Darkness Splintered (DA 6) Read Free Page B

plenty of time to go through Lucian’s things and ditch whatever evidence there might have been.”
    “Lucian was clever enough not to leave such information in easy reach. If there is incriminating evidence to be found, then it would be somewhere ultimately safe from everyone but him.”
    And that, I realized suddenly, could mean the gray fields. They might be the unseen division between worlds, but they were as filled with life as anyplace in this world. And given Lucian had once been an Aedh priest under my father’s tutelage, then maybe the first place I should look was in temples near the gates of heaven and hell. I had no idea whether they still stood now that the priests had all but disappeared – or if someone like me would even be able to see them – but what better place would there be to secure information? It was doubtful whether the reapers or the Raziq would bother to look through ruins in an effort to find information on a dark sorcerer.
    Of course, that was presuming Lucian could get onto the fields. The ability to attain full Aedh form had apparently been ripped from him by the Raziq, but that hadn’t stopped him from shoving his fist into my mother’s chest and blowing her apart.
    Which is exactly how I’d killed him.
    I’d had my revenge, but its taste wasn’t as sweet as I’d expected.
    I swallowed heavily and added, “The bastard was more cunning that a basketful of foxes.”
    Ilianna’s smile was grim. “But not cunning enough in the end.”
    “No.” I tore off a chunk of bread as Mirri slid a plate of curry my way. “I’ll search his place first, then I’ll do the same to his lover’s place.”
    “And if you find nothing either there or on the fields?”
    Then we were in trouble, because I honestly didn’t think the Brindle would be able to help us. Not in this. Not when Aedh magic was involved. And there had to be: The ancient cuneiform that gave the magic to the transport pillars we’d found – pillars both the dark sorcerers and Lucian had been using to move around undetected – could have come only from Lucian.
    “If I find nothing,” I muttered, as I dipped a chunk of bread into the curry, “we’re up shit creek without a paddle.”
    “Then,” she said, “talking to Kiandra can’t hurt. At least she’ll be able to tell us if there is some sort of hot spot near the intersection. Until we know that, we can’t make any other plans.”
    “We?” My gaze shot to hers. “There’s no damn we —”
    “Oh yes there is ,” she cut in, voice fierce. “You can’t do this on your own anymore, Ris.”
    I snorted. “I was never doing it on my own, and look where it’s gotten —”
    I cut the words off as awareness ran through me. Something approached the house.
    Something that wasn’t human, or in human form. An invader that was as silent as a ghost, and yet accompanied by such a wash of heat and power that the hairs on my arms stood on end.
    It was a sensation with which I was more than a little familiar.
    An Aedh approached the house, and he was in energy form rather than physical.
    Only it wasn’t any old Aedh.
    It was my father. And he was not happy.
    Having to face a parent as prone to violence as mine certainly wasn’t what I needed right now – especially when I didn’t have Azriel at my back.
    I closed my eyes, trying to remain calm, trying to contain the fear that galloped away at the thought of another confrontation. The desire to reach out to Azriel, to tell him that I needed him, that I wanted him back in my life, was fierce. But that was just a reaction born of fear. After all, the last time my father and I had met face-to-face, he’d just about killed me – and that was with Azriel present.
    But if it was my father approaching, why hadn’t the Raziq device woven into my heart reacted? It had been designed to summon them the minute my father appeared in my presence, and when it activated, it felt as if someone had shoved their hand into my chest