“But the Raziq were once priests—”
“And they’re also the reason the Aedh no longer exist to guard the gates,” I cut in. “This might be the only way both of us are going to survive a confrontation with the Raziq, and we have to take it.”
He stared at me for several heartbeats, then swore viciously. Not in my language, in his. I blinked at the realization that I’d understood it, but I let it slide. Right now it didn’t matter a damn how or when that had happened. All that did matter was surviving the next few minutes.
Because the Raziq were getting nearer. They’d breached the barrier between the fields and Earth and were closing in even as we stood here. I suspected the only reason they hadn’t yet confronted us was simply that we had moved. But that wouldn’t help the Brindle.
Azriel sheathed his sword, then caught my hand and tugged me toward him. “If we’re going to do this, then we do it somewhere where your body is going to be safe while you’re on the fields.”
“Not the Brindle—”
“No.”
The word was barely out of his mouth when his energy ripped through us again. We appeared in a room that was dark but not unoccupied. The scents in the air told me exactly where we were—Aunt Riley’s. She was the very last person I wanted to endanger in any way. I wasn’t actually blood related to Riley, but after my mom’s death, she and her pack were the only family I had left.
But before I could make any objection about being there, she said, “I’m gathering there’s a good reason behind your sudden appearance in our bedroom at this ungodly hour.”
Her tone was wry, and she didn’t sound the slightest bit sleepy. But then, she’d once been not only a guardian, but one of their best. I guess old habits—like sleeping light—die hard.
“The Aedh hunt us.” Azriel’s voice was tight. He didn’t like doing this any more than I did, though I suspected our reasons were very different. “I need you to keep Risa’s body safe while she’s on the gray fields.”
And with that, he kissed me—fiercely but all too briefly—then disappeared. Leaving me reeling, battling for breath, and more frightened than I’d ever been. Because I was about to face the wrath of the Raziq alone, even if for only a few minutes.
Not alone, Amaya grumbled. Here am.
Yes, she was. But even a demon sword with a thirst for bloodshed might not be enough to counter the fury I could feel in the Raziq.
And why the hell could I even feel that? Had it something to do with whatever Malin—the woman in charge of the Raziq and my father’s pissed-off ex—had done to me that time she’d tortured me? I didn’t know, because Malin had also erased my knowledge of the procedure to prevent my father from figuring out what she’d done. But with him dead, maybe it was time to find out.
“Risa?” This time it was Riley’s mate, Quinn, who spoke.
He was the reason Azriel had brought me here. While Riley may once have been a guardian, Quinn was a whole lot more. He was a vampire who’d once been a Cazador—who were basically the high vampire council’s elite hit squad—and was also what I was: a half-breed Aedh. One who’d undergone priest’s training. If there was anyone here on Earth who could stand against the wrath of the Raziq for more than a second, it would be him.
I swallowed heavily, but it didn’t do a whole lot to ease the dryness in my throat. What I was about to do was the very last thing I’d ever wanted to do, but the reality was I’d been left with little other choice.
“There’s no time to explain,” I said. “I have to get onto the fields immediately. People will die if I don’t.”
“Then do it.” Quinn climbed out of bed and walked to the wardrobes that lined one wall of their bedroom. “No one will get past us.”
I hoped he was right, but it wasn’t like I was going to be around to find out. I sat cross-legged on the thick, cushiony carpet, saw Quinn open a door and reach for the weapons within, then closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
As I released it, I released awareness of everything around me, concentrating on nothing more than slowing the frantic beat of my heart so I could free my psyche, my soul—or whatever else people liked to call it—from the constraints of my flesh. That was what the Raziq were following—not my flesh, but my spirit. I hoped they would follow me onto the fields and not wreak hell on the two people I cared about most in this world.
As the awareness of everything around me began to fade, warmth throbbed at my neck—a sign that the charm Ilianna had given me when we’d both still been teenagers was at work, protecting me as my psyche pulled free and stepped onto the gray fields. Here the real world was little more than a shadow, a place where those things that could not be seen on the living plane became visible. It was also the land between life and death, a place through which souls journeyed to whatever gateway was their next destination, be it heaven or hell.
But it was far from uninhabited. The reapers lived here, and so did the Raziq who remained.
And right now it was a dangerous place for me to be. The Raziq could move far faster here than I could. My only hope was reaching the Aedh temples that surrounded and protected the gates.
I turned and ran. The Dušan immediately exploded from my arm, her energy flowing through me as her serpentine form gained flesh and shape, became real and solid. She swirled around me, the wind of her body buffeting mine as her sharp ebony gaze scanned the fields around us. Looking for trouble. Looking to fight.
I had to wonder whether even she would have any hope against the Raziq. Because they were coming. The thunder of their approach shook the very air around us.
Fear surged, and it lent me the strength to go faster. But running seemed a hideously slow method of movement, even if everything around me was little more than a blur. I wished I could transport myself to the temples instantaneously, as Azriel had in the past, but I wasn’t yet of this world, even if I was destined to become a Mijai upon death.
The Dušan’s movements were becoming more and more frantic. I swore and reached for every ounce of energy I had left, until it felt as if I were flying through the fields of gray.
But even when I reached the temples, I felt no safer. This place was as ghostly and surreal as the rest of the fields, but it was also a place filled with impossible shapes, high, soaring arches, and honeycombed domes sitting atop floating towers. Yet it no longer felt as empty as it had the first time I’d come here. There was an awareness—an anger—here now, and it filled the temple grounds with a watchful energy that stung my skin and sent chills through my being.