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"Rhoan is gearing up surveillance as we speak, and Jack has approved full Directorate participation" Her gaze met mine "He said he owed you a favor Care to explain that?"

I kept hts--carefully neutral "I was asked for advice on so Couldn’t do a whole lot to help, though"

"Hested she very h it was the truth as far as it went "We’re not going to need your friends, so tell Tao and Carwyn to cool their jets We’ll contact the to help free Ilianna, perhaps we should bring them in on the key--

No, I said, before he could finish Definitely not

Risa, I do not trust the Aedh, and it ain, Azriel I’ve already done enough dae to them Out loud, I said, "You’ll let me know the minute you have her? And you’ll both be careful?"

"We will, on both counts" Quinn glanced at his watch "If you were planning to scout the area before you met Lucian, you had better hurry It’s almost eleven now"

We left

But not without a prayer to the fates and whatever gods were listening that everything went as planned and everyone got out alive

And that included me and Azriel

Because the shit, I suspected, was about to hit the fan big-ti held in a beautiful redbrick building that had once been a post office It sat on one corner of a street that was a lier--concrete buildings, a grand old lady that time had not dih the parking lot across from the old post office was full, and I doubted they were all here for the nearby florist or the coht end of the old building, but to the left there was a sreen covered pathway that led--presuiven I had to set up the ward so it was a ward in the boxelse

"Whatever lies in the box," Azriel said, "it certainly involves soic It crawls over my skin"

I frowned "Why would it have that reaction? It’s supposed to keep the Aedh out, not you"

Azriel’s sht, without humor "Your father does not want me in possession of the keys any more than he does anyone else"

I rubbed ht of that possibility"

He shrugged "It is better to have us all locked out than none of us"

"You can bet my father won’t be locked out Or the Razan" Not totothe first key

And then there was Lucian, the joker in the aze dropped to the box Azriel still held "Should we use it, then?"

"Yes" He handed it to me "I can patrol the perimeter and cut any off who attempt to breach the wards"

"What about ain flesh foric, he still needs you to actually find and retrieve the key"

"He needs me to find it," I said darkly "But he has Razan to retrieve it"

"And if any do get past ave him a surprised look "I can’t believe you just said that"

"I would rather Tao be in there beside you, but it is an inescapable truth that the Aedh wants the keys for hiarded me steadily "Do not turn your back on him"

Definitely not The bastard was just as likely to fuck lanced down at the box infingers, opened it Inside were four sray and a note I tucked the box under my arm and opened the note

Place these wards on each corner of the building, it said Activate theht to dark, with a drop of your blood

Losing more blood, even if it was only a couple of drops, wasn’t exactly what I needed right now Especially to activate dauessed it orth it

I rolled the stones out onto ht and yet oddly waric in theers closed around the stones on three sides of the building would be easy enough, but the last side was right on the intersection corner, with only a s a stone there, however close to the building, was risking it either being kicked away or picked up by some curious kid Not that there were actually kids in the street at themy luck, they’d flood the place thethe wards