I stopped just behind him. "Plastic tubs containing micro disks, no less."
"Hundreds of them. We could be here for months." He flashed me a grin. "Not that I'd mind being stuck in a tiny room with you for that long. I reckon I could break down your resistance to my obvious charms by the end of it."
I nudged him with my elbow. "You start at that end, I'll start at this."
He nodded and walked to the end of the shed, pulling down the first of the tubs and quickly breaking the seal. It didn't take all that long to find disks dated the day Nadler was married—all the tubs were categorized by year and month, so it was simply a matter of checking the dates of the first couple.
"Five disks for Saturday the eighteenth," Jak said, pulling them out and handing them to me. "You got somewhere we can check them? I really don't want to hand them over to the Directorate without at least seeing what we have."
"I have at work." I hesitated, biting my lip. I had no doubt that Rhoan would claim these disks the minute we left the shed, but I really needed to know why Jacinta and Blake had died, and these things just might hold the answer.
"Well, that's going to do us a fat lot of good when it's there and we're here," Jak said sarcastically.
"I know." Silently, I added, Azriel, would you mind freezing him again?
Azriel appeared behind him and did precisely that. "What do you plan to do?"
I dropped my purse on the shelf near Jak, then wrapped my fingers tight around the small disks. "I'm going to Stane's in Aedh form, and get him to do a quick copy."
Azriel frowned. "It is dangerous to take Aedh form—"
"And it's even more dangerous to be on the gray fields at the moment. We have to take some chances if we're ever to solve this mess."
He studied me for a moment, then nodded. "I will meet you at Stane's."
I nodded, closed my eyes, and called to the Aedh within. The magic responded slowly, almost sluggishly, which meant that I was still pushing my limits strength-wise. I needed to eat and I needed to sleep, and I very much suspected the latter of those wasn't going to be on my agenda for a while yet.
Eventually, though, the heat and energy that was my Aedh half surged, numbing pain and dulling sensation as it invaded every muscle, every cell, breaking them down and tearing them apart, until my flesh no longer existed and I became one with the air. Until I held no substance, no form, and could not be seen or heard or felt by anyone or anything.