Darkness Unmasked

I carefully flicked the nearest stone out of sequence. It rattled noisily across the old floorboards, the sound almost thunderous in the hush holding the building captive. A heartbeat later, energy burned across my skin and Azriel was in front of me, pulling me into a hug as fierce and as desperate as any I’d ever experienced.

I melted into him, enjoying the security and warmth of his embrace. “I’m okay,” I said eventually. My words were muffled against his chest, but I wasn’t about to move. Not yet. Not until the trembling that was as much utter relief as it was weakness stopped. “I wasn’t there for most of it.”

“The Aedh’s death will be slow and very painful.” Azriel’s voice was flat but filled with such fury, it momentarily stole my breath. “And I will savor every single moment of it.”

“But not until we find Ilianna.”

“He cannot get away—”

“You will not kill him.” I pulled away from him, my gaze searching his. Saw the anger, the pain, and knew it was all for me. It warmed me just as much as it worried me. “Far worse can and has been done to me, Azriel. Ilianna is a hostage against my good behavior, and until we can find her, then Lucian has to live.”

He said something in his own language, the words soft but vehement. It didn’t take much imagination to know he was swearing. “You cannot seriously think we should allow him in on the search for the keys. That is taking things too far.”

Things had already gone too far, and it was too late to stop it all now. “I am, and he will.” I gave him a lopsided smile. “At the very least, it means we can keep an eye on him.”

“I would much rather keep a sword on him, if it’s all the same to you.” He tugged me close again and wrapped his arms around me. It felt like heaven. “Let’s get you home.”

If I was in his arms, then I was home, but I didn’t give that particular thought voice. His energy swept around me, and in no time we’d zipped through the fields and were re-forming in the middle of my bedroom. I stepped back and glanced at the clock on my side table. It was just after ten.

“I’ll have a shower and clean up; then we can go see if the key is at the exhibition.”

“And if we find it?”

I shrugged. “I guess what happens next depends on what sort of security they have in place.”

He studied me for a moment, then said, “What of the Aedh?”

“He’s going to meet us there at eleven thirty.”

“So we should try to get there sooner—”

“No,” I cut in. “Remember Ilianna.”

He swore again. I smiled, dropped a quick kiss on his lips, and said, “I know. Trust me, I know.”

“I bet you do not.”

He caught my broken hand and gently ran his fingers over the mangled remnants of mine. Energy flowed from his touch, renewing my reserves even as my fingers began to heal. Or rather, heal as much as they were ever going to. But I could bend them, use them, and the scars—which were red and fierce-looking right now—would eventually fade. I’d been lucky, and I knew it. If not for the fact I was half Aedh, I would have lost them.

He raised my fingers to his lips, brushing a sweet kiss across them, then said, “Go. I will prepare you something to eat.”

He disappeared, and I headed for the shower. For the longest time, I did nothing more than stand under the water, letting the heat wash the ache from my bruised body and the scents of lust and Lucian from my skin. I wished it could similarly wash the niggling sense of violation from my mind, but there was nothing in this world that could do that except time.

I ran my fingers across my belly and wondered if I did indeed carry the beginnings of life deep inside. Wondered how I would feel if it turned out to be Lucian’s rather than Azriel’s.

Another two questions only time could answer.

I took a somewhat shuddery breath, then got the hell out of the shower and dressed. Worrying over events far in the future was not particularly the best way to spend my time at the moment. Not when I had keys to not only find but, hopefully, this time, keep. How we were going to do that given the whole Lucian situation, I had no idea, but one thing was certain. The bastard might think he held all the cards, but there was always, always, a way out. You just had to look hard enough.

And perhaps be willing to pay the ultimate price.

But that price would not be Ilianna’s death. That was the one place I would not go.

Azriel, it seemed, had been picking up cooking tips from somewhere, because this time he’d produced the world’s biggest steak and some steamed veggies.

I sat down and tucked in with gusto. Once I’d demolished everything on my plate, I grabbed my Coke, sat back, and asked the one question that had been quietly bugging me. “Why weren’t you able to rescue me?”

“Because, as you have already guessed, he used magic to not only snatch you, but to disguise your whereabouts.”

“And Jak?”

“Unharmed.” His voice was as neutral as his expression. “I will admit to a somewhat angry response to his part in your abduction, but I controlled it the minute I realized he was an unwilling participant.”

“Meaning you beat him up, then healed him?”

“Something like that.” He returned my gaze evenly. “He does not now remember the event.”

Meaning the event, as he put it, had been pretty bad. “I told you Jak wouldn’t willingly betray me, Azriel.”

“He has before, so that is an illogical statement.”

Perhaps it was, but I nevertheless believed it. “What, exactly, did Lucian do to him?”

“Nothing more than luring him to the warehouse with the promise of a story, then capturing his mind.”

Which was why Jak hadn’t really sounded himself. They had been Lucian’s words, not Jak’s. I drank some Coke, enjoying the fuzzy goodness for several seconds before saying, “We need to find Ilianna. Until she’s free, we’re stuck doing whatever Lucian wants us to do.”

“I would suspect that he has her position well hidden by his magic.”

I frowned. “Does it take much magic to do that sort of thing?”

He shrugged, the movement brief but somehow elegant. “I am not knowledgeable when it comes to magic, but I would suspect so.”

“So perhaps what we need is someone who is not only knowledgeable in all matters magic, but who is able to detect such things.”

“Ilianna’s mother.”

I nodded and thrust upward. “We need to go see—”

I cut the rest of the sentence off as a phone rang. It wasn’t my phone—I hadn’t yet gotten around to charging the damn thing—but rather a phone coming from Tao’s room. It was answered after a few seconds, but that didn’t do much to ease the tension suddenly running through me.

I knew who was making that call. Knew why.

After a few minutes, Tao stumbled out, looking somewhat disheveled and far from awake. “It’s Mirri,” he said, thrusting the phone at me. “She’s not making sense. Is Ilianna missing or something?”

“Yes.” I grabbed the phone and said, “It’s okay, Mirri. I know what’s happened to her, and she’s okay.”

“Oh, thank god.” Tears filled her bright eyes. “I was so afraid something bad had happened to her. Where is she? Why hasn’t she contacted me?”

Something bad had happened, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. At the same time, I couldn’t not tell her what was going on. I hesitated, then said, “I’m afraid she’s being held hostage against my good behavior. She hasn’t been hurt, and won’t be, as long as I do everything her kidnapper says.”

“Oh, fuck.”

That, ten times over, I thought grimly. “I think we’ve worked out a way to free her, Mirri—”

The phone was snatched from her hand, and suddenly I was staring at a man with piercing, light blue eyes, pale skin, and silver-white hair. Albino, I thought, and then realized this was probably Carwyn.

“I want in on any rescue attempt,” he said, voice deep and fierce.

“I doubt that Ilianna would—”

“I may not yet be her mate,” he cut in. “But I will be. Whoever did this to her must pay.”

And that was both the stallion and the man speaking, I thought grimly. And yet I couldn’t do everything. If I were to have any hope of prizing Ilianna away from Lucian’s clutches, then it would have to be when Lucian was otherwise distracted.

“We’ve got to find her first,” I said; then, when he opened his mouth to obviously argue, I quickly added, “The minute we do, we’ll ring you.”

“I’ll be standing by.”

“Great.” I hung up and handed the phone back to Tao, who was looking decidedly more awake.

“Ilianna’s really missing?”

“Lucian’s snatched her and hidden her location through magic. I’m about to go over to the Brindle to see if her mom can find her.”

“What can I—”

“No,” I cut in. “Time is of the essence. We’ll come back here the minute we uncover anything.”

“To echo Carwyn’s words, I’ll be standing by.” He half turned, then clicked his fingers and added, “Oh, a parcel was delivered for you an hour ago. I dropped it on the coffee table so you’d see it coming in, which you obviously haven’t.”

No, because I hadn’t come in the regular way, but rather via the Azriel express. I walked across to pick up the small white box. It wasn’t particularly heavy, and the writing was my father’s. This had to be the wards he promised. Heart beating a whole lot faster, I glanced up at Tao and said, “Thanks.”

He frowned. “It’s not one of those parcels, is it? Because you’re suddenly looking a whole lot paler.”

“It is, but it’s something I’ve asked for this time.” I forced a smile. “Hopefully, it’s something that’ll keep the hordes at bay while we grab the next key.”