Chapter 24
INTO THE SERPENT’S MAW
KALANI
Ipoke the flames of the campfire, teasing them to rise a little more before holding my palms up to warm them. The seasons are shifting, the nights becoming longer, which means there is less time on the road. But we’ve made good progress. One more day and we’ll reach the Red Mountain.
Snap.
Crack.
I look up sharply, then relax as Ravi strolls back into the clearing, small game clutched loosely in his hand. The great thing about traveling with a rakshasa is that hunger has not been an issue. He hunts. I cook. We both eat. Perfect.
He hands me the offering, already skinned and gutted, then sits opposite me, watching me across the flames as I add the meat to the makeshift spit I’ve erected.
Yes, we make a good team out here. The fact that he’s pleasing to look at doesn’t factor into anything.
“It will be bitterly cold tonight,” he says softly. “We should sleep together for warmth.”
My stomach goes soft with heat, but when I speak, my voice sounds steady and normal. “That sounds reasonable.”
I’d be blind and pulse dead not to find this male attractive, and he smells divine, despite days on the road and only one stop off at a river to wash. His natural scent makes my stomach tight in a way it hasn’t felt in an age.
It’s a shame that he’s in love with Leela. Understandable. I’m not attracted to women, but even I’m a little in love with Leela. We have that in common, at least.
I turn the spit to make sure the meat cooks evenly, my mouth watering at the delicious aroma.
“Why did you insist on wanting to come with me?” Ravi asks.
“I have connections in Patala.”
His brows go up slightly in surprise. “What kind of connections?”
My lips curve, the slant bitter. “You’re not the only one with familial connections there.”
He sits up slightly, his vibrant green eyes sparking with interest, and my stupid pulse skips.
I drop my gaze to our supper, twisting the spit again.
“You know that I’m waiting for you to elaborate,” Ravi says, a hint of amusement in his tone that makes me smile.
“Yes, I know.” I exhale because what I’m about to share isn’t common knowledge.
In fact, it’s been a closely kept secret all my life, revealed to me only a few years ago, and if the world wasn’t ending, I wouldn’t even contemplate sharing.
But we have no idea how many tomorrows we have left, and…
I want to tell him. He needs to know before we get to Patala.
“Let’s just say that I am my mother’s daughter, but I may not have been my father’s.”
His eyes widen. “Your father is from Patala?”
I nod. “Yes. That’s all Mother told me.”
“So you have no idea who or…what he is?”
I shake my head.
His eyes narrow, and he chews on his cheeks. “You don’t hold the scent of my kind, and yet there is a distinct aroma to your essence.”
“Gods. I’m sorry.”
“No. Don’t be. It’s…pleasing.” He holds my gaze for a beat before looking away, and my stomach flips.
“So that’s why I wanted to come with you. Curiosity.”
“You hope to find the truth of your heritage?”
“Yes, something like that. What about you?” I pluck the meat off the spit and onto the large leaves we’ve found to use as plates. “You’re royal…Which house?”
He shrugs, shuffling closer to take the plate. His body heat rivals the flames as it brushes against me, and I fight the urge to lean into him. There’ll be enough time to revel in it later when we bed down.
My stomach goes soft at the thought again.
His nostrils flare, and he gives me a sidelong glance.
Fuck, is my face red?
He does me the kindness of looking away and focusing on his meal. “I don’t know which house I belong to,” he says softly.
Oh, yes, I asked him about that, didn’t I? “They didn’t tell you?”
“No. Those of us that remained became a single pack, even though we were taken from several houses. I was told I was royal, but I was claimed by the pack that belonged to the Asura. Our loyalty was to remain to the Authority.”
A bitter taste fills my mouth. “I’m sorry.”
He shakes his head. “It’s no matter. The Authority rule is over. Everything will be different once Leela takes the throne.”
The softness in his tone when he says her name makes me ache in a way I don’t understand.
“Eat up,” he says. “We should get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day.”
I turn my attention to my meal, trying desperately not to think about what going to sleep tonight will entail—his body close to mine. His heat washing over me. It’s enough to make me rush my meal. Instead, I take it slowly, turning my mind to the upcoming journey.
Tomorrow, we reach the Red Mountain and hopefully discover a way to enter Patala. Tomorrow is the start of the road to answers about where I truly come from.
I expected to lay awake, aware of Ravi at my back, his warm body curved around mine.
But I slipped into sleep fast and woke refreshed to the first gray trickles of dawn light.
I can’t say I’m not a little disappointed.
I’d hoped to revel a little more, but I also wonder if Ravi lay awake, distracted by my warm body.
We continue our journey and Ravi is excellent company. His tales of his troop, of his time in the Jangal domain, keep me enraptured. He listens to my stories in turn.
I find myself speaking about things that I’ve kept locked away for too long. About my anger at the system, about my frustration at being penned in by the laws of our world, and about my love of flying. I speak of Raja and how I raised him, and my throat thickens with emotion.
Ravi listens, moving closer so his arm brushes mine, the contact acting like a hug.
I cry a little, and there’s release in that.
One day’s trek feels like mere hours in his presence.
The man is strangely addictive. If Leela were not bound to Araz, if he wasn’t her twin flame, would she turn to Ravi or Pashim? Maybe she would claim both. I can’t blame her, and I cannot blame them for wanting her.
There is a spark in Leela. One I felt even when I wanted to hate her.
The Red Mountain comes into view as the sun begins to dip. The day has slipped by, but I barely feel the ache in my limbs, and it is all to do with my companion.
As we enter the shadow of the mountain, my stomach trembles in a mixture of nerves and anticipation.
The last time we were here, I waited outside while Ravi ventured in.
This time I get to make the journey with him.
We navigate the track around the mountain to the entrance hidden by brush, and Ravi begins to clear it aside.
I touch the bracelet around my wrist, my fingers tracing the rough texture. It’s hair, after all. A single thick strand from Vasuki’s tail. The twin of it sits around Ravi’s wrist. Talismans to give us safe passage through the tunnels.
I hope they work.
“Are you ready?” Ravi asks.
“Yes. Yes, I am.”
Ravi draws a crystal from his pocket. The same one that Leela had the last time we were here.
The corner of his mouth kicks up when he catches me staring at it. “I liberated it from the carriage after…after she was taken. Never had the chance to give it back to her.”
But he had the chance a few days ago when we’d all been together. No, he keeps it because it once belonged to her. A memento.
I smile. “You can give it back to her when we return with an army.”
He nods, then ducks into the gloom. I follow, ready to meet the mythic naga that until now I’ve only ever read about in books.
The journey is quick and uneventful with Ravi leading the way, ever alert. He pauses here and there to sniff the air, his eyes narrow, glinting as they catch the light from the crystal. It truly is an amazing stone.
I wonder how it recharges. Does it even need to recharge, and are there more? Maybe we can use them in place of the bijli that runs the appliances and wall lights in the Danava domain. I push aside the random thoughts as we approach a large hole in the floor.
“This must be it,” Ravi says.
I study the hole, my stomach fluttering with unease. “You don’t know for sure?”
“The last time we came this far, we were inside Vasuki’s mouth.”
“What?”
“I’ll tell you about it later.” He lowers himself onto the lip of the hole, then hands me the crystal. “Just in case.”
I take it. “In case of what?”
“In case I’m wrong and you need to continue without me.”
My pulse spikes. “Wait, you can’t—”
He drops into pitch-black, and my stomach squeezes. “Ravi!” Silence greets me, and my insides tie themselves in knots. I step closer, holding out the crystal to try and push back the inky darkness. The hole is more of a slope. A slide. “Ravi?”
His voice echoes up toward me. “I’m here. Come down!”
Relief releases the noose around my throat. I clutch the crystal tightly, shuffle forward, and drop. The tunnel rushes by, gray in the crystal light, widening until I see the exit.
I brace, landing in a crouch, the crystal held out so light sweeps across the chamber.
My night vision is good, but without the crystal’s light to warn me the exit was close, I would probably have landed badly and seriously hurt myself, yet Ravi, who made the drop without light, is fine.
Rakshasa must have excellent night vision, and the gems glowing softly in a pile to our right must be throwing off enough illumination to activate his.
“We need to summon Vasuki,” he says.
“And how do we do that?”
“I don’t know,” he admits. “When Leela and I came here, Vasuki was already with us.”
“He must know we’re here, though, right?”
“Right…” But he doesn’t sound so sure.
My gaze drifts back to the gems. “Maybe we can summon him. I mean…these gems…” I wander over to them. “He won’t want just anyone taking them, will he?”
A slow smile blooms on Ravi’s lips, and he nods. “Feel free to do the honors. I’ll be ready to calm the serpent when he bursts into the chamber.”
I take a deep breath and approach the gems. They’re beautiful oval stones, smooth yet able to fracture the light into a rainbow of color. I pluck one from the top of the pile.
It’s cool to the touch at first but quickly warms in my palm.
A tremor vibrates through my boots. “He’s coming.” I rush to join Ravi. Standing back-to-back, we turn slowly, watching the chamber around us as the tremor increases and the air grows thick with anticipation.
My scalp prickles, hair standing on end as the humungous serpent slides into the room, the scrape of his scales on the earthen floor competing with the thud of my pulse as he circles us, trapping us in the cage of his body.
Ravi steps abreast of me, radiating tension as the serpent raises its head and opens its eyes to look right at us…at me.
Shadows flicker in their depths, and when he speaks, his voice is ancient and weary like a river washing over ancient stone. “Blood of Ashooda. Blood of mine. I see it is time.”
Ice slides up my neck, and chill blooms in my cheeks. “You know who I am?”
“Yes, child. I know you, and I know why you are here. But I warn you that the answers you seek may not give you the peace that you anticipate.”
“I’m not here for myself. I’m here for Leela. We need to get into Patala so we can raise an army to stop the primordial evil.”
“Yes, of course. Anything more would be a bonus, am I correct?”
Is that amusement underlying his tone?
“Can you help us?” Ravi asks. “Can you tell us how to get to Patala?”
“There are no doorways into Patala from this world. Not any longer,” Vasuki says.
“Fuck.” Ravi’s shoulders drop. “Then we’re doomed. We came all this way…” His voice cracks. “This world—”
“Can still be saved,” Vasuki says. “It can be saved by Leela.”
“Yes, we know,” Ravi says. “But she needs help, and we hoped to find allies in Patala.”
“I understand, and I can get you there.”
“Wait, you just said there are no doorways to Patala.”
“Yes. There are none. But there is one portal. A singular one remaining in this world. It is a one-way portal, and if you wish to return to this world, then you will need to convince the powers in Patala to open a doorway back for you.”
Patala is its own world. At one time it was accessed through underground pathways. A world that spans realities.
Ravi looks down at me, a question in his eyes, because this is a risk. But it’s one we must take. I nod.
“We understand,” Ravi says. “We wish to take the risk.”
Vasuki’s head dips toward us, his eyes growing larger and luminous as his gaze fixes on me. “I must hear it from your lips, child.”
“Why me?”
“Because you are the key.”
The room trembles, bits of rock falling onto the ground with soft thuds.
“Time is running out,” Vasuki says. “The mountain paths will close soon. Will you leave the way you came or pass through the portal?”
My legs vibrate as the ground shakes.
“What’s happening?” Ravi asks.
“An unmaking. Hurry, child. You must decide now before it is too late.”
The urgency in his tone spikes through me. “Yes. I want to go through the portal. I want to take the risk.”
“Where is it?” Ravi demands.
He lowers his head further, his eyes glowing with an inner fire. “Inside me. And now you must enter.” He opens his mouth, and an eerie, green light spills out.
The portal.
The chamber shakes enough for me to almost lose my balance.
Hurry! Vasuki’s voice fills my head.
I grab Ravi’s hand and haul him forward into the serpent’s mouth.
I do not know when you will emerge, only that you will. Be safe. Stay together. All will be well.
What?
The green light steals my vision, and my body shatters.