Chapter 15
NOT ALL DOORWAYS SHOULD BE STEPPED THROUGH
ARAZ
The doorway in front of me closes, taking Leela from my sight and leaving her with the ancient evil who has control of my body.
The passage that appeared from nowhere now shrinks and vanishes, leaving me staring at washed-out blue and golden sands. The warm connection between me and Leela goes cold, and I’m tempted to reach for it. To reactivate it. To pull.
“Don’t,” the Leela beside me says tightly.
“I know.”
“You know? Then why the fuck did you go through the door in the first place?”
I’m captivated by the storm shifting in her eyes. “You tell me. You are my flame, after all.”
She grits her teeth, her chest heaving, her rage matching the anger simmering beneath my skin. “You cannot use him as a bridge to her. Ever. Do you have any idea how close you came to discovery?”
My stomach churns, lava gushing through my veins. “He had his hands on her. She kissed him.”
“To give you a chance to escape.” She shakes her head. “Thank goodness at least she had the presence of mind to act rationally in the situation. She knew the danger you were in and was forced to kiss that evil bastard to protect you. Urgh!” She makes a disgusted face.
A hollow pit yawns in me because if I had not gone through the door, then Leela would not have had to compromise herself thus.
What if he tried to take more? To use her? To confuse her?
“She’s safe,” the flame version of Leela says. “She broke connection to him…to you…”
I reach for the golden thread, wanting to test that for myself, but Leela slaps me hard across the face.
It doesn’t hurt. But it does surprise me. “Why did you do that?”
“Stop thinking as Araz and start thinking as Iblees because that is who you must be now in order to survive. Focus.”
I settle into my ancient bones, allowing the divine knowledge to course through me.
The answer rises like a gentle wave, lapping at the shores of my consciousness.
If I reach for Leela, unfiltered, if I tug on the thread that binds us, then the parasite who has latched on to the connection will feel it.
He will be summoned. But in that moment when her lips were on his, he was… distracted.
His mind wholly focused on her.
Fuck. “He wants her.”
“And for that, he will kill her,” Leela says. “There is a way for us to reach her.” She steps closer. “You know there is. You must remember it.”
“Why can’t you tell me?”
Her eyes darken, mouth turning down slightly. “You know why. You just don’t remember. Yet. But you will. Once we get to the core.”
Yes, the core… “Then we keep moving. No more stops. No more detours.”
Because the strange tingle at the base of my skull warns that I’m running out of time.