“I’ll do a locating spell and see if I can find him.”
“Great.” I hesitated. “Though if the elemental has taken over, will a locating spell even work?”
“I don’t know.” She bit her lip for a moment. “A locator spell works on the energy of the person, so with Tao’s body chemistry constantly changing—flowing from flesh to elemental depending on which being has more control—it’s going to be difficult to pin him down. But I can try.”
“Let me know the minute you find anything. In the meantime, I’ll rope in Stane and Jak.”
“Why the hell would you involve Jak?” Her voice held a note of disbelief. “It’s not like Tao needs someone like him—someone only after a good story—on his case.”
“Jak has his nose to the ground and can hunt stories in places neither of us would get near,” I said. To say Ilianna had a hate-on for Jak was like saying night followed day—blindingly obvious.
“You be careful with him, Risa. The last thing you need in your life is another heartbreak.”
“Trust me, Jak is getting nowhere near my heart.” I gave her a lopsided grin. “Or my body.”
She harrumphed. “I’ll be in contact.”
“Thanks.”
I hung up, then scrolled through the contacts list until I found Jak—though truth be told I knew the number by heart—and rang him.
All I got was a recording telling me to leave a message. I did so, asking him to let me know if he heard about anything unusual dealing with fire, then tossed the phone back onto the bed and decided to grab a shower while I waited for Azriel to return.
He’d done so by the time I’d dressed, and one look at his expression told me everything I needed to know. I swore and thrust a hand through my damp hair. “Now what are we going to do?”
“There is nothing we can do—not until he regains his flesh form.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
He studied me for a moment, expression giving little away. “If he doesn’t, you have a choice to make.”
I stared at him, my stomach suddenly twisting itself into knots. “No.”
“There may be no choice,” he said, voice even but somehow relentless. “If the elemental has won the war, then Tao is already lost to you.”
“No!” I clenched my fists against the anger—the useless, sick anger that was fueled part by fear and part by the knowledge that he was right—and added, “I will not give up on him.”
While there was life, there was always hope.
Besides, I’d promised Tao I would do all that I could to help him win. Giving up at the first major hurdle was not doing that.
“Risa—”
I made a chopping motion with my hand. “I don’t want to hear it, Azriel. I don’t care what you say. I don’t care what fate plans. I don’t care about being sensible. I will not give up on my friend. Okay?”
He studied me for several seconds, then crossed his arms and turned back to the window. Every inch of his muscular back seemed to radiate displeasure.
“Okay.”
“Glad we agree,” I muttered. I grabbed my phone, then stalked out to the kitchen.
I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry, but I wasn’t about to fall into the trap of not eating. Not when I actually felt reasonably healthy for the first time in ages.
I made myself a coffee, then sat down and consumed a large bowl of Coco Pops complete with lashings of whole milk. Not the healthiest of meals, but a slight step up from the chocolate cake that had initially tempted me.
As I rinsed the bowl out, my phone rang, and the funeral march tone told me it was Hunter. I closed my eyes and, for all of three seconds, resisted the urge to answer it. But Markel’s warning loomed large in the back of my mind. I swore softly, then did the sensible thing.
“There’s been another murder,” she said before I could even open my mouth to say hello.