“Yes.”
“So why didn’t you come riding to my rescue when I had the car accident?”
“Because the Raziq attacked us at the house.”
I spun around. “What? Is Ilianna okay?”
“Of course. They attacked in force, which meant I had to flee rather than fight.”
I studied him for a moment, hearing the annoyance in his voice even though it didn’t show in his features, then turned around and squirted some soap into my hand. “And you would rather have fought?”
“Of course. The more Raziq I destroy, the fewer there are to find and use the keys.”
“So why not gather together a group of Mijai and hunt them down?”
“Because,” he said patiently, “that is against—”
“—the rules,” I finished for him. “Whoever made these rules of yours really sucks, you know that?”
“There are times when I think a certain amount of absurdity has been added to the whole process,” he agreed solemnly.
I glanced at him again and saw the brief twinkle in his bright eyes. “It’s hard to believe that, when I first met you, I thought you were devoid of humor.”
“I’m afraid it’s merely a side effect of holding this form.”
“How can holding human form affect whether or not you have a sense of humor?”
“It’s not just a sense of humor we gain.” He hesitated. “We are not without emotions, as I have said, but holding this shape for any length of time sharpens certain emotions, and that is often inconveni
ent.”
“Meaning it makes you more like us?”
“No.” Again he hesitated. “It simply makes us more … susceptible … to certain types of emotion.”
“What types of emotion?”
He shrugged and his game face came back down. “That very much depends on the situation we find ourselves in.”
“So if you find yourself guarding a totally annoying woman who won’t listen to reason and who insists on seeing an Aedh you distrust intensely, you’re liable to become more angry and more unreasonable the longer you hold this form?”
Amusement briefly touched his lips. “More than likely. Luckily for us both, I am not stuck guarding a woman who totally ignores reason. She just ignores it when it suits her best.”
A smile twitched my lips. “Ah, but she is seeing a fallen Aedh.”
“I didn’t say she was perfect.”
I laughed and he smiled. It made his whole face seem warmer, more alive. More handsome. And I shouldn’t be noticing. I turned around and finished washing myself.
“Did you discover anything else about Forman when you examined him?” I asked as I turned off the taps then reached for a towel.
“No. And there certainly wasn’t enough of his brains left to enter his mind and read the lingering shadows of his thoughts and life.”
“Yeah, Lucian did get a little trigger-happy.” I walked across to my locker and began dressing. “I would have loved to have questioned him about his boss.”
“So Forman did not set the magic?”
“No, and it wasn’t an Aedh, either, because the magic had a different feel. It was darker.”