"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.
"Just because we no longer serve or guard the portals does not mean we are free from them."
Another statement that didn't make a whole lot of sense.
God, I thought, dropping my head onto my hands. Why in hell didn't someone wake me? Surely this couldn't be happening. Surely it couldn't be real.
But it was. And it was a nightmare from which there was no escape. I very much suspected that not even death would help me. After all, beings who could unravel the threads of humanity could command a being to life as easily as they could kill.
"What about the device in my heart? What are you going to do to that?"