Darkness Rising (Dark Angels 2)

“You seem to know an awful lot about the motivations of the Raziq,” Azriel commented.

Lucian’s gaze flicked to him, and it showed the contempt that Azriel was managing to hide. “I am a very old Aedh, and I have firsthand experience at just what the Raziq are capable of.”

I frowned. “Just how firsthand are we talking? I thought it was the priests who stripped you of your wings and power, not the Raziq.”

“It was,” he said, so evenly and flatly that I didn’t doubt it was the truth. And yet something within me stirred uneasily. “But the Raziq were a growing power within the priests when I was full Aedh, and it was thanks to their influence that I was punished the way I was.”

Hence his need to get back at them. I rose and walked across to the coffeemaker to make myself another cup. “So, the clue. If not a sports club or the zoo, then where?”

“A museum, perhaps?” Azriel said. “There would be lots of axes in such a place.”

I took a sip of the steaming liquid, then wrinkled my nose. Not enough sugar. I tore open a couple of packets and added them. “Yeah, but a museum would hardly be described as wild, and there are only a couple outside of the metro area. Sovereign Hill is more northwest, and Rippon Lea more southwest.”

“I do not think the instructions should be taken as gospel,” Azriel said. “Your father may have sent them in that direction, but there is no telling where his Razan ended up.”

“True, but I think we’d be better searching for the obvious first. You never know, we might get lucky.”

“It is never wise to rely solely on luck,” Azriel commented. “You tend to get disappointed.”

Wasn’t that the truth?

“So, the obvious,” Lucian said, a little impatiently. “What’s out west that holds wild whatevers?”

I grimaced, thinking. “There’s the Werribee Open Range Zoo, but as I said, I can’t imagine an ax going unnoticed there.”

Plus, zoos were always undergoing renovation. It wouldn’t exactly be the most secure place to keep a prize such as the key safe.

He leaned back in the chair. “So there is nothing else out there?”

“Well, there’s the Werribee mansion.”

He raised an eyebrow. “How old a mansion? And how would it tie in with wild?”

“The zoo is part of the mansion complex, and the building itself is very old. I think it was built only a hundred years or so after Australia was settled.”

He gave me an old-fashioned sort of look. “An ax would not stand out in a place that old.”

Given I wasn’t really into visiting old houses, I really couldn’t say with any certainty what was usual and what was not. “The mansion is open to the public seven days a week, which means we’ll have to go in at night.”

Lucian frowned. “If it is open to the public, then that gives us the perfect cover.”

“Yeah, but if I touch the key and the Raziq do attack, then people—innocent people—are going to get hurt.”

“Many more innocents will get hurt if the wrong people get their hands on these keys.”

“Yeah, they will,” I said, annoyance edging my tone. “But that doesn’t mean we have to endanger anyone unnecessarily.”

He grunted. It was a somewhat impatient sound. But then, he was Aedh, and though his many centuries here on earth had humanized his ways to some extent, they hadn’t changed his core being. And that being didn’t really care who or what was damaged in the course of getting what he wanted.

“Tonight then. They will have security, I gather?”

“Undoubtedly.”

“Then I shall take care of the electronic stuff.” His gaze flicked rather disdainfully to Azriel. “The reaper can handle whatever human security they have.”

Azriel didn’t comment, which surprised me, given his previous statements that he couldn’t physically intervene without just cause. Although I guess knocking out the guards did aid his quest to find the keys, and that might be cause enough. He’d certainly had no qualms about knocking out the half-shifter who’d attacked me at the rail station.

“It gets dark around six tonight,” Lucian continued, glancing at his watch. “Shall we meet outside the mansion around eight?”