No rebuttal came out of the air. If he was still following my thoughts, he was keeping his answers to himself. No surprise there.
I climbed onto my bike and started her up, firing out of the parking lot and into the traffic. But I didn’t head immediately to Mount Macedon—not only because I needed to know what was happening with the void, but because I wasn’t about to go up there without taking one or two precautions. And while that meant I should be talking to Uncle Quinn—who probably knew as much about demons and whatnot as Azriel—talking to him would no doubt result in me being chained to a chair unable to move for the next week or so. Neither he nor Aunt Riley had been overly impressed with the results of my last encounter with one of hell’s minions.
I made my way to Mirri’s and parked in a lot a few buildings down. After slinging my bag across my shoulder, I walked back, taking the stairs two at a time until I reached the third floor.
I pressed the doorbell and, in the distance, the tinny melody of "Witchy Woman" rang out. Sadness swirled; I’d used that same tune as Mom’s ring tone. I blinked rapidly and forced a smile as the door was opened.
"Risa," Mirri said, her cheeks flushed and her clothing more than a little disordered. "We weren’t expecting you."
"Clearly," I said, amused. "Do you want me to come back in half an hour or so?"
Her cheeks grew warmer. "No, no, of course not. Come in."
She stepped back and opened the door wider. I stepped through, my gaze sweeping the neat but small living area, admiring the comfortable old couches and the lovely old rugs that dotted the worn floorboards.
Mirri peered past me. "Reaper, if you’re there, please materialize. We have a no-ghost policy in this apartment."
"I am hardly a ghost," Azriel commented as he gained flesh inside the room.
"When you’re here but not here, you might as well be. And it’s rude, you know. Sort of like eavesdropping."
He didn’t comment as Ilianna came out of the bedroom, her expression exasperated as she tied the sash of her dressing gown.
"You really do have an impeccable sense of timing," she said. "What the hell do you want that couldn’t wait?"
I grinned. "I did offer to come back in half an hour."
She snorted disparagingly. "You may like it rushed, but I don’t. To repeat, what do you want?"