I frowned. "I don't understand—"
"No," Kiandra agreed. "But Ilianna does. There are many reasons she ran from us. What she witnessed when young was the excuse but not the truth."
I rubbed my forehead wearily. Fate, it seemed, had been brewing her plans for us all for a very long time. "Look, right now, all I want to do is rescue her. Did you find her?"
"Yes. And you were right—great magic holds her."
"Meaning we won't get past it?"
"Meaning that neither you nor your dark defender will. It is aimed at energy beings rather than mere flesh and blood."
"So Tao and Carwyn would get past it?"
"I suspect so." She hesitated. "There are beings within who guard her, but I could gain no true sense of them. They may or may not be human."
"Well, neither are Tao and Carwyn, and both are pretty pissed off right now."
She nodded. "It may be enough. Just tell them not to go in all guns blazing, because that will have dire consequences."
For Ilianna, I thought, not for them. I swallowed and nodded. "I'll pass on the message."
She nodded. "She is being held in an abandoned warehouse in Link Court, Brooklyn. The magic lies within the building, not along the perimeter."
"Meaning they'd need to be wary of other security measures?"
"Yes." She moved past me and led the way back through the warren of shadowed, powerful corridors. When we neared the front door, she stopped and lightly touched my shoulder. "Be careful, Risa Jones. There are more games being played than you realize."
My smile was almost a grimace. "Tell me something I don't know."