was foolish.” There was a hint of smugness in her voice. The Aedh might be unfeeling creatures, but they were not above feeling superior. “He did not realize the danger he had placed you in until you were in our grasp.”
And he couldn’t rescue me, either. For some reason, earth inhibited a reaper’s ability to track souls, so being this deep underground meant that not only would Azriel be unable to find me, but our chi connection wouldn’t work.
If he’d been frantic when I’d been confronted by the hellhounds, I could well imagine his state right now. And he’d no doubt blame himself for my capture. But even if he had been close, he wouldn’t have been able to stop this kidnapping. They’d wanted me, and one solitary reaper could not have stood up to the number of Raziq currently in this place. No matter how fierce a fighter Azriel was, it would have been six against one, and the death I’d feared at the train station would have been real and devastating.
“Look, my father sensing your damn device was not my fault. I didn’t warn him. I did what you asked.”
“We realize this. The device placed within you was somewhat hurried in its creation. I plan to rectify this now.”
Horror crawled through me. “Rectifying” was surely just another word for pulling me apart to adjust the thing in my heart. I’d lived through that once. I wasn’t entirely sure I could do so a second time.
“My father is no fool, and he’s managed to remain one step ahead of you lot all along. He’ll expect changes to be made to the device.”
“Undoubtedly.”
“Then what is the point of making the adjustment?”
“It will provide a nice piece of subterfuge. He’ll see what he expects to see, and will not go looking for any other changes.”
Any other changes? I was not liking the sound of that at all. My voice shook slightly as I said, “Meaning what?”
“Meaning I plan to interweave the strands of our beings.”
I could only stare at the flame-lit shadows in horror. Weave her being through mine? What the hell did that mean? How the hell was something like that even possible?
“When you can pull apart the atoms of a being as easily as a human might a tapestry, such a task is relatively simple.”
“But—” The rest of the sentence got stuck somewhere in the thickness of my throat. I swallowed heavily and tried again. “But what does it actually mean?”
“It means that not only will you carry the threads of your father’s heritage, you will also carry mine.”
Was “thread” the Aedh word for DNA? Is that what she was going to do—insert her DNA into mine? What the hell would that do to me? Make me more Aedh? Make me more like them?
“Yes,” she said. “And no.”
“Well, that fucking answers the question, doesn’t it?”
She didn’t react to the anger in the statement. No surprise there, I guess. “You will become more fully Aedh than you currently are, and your skills will therefore be stronger, but it will not affect your overall humanity.”
The way she said “humanity” made it all too clear that she meant “emotion,” and that was a huge relief. As much as I’d enjoyed being with Lucian, I didn’t want to be like him emotionally. Hell, the only thing he seemed passionate about—aside from sex—was revenge.
“But won’t my father sense such an insertion?” I was his daughter, after all, and he could trace my whereabouts thanks to that fact. Surely that same connection would inform him that something had been altered within me.
“Your father cares as much for the human part of your nature as any Aedh ever does. As long as that is retained—however minor it might be—he will not notice the change.” The tone was still smug, and yet oddly kind. Like a parent talking to an obtuse child.
I guess if she intended to weave her DNA through mine she technically could be considered a parent.
“But he can read my thoughts as easily as you lot. It’s illogical to think he won’t know.”
“Which is why you will not remember exactly what we have done,” she replied. “In fact, we bet your life on this.”
Fuck, they were going to alter my memories. Then the rest of her words sank in and my gut began to churn even harder. “What do you mean, you’re betting my life on it?”
“Hieu will not risk our regaining control of the keys, so if he does notice the insertion, he will kill you.”
Maybe. Maybe not. After all, my father seemed overly determined to get the keys for his own nefarious reasons, and I was his only way of doing that when he had no physical form here on earth.
But then, what did I really know about the man who was my parent? He’d been one of the Raziq, had worked with them to create the keys. They surely had more of an insight to his character than I did.
“How will this insertion help you capture my father?”
“As you have noted, your father has always been one step ahead of us. Now that he knows of the device, he will work on a way to mute it.”
“Yes. And?”
“By threading my DNA through your lesser being, I will be aware of your movements, no matter where you are. If the device within your heart becomes subdued, I will still be able to find you.”
I stared at the energy of the Raziq, and felt ice crawl through me. There was more to this than that. It would do more than that.
“If the keys were so damn important, how the hell did you lose them in the first place?”
“We did not expect treachery.”
I snorted. “More the fool you, then. Treachery comes with any attempt at power.”
“The keys were meant to end our servitude to the portals by closing them permanently. They were not a means of power.”
The person who had control of the keys had control over the gates to heaven and hell—how could that not be considered a means of power? Hell, maybe that was the real reason Hunter wanted the keys. It wasn’t about the high council using hell as their own private prison—a stupid idea if ever I’d heard one—but rather yet another means of Hunter solidifying her power base.
“Can I remind you that it’s the reapers who have been guarding the gates? The priests who were actually supposed to guard them died out long ago.” Or rather, had died out or become Raziq.