"I’m going to find the first damn key and attempt to finish this whole stupid thing."
"But that could be dangerous—"
"Yeah. Which is why you and Tao will stay here for now."
"But Tao needs more medical care than I can give him. We can’t just leave him here!"
"Ilianna," I said, as gently as I could, "he took an elemental into his own body to destroy it. I have no idea what that’s done to him, and I very much doubt anyone else will, either. I certainly don’t think there’s anything modern medicine can do for him that you and his own natural healing abilities can’t."
"But if he’s in a coma—"
I hesitated, studying him, torn by the need to do whatever I could to help him and the growing desire to protect them both. "Look, if you think he needs it, call in some healers. But don’t leave this place. The Raziq are on the prowl, and this is the only place we know for sure they can’t penetrate."
"But we can’t stay here forever!"
"I know, and we won’t. It’s just for the next twenty-four hours." I squeezed her shoulder gently. "It’ll be okay. I promise."
"God, I hope so." She took in a long shuddery breath, then added, "Be careful, won’t you?"
"I will." And bit back the instinctive urge to tell her the same, to warn her that Tao might not be the person he was if and when he woke. But on some instinctive level, she’d be aware of that—and as a powerful witch, she’d certainly be aware of the energy storm deep with Tao.
I gave her a tense smile, then walked back across the clearing to grab Amaya—and stopped when I saw the Dušan’s book. Or rather, the remains of it. It must have been caught in the last explosion, and it had been all but destroyed.
Damn it, could nothing go our way for a change?
I knelt and gently picked the book up. The leather binding crumbled under my touch and was blown away in cindery pieces by the gentle breeze. There was little left of the pages inside—just browned remnants as fragile as the cover. So much for Azriel thinking it would be safer here than on the gray fields.
I dropped it back on the ground, brushed my hands free of its grit, and stood up. There was nothing I could do about the book, and certainly no chance that I’d learn the location of the rest of the keys. I just had to rely on what I had.