"The Raziq have already had one go at snatching you," he said evenly. "I might not have a magic sword, but I can arrange a good old-fashioned barbecue if any of them turns up."
"Given how they’ve turned our lives upside down, I might enjoy seeing that." She gathered her jacket from a nearby chair, then looked at me. "Play nicely until we get back, children."
I snorted softly. I had no intention of playing with anyone right now, let alone a reaper who seemed to be gathering too many human traits.
As Tao and Ilianna trooped down the stairs, I rose and walked across to the fridge, getting myself another bottle of beer before walking across to the windows. Outside, Lygon Street was alive with laughter, life, and music. I closed my eyes for a moment, losing myself in the sound and briefly imagining that everything was normal, that this was all some crazy dream.
But it wasn’t, and no amount of wishing was going to make it so. Part of me wondered if things would ever be normal again, even after this whole mess was resolved.
I opened the beer, took a drink, then said, "Lucian tells me that the Raziq will know our location the minute I touch the keys."
"That is more than possible," Azriel agreed.
"So why did he have to tell me that? Why couldn’t you?"
"Would it have made the situation any easier?"
No, but that wasn’t the point. "He also suggested that you’re unlikely to get help from other Mijai. He said you guys are rather thin on the ground at the moment."
"That is also true."
I turned around and faced him. He was still standing on the far side of the room, his stance casual and his hands clasped behind his back. But there was nothing casual about the feel of the air that boiled around him, or the fierce light that burned in his different-colored blue eyes.
"So just how did you intend to protect me when I retrieved the keys?"
"With all that I have. With my life, if need be."
"And a fat lot of good that’ll do," I retorted, "if you die and I’m stuck trying to undo this mess by myself."