Unease raced through me, and I glanced nervously over my shoulder. The corridor beyond remained shadowed and quiet, and I had no sense that there was anyone or anything in the warehouse but us.
And yet …
I shivered, and resisted the temptation to rub my arms. The silence suddenly seemed charged. Threatening.
Tao climbed carefully to his feet. Flame danced briefly across his fingertips, and his smile was cold when his gaze met mine. "I hope she does attack. I'll enjoy watching her burn."
"It is not the Charna that is coming," Azriel said. Valdis, still clenched in his hand, was running with angry blue flames.
That cold, hard lump tightened in my gut, and for a moment I couldn't even speak. "Then what is?" I managed eventually.
"Hounds," he said softly. "Hellhounds."
Chapter Fourteen
"HELLHOUNDS?" TAO SAID, HIS VOICE INCREDULOUS. "As in rabid black dogs straight from the bowels of hell?"
Azriel glanced at him. "Yes. I can feel the force of them."
So could I. That electric sensation in the air was getting stronger, and the air around us was beginning to stir. It was almost as if the hounds were preceded by a wind of evil. "Can you stop them?
"Yes." He glanced at me. "But it will mean letting the Charna go free. Even now, the messenger's trail is fading."
"Then why are you standing here?" Tao said, with all the determination of a man who had never heard Aunt Riley's stories about the hounds and just what they were capable of. "The sooner you trace and stop the Charna, the sooner those hounds will be sent back to the hell they came from, right?"
"Right." Azriel's gaze didn't move from mine. Waiting. Judging.
If he was looking for bravery, he wasn't going to find it. I was terrified—so terrified that my legs were barely supporting me, my gut was churning, and I thought I might puke. But if the Charna was to be stopped, I couldn't let fear sway my decisions.