I took a deep breath that did nothing to ease the tension still coiling through me and looked around for Azriel. He was standing where I’d left him, in a sea of broken, twisting bodies.
He looked up and said, "Did you read the book?"
"No." I sheathed Amaya and stepped across the snake’s still-twitching body. "A serpent hit me before I could get full directions."
"Then get them now."
A horn rang across the silence—a long, haunting note that oddly filled me with fear. I bit my lip, my gaze searching through the shadows of the gray fields, seeing little. No ghosts, no reapers other than Azriel, nothing that seemed out of place. And yet, something was.
"Hurry," Azriel said. "The Aedh hunt the gray fields. They are coming this way."
I swore and stepped closer to the edge of the fields. The book came into view, but whatever magic had allowed me to view the words had dissipated.
The page was completely empty.
Chapter Twelve
I SWORE AGAIN. VEHEMENTLY.
Azriel was beside me in an instant, his heat and tension washing across me, leaving me breathless. "There is a problem?"
I flung a hand toward the book. "The words are gone. I didn’t get the full directions for the key."
"That is unfortunate, but there is nothing we can do about it now." His voice held an edge that was part anger and part frustration. "The Raziq grow near. You must leave this place."
"What about the book?"
"It is safer to keep it where it is than retain it in the fields at the moment. The Raziq are as restricted by the magic of the coven site as we are. That is not the case here." His gaze met mine. "Go."
I hesitated, and saw the annoyance flash through his expression. And he had every right to feel that way. Hesitation was stupid. There was nothing I could do against the force of the Raziq, not in this place and not in my own world. Staying here was only putting him in greater danger.