"And the Raziq? I venture they were not pleased by such an outcome." His gaze raked me, and deep inside, desire stirred. Goddamn it, what was it about this man that called to me, even when I was annoyed with him? "Are they the reason you have the bruises?"
"No, they're thanks to my father." I stopped at the traffic lights and punched the button with a little more force than necessary. Who, exactly, I was more annoyed at I couldn't say for sure—my father, the two of them, or myself for not being strong enough to tell Lucian to fuck off and leave me alone.
In fact, right now, I wished both of them—and the rest of the damn circus that had entered my life around the same time—would just go away and leave me in peace.
"Your father?" Surprise edged his tone. "Violence might be one of his mainstays, but it's rarely unleashed when he still requires that person's assistance."
I gave him a long look. "And just how do you know that about my father?"
He snorted. "He's a Raziq, is he not? They are rebels and outcasts for the precise reason that they do not conform to Aedh standards—not only in ideology, but in their very natures."
He lies, Azriel said. There is more to his knowledge than what he claims.
Just as there's more to your dislike than what you claim? I grouched back.
And yet I couldn't dismiss his doubts, simply because I agreed with them.
"What you said sounded more like firsthand, personal knowledge than like a general statement about the Raziq."
"I said I'd ask around about your father, and I have. Aedh numbers may place us on the verge of extinction, but that does not mean there are none in this city. Hieu is old even in Aedh terms, and not unknown."
"All that sounds a little too convenient."
"Sometimes the truth is." He caught my hand and pulled me to an abrupt stop. "You know why I'm on this hunt. I want the Raziq."
"I know—"
"No, you don't," he interrupted fiercely. "Because I don't just want them dead. I want them burned from existence. I want them erased from the memory of the earth itself and their names never to be mentioned, even in the darkest whispers in the darkest of places."