"Which clarifies nothing, given the gray fields themselves are the realm of death." And the Raziq certainly had no trouble finding me whenever I stepped onto the fields.
"Stepping onto them as an Aedh is very different from stepping on them as a soul ready to move on."
Which I would never be able to do again, thanks to Azriel's actions. Bitterness stabbed through me – bitterness and anger and a splintered sense of loss. I swallowed heavily and somehow said, "So is the fact I basically died the reason why the device in my heart hasn't summoned the Raziq?"
"Yes. As I told you previously, only death could stop it."
Which only meant I was free from the pain of the device, not from the Raziq themselves.
Unfortunately.
"And is that the reason you seem to find my death so amusing?"
"It was not so much your death, but the mere fact that you succeeded in short-circuiting Malin's plans."
Malin was the head of the Raziq, and my father's former lover. She was also a woman scorned, as my father had apparently refused to give her the child she'd wanted, deciding instead to seek out and impregnate my mother. It was a combination that made her less than benevolent when it came to me and, in part, the reason behind my latest kidnapping. What she'd actually done to me during that time I couldn't say, because she'd erased all memory of it.
Although given that she'd told me my father would more than likely kill me if he ever found out about it, I'm guessing it was something pretty bad. Something that perhaps tied me to her just as much as my father.
"I hadn't exactly planned to die, you know."
"Humanity rarely does. It is one of their greatest failings."
Strength fade, Amaya said, annoyance heavy in her mental tones. She didn't like having to admit to any sort of failing. Must draw —
No, I cut in. Drop the shield.
And I mentally crossed my fingers that my father hadn't been waiting for that very event.