Darkness Rising: The Dark Angel Series: Book Two (30 page)

“Don’t try to speak,” Azriel said softly. “Your throat will be raw.”

From the screaming, no doubt. God, what would the customers think? And why wasn’t a squadron of cops beating down our door right now?

“The magic that binds also contains. The only person who heard your screams was me.”

There was an odd edge to his voice, and I opened my eyes and looked up at him. There was concern and regret in his expression, and maybe even a hint of censure. But at himself rather than me, I suspected.

“You are correct,” he confirmed. “I did not think the binding would affect you that way. It doesn’t us.”

I licked dry lips and somehow croaked, “I’m not Mijai. I’m a half-breed nonhuman.”

A slight smile touched his lips—an echo of warmth that curled through my being, chasing away the chill. “But a very brave one.”

I snorted softly. “Okay, who are you? The Azriel I know wouldn’t be saying shit like that.”

He paused. “Why is it that many humans—or in your case nonhumans—are reluctant to accept a compliment when it is given?”

“I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, I don’t deserve the compliment. I was scared shitless.”

“My point exactly.”

I grimaced and pushed upright, needing to get away not only from the heat of him, but from the gentle caress of his fingers. I glanced down at my body. There was no blood on my shirt, no dark stain on the carpet. I was whole. It was as if the shadowed sword had never been a part of me.

And yet she was.

I could feel her. She was a distant hiss of static that was almost a heartbeat and lingered at the edges of thought, coiled and ready to be unleashed at the slightest notice.

I shivered and rubbed my arms. There was darkness and danger in that static—for me, and for those who opposed me.

“Amaya has accepted you,” Azriel said. I glanced around as he pushed to his feet, the movement economical yet somehow graceful. “You will feel her presence everywhere you go, in everything you do. Learn her song. She is more than just a blade.”

He offered me his hand. I clasped it and he pulled me up lightly. “I’m not Mijai. I can barely understand you, let alone a bloody sword.”

“You understand me more than you might wish to let on,” he countered. “And Amaya’s voice will become clearer as you grow used to each other.”

Maybe. Maybe not. While the sword might have accepted me, it didn’t necessarily follow that we
would ever understand each other. After all, according to him, I shouldn’t have felt the pain that I did during the binding. So heaven only knew what else would differ.

“So where is she now?” I said, looking at the floor but not seeing the shadow-wrapped weapon.

“She’s where she always will be, unless you purposefully remove her. In her sheath at your back.”

If I was wearing a sword, then I couldn’t feel it. I reached back and felt the coldness of steel.
Damn.
I wrapped my fingers around the hilt and slowly drew the sword free. While she was little more than shadows, she was far from light, though her weight rested comfortably in my hand. At my touch, her whispering grew stronger, filled with an eagerness to rend and tear. Another shiver ran through me. I swung her back and forth, watching the lilac fire that caressed her sharp edges spray across the floor, and wondered if—like Valdis—she’d scream when she sliced into flesh. Somehow, I suspected not.

Then I placed her back into her sheath, only briefly feeling the weight of her across my back.

“Are you sure no one can see or feel her? I really don’t need to get arrested for carrying a weapon right now.”

Footsteps clattered up the stairs. Tao and Ilianna returning.

“No one will see her except those whose life you are about to extinguish,” Azriel said.

“Whoa,” Ilianna said, her gaze widening as she came into the room. “Where the hell did that sword come from?”

I raised an eyebrow at Azriel. A smiled touched his lips and lightly crinkled the corners of his eyes, and my pulse did its usual stupid dance. “Well, no one except someone like Ilianna.”

Tao came up behind her, his gaze swinging from me to Azriel before frowning down at Ilianna. “What sword?”

I smiled and waved a hand. “Long story. You two ready to go?”

Ilianna hefted the large canvas bag she was carrying. “All manner of magical whatnot present and accounted for.”

I grabbed my purse and swung it over my shoulder. It settled into place easily, as if there weren’t a shadowy sword strapped to my back. I shivered again, then said, “Then let’s get this show on the road.”

Before the inner voice whispering dark warnings of trouble ahead became too loud to ignore.

We arrived at Mount Macedon an hour before dawn. In the glow of the four-wheel drive’s lights, the old metal gates seemed even older and stronger than they had the other morning—a barrier that seemed to forbid passage.

Ilianna leaned her forearms on the steering wheel, her gaze sweeping the gate and the fence to either side of it. “The magic in this place feels ancient.”

“According to Kiandra, it is.” I opened the SUV’s door and climbed out. “It seemed almost sentient to me.”

“I don’t think I’d go as far as that,” Ilianna said, frowning as she walked to the front of the vehicle,
“but there’s certainly a great power residing here, and there
is
a level of awareness within it.”

“There’s also some sort of fire burning,” Tao commented, his hands on his hips as he stopped beside us. “I can feel its heat.”

I swore softly. “The fire elementals must be still present.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Fire elementals? As in, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings fire elementals?”

I blinked. “What?”

“You know, that creature Gandalf battled when he was in the pits of Moria?”

“Wasn’t that a Balrog? They’re demons, not elementals.”

“But it was associated with fire—”

“Enough,” Azriel cut in, as he appeared in front of us. His expression was impatient. “The elementals remain near the fire that gave them life. If Ilianna creates the void just inside the gates, we should be able to retrieve and read the book before they become a problem.”

“Should
being the operative word.” I’d learned the hard way not to rely on shoulds.

His gaze met mine. “We have little other choice.”

That was certainly true enough. I sighed. “Go get the book. I’ll meet you on the gray fields.”

He nodded and winked out of existence. I glanced at Ilianna. “Time to go see if the ancient power will accept your magic.”

I strode forward, Ilianna and Tao a step behind me. The gates were still locked, but as we approached, the lock fell away and the gates slid silently open.

“I think that’s your answer,” Ilianna said softly. She walked past me, her expression awed. “I can feel it. Around me. In me.”

I shivered and rubbed my arms. I knew all about feeling magic inside of you—Amaya was a dark heat that stirred restlessly on the outer edges of my consciousness. Something about this place seemed to be making her uneasy—or was I transferring my own unease and trepidation onto her?

“The fire elementals are on the move,” Tao murmured as we followed Ilianna off the path and into the trees. “They must have sensed our presence.”

Or the magic of this place was hedging its bets—welcoming us, but at the same time opposing. I met Tao’s gaze grimly. “Will you be able to cope with them?”

He shrugged. “Do we have any other choice?”

“No, but—”

“Ris,” he said, gently squeezing my arm, “I’ll keep Ilianna safe. I’ll keep
me
safe. Just do what you have to as fast as you can.”

I nodded. There was nothing else I could do. Nothing else I could say. I knew what the elementals were capable of, but Tao was a fire-starter. If anyone had a hope of containing those things, it was him.

We hit a clearing. Ilianna stopped in the middle of it and said, “We can do it here.”

“What do you need us to do?”

She glanced at me, her gaze still glowing with an almost otherworldly luminescence. “You need to stand here. I will create the protection circle and containment void, then invite you in.”

I frowned. “But you can’t be in the circle. It’s too dangerous, Ilianna.” We didn’t know if there were other spells woven into the fabric of the book, and had no idea what would happen once I opened it. The containment spell was aimed at protecting them as much as the void was meant to stop the Aedh from sensing what I was up to.

“I won’t be,” she said. “Once the circle and void are in place, I’ll create a doorway. As long as we use only that doorway to enter and exit, then the circle will remain active.”

“If there’s a door, then other things might be able to get in.” Or out.

“They won’t. It’s a modified spell that will be attuned to our resonance alone. Nothing else will be able to get in or out.” The odd glow in her eyes died suddenly and she smiled. “It’ll be fine. Stop worrying.”

How? They were risking their lives for me, in a place filled with magic, not to mention walking bonfires. I took a deep breath that did nothing to alleviate the fear twisting my guts, then glanced at Tao, who gave me a brief thumbs-up as I walked across to Ilianna. But his gaze had already moved on, scanning the trees, his expression touched with concern. I bit my lip and wondered just how close the elementals actually were.

“When everything is ready,” Ilianna said, making me jump a little. “I’ll say,
How do you enter the circle, Risa Jones?
Your response should be,
In complete trust of the powers that reside and protect within.”

When I nodded, she returned to her bag of tricks and withdrew her athame, four candles, and a box of
matches. She placed these on the ground, then marked a large circle in the dirt around them. Next she picked up the candles and placed them at four points—the green one to the north, yellow to the east, red in the south, and blue in the west. I knew from past experiences that these points represented the four elements—earth, air, fire, and water.

With that done, she raised her arms and made a sweeping motion. “Let this space be cleared of all negativity and inappropriate energies, and may any lost souls inhabiting it be returned where they need to be.”

Air stirred and became imbued with warmth. I clenched my fingers but otherwise remained still.

Ilianna bent to light the first candle. “Guardians of the east, I call upon you to watch over this circle and guard the two allowed to enter. Powers of knowledge and wisdom, guided by air, keep watch over us and let no others enter by body or deed.”

Then she moved to the red candle and lit it. “Guardians of the south, I call upon you to watch over this circle and guard the two allowed to enter. Powers of energy and will, guided by fire, keep watch over us and let no force or ill intent enter.”

She moved on. The blue candle was next, then finally, the green. “Guardians of the north, I call upon you to watch over this circle and guard the actions of the two allowed to enter. Powers of endurance and strength, guided by earth, we ask that you protect us against deeds of strength and might.”

When the last of the ritual words had been spoken, she picked up her athame and said, “The circle has been cast. How do you enter the circle, Risa Jones?”

I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “In complete trust in the powers that reside and protect within.”

She slashed her athame across a small section of the circle, first to the right, then to the left. “Enter.”

I did. She caught my fingers in hers as I stopped beside her and squeezed lightly. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

Then she stepped out of the circle and made that slashing motion with her athame again, effectively closing the circle.

I blew out a breath, then sat down, legs crossed. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. As I slowly released it, I released awareness of everything and everyone else around me, concentrating on nothing more than the slowing beat of my heart. The world around me began to fade as the gray fields gathered close. Warmth throbbed at my neck—Ilianna’s magic at work, protecting me as my psyche, my soul, or whatever else people liked to call it, pulled away from the constraints of my flesh and stepped gently into the gray fields that were neither life nor death.

But on the gray fields, the invisible became visible. The real world might fade to be little more than shadows, but those things not sighted on the living plane gained substance when viewed from here.

The Dušan was one of those things. She exploded from my arm, her energy flowing through me, around me, as her lilac form gained flesh and shape, until she looked so solid and real that I wanted to reach out and touch her. She swirled around me, the wind of her body buffeting mine as her sharp ebony gaze scanned the fields around us, looking for trouble. I
wondered if she was actually sensing it, or if she merely reacted to the knot of fear growing in the pit of my stomach.

I saw Azriel before I felt him—he was a blaze of sunlight in this ghostly otherworld, a force whose very presence seemed to throb through my body. As if he, like the Dušan and Amaya, were a part of me. And I guess in many respects he was, given he was attuned to my Chi.