Can't, Amaya muttered. Blocked.
She had to mean magically, because there were few physical forces that could actually stop him.
So did those same restrictions apply to me becoming Aedh? I quickly reached for the magic. The pounding in my head sharpened dramatically—suggesting that part of me was trying to respond—but I remained as I was. In flesh and bound.
And that was a little frightening. We'd guessed Lucian had been capable of magic, but I hadn't thought it possible that he could create a spell powerful enough to either bind an Aedh to human form or stop the movement of a reaper. And if he could do that, then he probably knew how to kill them, too. It made me suddenly glad that Azriel wasn't here.
Besides, I wanted the pleasure of killing the bastard myself.
Not self, Amaya said, her background noise ramping up a notch. Me include.
Trust me, you'll be included.
The hissing changed to a happy humming. I still wasn't entirely sure whether that was an improvement.
I pulled on the ropes binding me to test their strength. There was no give and no sign that they'd break easily. No surprise there, I guess. Lucian was well aware of what I could and couldn't do.
Just as, I suddenly realized, he was well aware that my friends were very much my Achilles' heel.
God, was he the reason for Ilianna's disappearance?
I hoped like hell he wasn't, but the dread that filled me suggested otherwise.
I opened my eyes. The ceiling was wood and heavily stained and draped with cobwebs that hung in long, dusty strings. The walls to the left and the right had been semidemolished, but there was little to see in the rooms beyond except rubble.
The bed itself was wide and would have been comfortable if not for the ropes holding me so tightly. They snaked from my wrists and my ankles over each corner of the bed and were, I presumed, anchored somehow to the floor.
I lifted my head to see if I could spot anything else. There were industrial-looking windows running the length of the wall in front of me, but they were all covered with black plastic. Wouldn't want the neighbors seeing what he was up to, after all.