"So why are we here?" I asked, attempting to shake off the effects of his touch.
"Is it not best to start at one end rather than the middle?"
I guess it did make more sense. I swung around and studied the darkness behind us. "Have the Raziq all gone?"
"Yes."
"Then let’s get this over with."
I walked forward, my footsteps soft yet echoing faintly in the darkness. I kept close to the damp brick wall, using its presence as a guide, because I sure as hell couldn’t see. It wasn’t long before we reached the first puddle of light and I paused, recognizing the small room to the left. It was where the Razan guards had been the night I’d escaped my prison. This time the TV was off, and the air was free of the scent of men.
"Should we check it?" I said, pausing near the doorway.
"Given that the book is hidden by veils, it would be wise."
"My father said I’d feel its presence. I don’t." But then, I hadn’t "felt" it when it first arrived, either. Of course, that could have been because I’d been too busy trying to avoid the lilac-colored dragon that had exploded from it—a dragon that now decorated my left arm.
I stepped inside and made a cursory circuit of the room, avoiding the take-out and drink containers that littered the floor. I didn’t feel anything more than the chill in the air.
We continued on down the tunnel. After a while, more doors came into view, and as my gaze went to the first one, I shivered. This was the cell where I’d been kept. The cell where I’d been tortured.
I reached for the door handle—my fingers shaking and my stomach flip-flopping—and opened it up. The room inside was small, dark, and yet familiar, even if the glass embedded into the concrete floor was barely visible and there was little sign of the energy field that had hampered my ability to shift into Aedh form. I stepped to the edge of the glass and wondered if the remnants of my jeans still lay in the middle of the circle.
"Risa." Azriel touched my elbow lightly, making me jump. "We cannot linger."
"Okay." I couldn’t sense the book in the cell, anyway, so I closed the door and tried the other two, with the same result.
The tunnel swept slowly around to the right and sounds began to invade the darkness. The slight drip of water, the murmur of conversation, the stir of heat through the air.