"The fact that it was no rift, and the portals sent out no warning."
I rubbed my head. All this information was making the ache worse. "The gates send out warnings?"
"Once the warning of a rift would have been sent to the priests, but since they no longer exist, we have managed to subvert the magic enough so that we are warned instead. We may not be able to control the gates, but we can eliminate what comes through."
Sometimes, I wanted to snap, but that would have been petty. He'd already explained that there were too few Mijai to stop whatever did come through. "None of this explains why my father would have sent me the Dušan."
"It does if he expects you to be a part of his plans."
"How?" I half yelled. "I can't work magic and I've never even seen the portals! How the hell am I going to be any assistance in a plot to destroy them?"
"Hey," Ilianna said from the other room. "Everything all right in there?"
I blew out a breath and tried to calm the anger boiling though me. It was due more to fear than frustration, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with. Neither did Azriel's impassive expression.
"Yes," I replied, then walked across the room, stopping when only a few feet remained between me and the reaper. His heat surrounded me, a caress of warmth that did little to ease the chill deep within. "If there are keys to the gates, how did this person get hold of them? I would have thought they'd be well guarded."
"They would be, had there been such things. But there are not."
I frowned. "But you said—"
"What I said was true. Someone has created keys. We believe the brief openings we sensed—both the most recent and the one twenty-eight years ago—were merely a test."
"If it was, and it worked, why aren't the gates now permanently closed?"
"We do not know. Which is why we need to hunt down your father. He can help to further our knowledge of what is going on."
I snorted. Help to further our knowledge was no doubt a polite way of saying he was going to give up the information or die. Possibly both.