Chapter 1
The Raziq were coming.
The energy of their approach was very distant, but it blasted heat and thunder across my senses and sent me reeling. But even worse was the sheer and utter depth of rage that accompanied that distant wave. I’d known they would be angry that we’d deceived them, but this . . . This was murderous.
Up until now, the Raziq had used minor demons to kidnap me whenever they’d wanted to talk to me—although their version of talk generally involved some kind of torture. This time, however, there would be no talking. There would be only death and destruction.
And they would take out everyone—and everything—around us in the process.
It was a horrendous prospect given that we were still at the Brindle, a place that not only held aeons of witch knowledge but was also home to at least two dozen witches.
I reached for my sword. Even though we couldn’t fight in this place of peace, I still felt safer with Amaya’s weight in my hand. But she wasn’t there. Just for an instant, panic surged; then I realized I’d left her behind, among the ruins of our home. In the aftermath of my father’s destruction, I’d been desperate to see whether Mirri—who’d been under a death sentence, thanks to Father’s magic—had by some miracle survived, and I hadn’t given Amaya a second thought.
“We cannot stay here.” The familiar masculine tones broke through the fear that had been holding me captive.
My gaze met Azriel’s. He wasn’t only my guardian but my lover, the father of my child, and the being I was now linked to forever in both life and afterlife. When I died, I would become what he was—a Mijai, a reaper warrior tasked not only with protecting the gates to heaven and hell, but also with hunting down the demons who broke through hell’s gate to cause havoc here on Earth.
Of course, reapers weren’t actually flesh beings—although they could certainly attain that form whenever they wished—but rather beings made of energy who lived on the gray fields, the area that divided Earth from heaven and hell. While I was part werewolf and therefore flesh, I was also part Aedh. The Aedh were energy beings who at one time lived on the fields as the reapers had, and also had been the traditional guardians of the gates. My father had been one of the Raziq—a group of rebel Aedh who were responsible for both the destruction of the Aedh and the creation of the three keys to the gates—and he was also the reason the keys were currently lost.
Or rather, only one key was still lost. I’d found the first two, but both had been stolen from under my nose by the dark sorceress who’d subsequently opened two of hell’s three gates.
Things hadn’t quite gone according to plan for her when she’d opened the second one, however, because she’d been captured by demons and dragged into the pits of hell. I was keeping everything crossed that that was exactly where she’d remain, but given the way luck had been treating us of late, it was an even-money bet she wouldn’t.
“Risa,” Azriel repeated when I didn’t immediately answer him. “We must not stay here.”
“I know.”
But where the hell were we going to go that was safe from the wrath of the Raziq? There was nowhere safe. Maybe not even hell itself—not that I particularly wanted to go there.
I briefly closed my eyes and tried to control the panic surging through me. And yet that approaching wave of anger filled every recess of my mind, making thought, let alone calm, near impossible. If they got hold of me . . . My skin crawled.
It took a moment to register that my skin was actually crawling. Or at least part of it was. I glanced down. The wingless, serpentlike dragon tattoo on my left forearm was on the move, twisting around like a wild thing trapped. Anger gleamed in its dark eyes and its scales glowed a rich, vibrant lilac in the half-light of the room.
Of course, it wasn’t an ordinary tattoo. It was a Dušan, a creature of magic that had been designed to protect me when I walked the fields. It was a gift from my father, and one of the few decent things he’d actually done for me since this whole key saga had begun.
Unfortunately, the Dušan was of little use here on Earth. It shouldn’t even have been able to move on this plane, let alone partially disengage from my skin, as it had in the past.
“What’s wrong now?”
I glanced at Ilianna—my best friend, flatmate, and a powerful witch in her own right. Her warm tones were rich with concern, and not without reason. After all, she’d only just managed to save the life of her mate, Mirri, from my father’s foul magic, and here I was again, threatening not only Mirri’s life but Ilianna’s, her mom’s, and those of everyone else who currently stood within the walls of this place. Because not even the magic of the Brindle, as powerful as it was, would stop the Raziq. It had been designed to protect the witches from the evil of this world. It was never meant to be a defense against what came from the gray fields.
“The Raziq hunt us.” Azriel’s reply was flat. Matter-of-fact. Yet his anger reverberated through every inch of my being, as fierce as anything I could feel from the Raziq. But it wasn’t just anger; it was anticipation, and that was possibly scarier. He drew his sword and met my gaze. If the ominous black-blue fire that flickered down the sides of Valdis—which was the name of the demon locked within the metal of his sword, and who imbued it with a life and power of its own—was anything to go by, she was as ready to fight as her master. As ready as Amaya would have been had she been here. “We need to leave. Now.”
Ilianna frowned. “Then go home—”
“We can’t,” I cut in. “Home’s gone.”
It had been blown to smithereens when I’d thrust Amaya’s black steel into my father’s flesh and had allowed her to consume him. It was an action I didn’t regret, not after everything the bastard had done.
“Yes,” Ilianna replied. “But the wards your father gave us should still be active. I placed a spell on them that prevents anything or anyone other than us from moving them.”
“Even from what basically resembled a bomb blast?”
She hesitated. “That I can’t guarantee.”
“A half guarantee is better than nothing.” Azriel’s gaze met mine again. “If they aren’t active, then we stand and fight. The Raziq still need you, no matter how furious they might currently be.”
Yes, but they didn’t need him. And they would destroy him if they could. Still, what other choice did we have? No matter where we went, either here or on the gray fields, others would pay the price. I hesitated. “Will the Brindle’s magic react if we transport out from within its walls?”