"So if you find yourself guarding a totally annoying woman who won’t listen to reason and who insists on seeing an Aedh you distrust intensely, you’re liable to become more angry and more unreasonable the longer you hold this form?"
Amusement briefly touched his lips. "More than likely. Luckily for us both, I am not stuck guarding a woman who totally ignores reason. She just ignores it when it suits her best."
A smile twitched my lips. "Ah, but she is seeing a fallen Aedh."
"I didn’t say she was perfect."
I laughed and he smiled. It made his whole face seem warmer, more alive. More handsome. And I shouldn’t be noticing. I turned around and finished washing myself.
"Did you discover anything else about Forman when you examined him?" I asked as I turned off the taps then reached for a towel.
"No. And there certainly wasn’t enough of his brains left to enter his mind and read the lingering shadows of his thoughts and life."
"Yeah, Lucian did get a little trigger-happy." I walked across to my locker and began dressing. "I would have loved to have questioned him about his boss."
"So Forman did not set the magic?"
"No, and it wasn’t an Aedh, either, because the magic had a different feel. It was darker."
"Suggesting a sorcerer or Charna, perhaps?"
"Perhaps." I finger-combed my hair. "But why would either of those want control of the gates?"
"Power," he said simply. "Especially if we’re dealing with a dark sorcerer."
"And if the dark sorcerer is also behind the buy-up of the businesses around Stane?"
He shrugged. "West Street sits on a major ley line junction. That would be a huge draw to someone after power—especially if he cannot naturally walk the gray fields."