Chapter 26
THE FIRE BELONGS WITHIN
There was barely time to register the ice slicing at my face before I was wrapped in a warm embrace. I caught the flash of C’ael’s green eyes before the world fractured.
It coalesced a moment later, but I was safe, my cheek pressed to C’ael’s chest and his arms tight around me.
The wind whined as if mourning the loss of its kill.
Fate, it seemed, was determined to kill me with a fall. But not this time.
C’ael’s heart thundered against my cheek. “That was too close.”
“You teleported me. I didn’t think you could do that.”
He let out an uncertain laugh. “Neither did I.”
But he had, and we were safe. I peeled away from him to look up at his face. Into bright eyes filled with relief.
“Thank you.” I pushed up on impulse and kissed his cheek.
He leaned into me, his body relaxing then tightening as he pulled me flush against him into a hug. It lasted a moment, but I felt it in my bones, and when he released me, I ached to hold him again.
“We should go back and get Jasha,” he said.
I glanced around properly for the first time. We were on a wider path. The temple was visible up ahead.
“Get inside,” C’ael said. “I’ll be right back with Jasha.” He kissed my forehead and hurried off down the path.
I turned to the temple, pulse quickening. “I’m coming, Araz.”
Warmth enveloped me as I stepped through into the temple. A sense of peace washed over me, pebbling my skin despite the heat. Sweet incense mingled with my breath, the otherness of this place wrapping itself around me just as it had the first time I’d visited.
I crossed the white marble floors into a chamber with walls inlaid with gold and slipped past thick stone pillars holding up the arched framework to a ceiling intricately carved with swirling patterns hiding stars, moons, and flames.
And there it was…Iblees’s flame. It burned steadily in a pit, set in the center of a golden spiral that was etched into the floor.
I stepped closer, past the first of the eleven rings leading to it, and the blue flame flickered a little, expanding as if on a breath.
“Araz?” Could he hear me? Was he in the room with us somehow?
The flame breathed once more, then settled. Disappointment and doubt burned in my chest.
“Leela.” C’ael joined me, bringing the fresh, cold scent of the outside with him. Jasha was behind him but stopped at the pillars, his gaze reverent and watchful.
He was a drohi, but he was also djinn, and this was a holy place for the djinn. A place where Iblees had set down a flame. And if we’d deciphered Araz’s message correctly, then the stories were true. This flame was an aspect of Iblees himself. It was a part of Araz.
C’ael stepped onto the spiral, coming abreast of me, and the flame flared upward, undeniably in greeting.
My pulse leapt. I remembered this reaction.
The way the flame had flared for me when I’d stepped onto the spiral months ago.
But…had it flared for me? I cast my mind back to that memory.
To the way the flame had roared and saw it clearly…
Araz had been behind me on the spiral. Oh gods…
the flame hadn’t flared for me. It had flared for him.
It had recognized him just as it was recognizing C’ael now. But…C’ael was Iblees’s creation, not a part of him like Araz was.
C’ael walked forward, his eyes glassy as if in a daze, and the icy grip of comprehension curled around my heart.
“Yes, I’m coming,” C’ael said.
The fist around my heart squeezed. “Wait!” I rushed forward—too late.
C’ael shoved his hand into the flame. His body jerked, and his head fell back, mouth parting, eyes wide and blazing gold.
“C’ael?” I reached for him but was pulled away by Jasha.
“Wait,” he said gruffly.
C’ael’s body trembled for several moments, the flames licking at his skin but not burning him.
And then he spoke, but it wasn’t his voice that spilled from his lips. It was Araz’s.
“Leela, I feel you close.”
A wave of relief washed over me, tearing a sob from my throat. I sagged in Jasha’s arm.
“Fuck…” Jasha said softly, releasing me.
I stepped forward a couple more rings. “Araz, it’s you? Really you?”
“Yes, Leela. It’s me, but I don’t have much time, so listen carefully.
Right now, C’ael is acting as a bridge to allow me to communicate with you.
This connection won’t last in the physical world, but it will remain in the liminal spaces.
I will be able to find you in the dreaming when it is safe to reach for you.
Do not reach for me, or he might sense it. Tell me that you understand.”
“I understand.”
“Good. C’ael will now take the flame into himself. He must bring it to me. To my flesh and bone body. The flame is a part of me. The missing essence I need so that I can access the core of my power and free myself from his control.”
“And what about C’ael? He’s a part of you too, isn’t he? An actual part of your essence, not just a creation.”
Araz went silent for several beats, and panic squeezed my throat. “Araz?”
“I’m still here. I’m simply marveling at your powers of deduction. You’re truly formidable, Leela. I’m proud to call you my twin flame.”
“You didn’t answer my question about C’ael.”
“You care for him.”
“I do.”
“You love him.”
My throat thickened, but there was no denying the truth, not from Araz. “Yes, I do.”
A soft sigh filled the space between us.
“It’s all right, Leela. By loving him, you love me also.
And yes, he is born from my essence. Created in the moment that the evil latched on to me.
Created to prevent the primordial evil from accessing the core of my power.
If I was not whole, then I could not claim the well of energy hidden inside me.
But by creating him, I forget parts of myself. Meeting C’ael unlocked those memories.”
My breath came faster, shallower. “So what happens to C’ael once you have the flame? If he’s a part of you, then are you going to take him back?”
“No, Leela. C’ael is his own entity now, even though he is a part of me like you rightly deduced. He will be free to remain as such. The flame will be enough to free me. C’ael knows what must be done.”
The fist around my throat relaxed its grip, the guilt that had been simmering beneath the surface of my consciousness dissipating now that I understood my draw to C’ael. “Are you safe?”
“I am safe. I wish that I could tell you to run. To walk away from this, but I cannot. Not now I remember the truth of the entity that has hold of me. Not now I remember what its purpose is.”
Ice trickled through my veins. “Unmaking…”
“Yes, this world is in danger, and we must save it. I will keep fighting until you come for me, but if you come and you find me too far gone, then you must do whatever it takes to ensure the entity is stopped, even if it means destroying my mortal flesh. Promise me.”
The words refused to come, but I forced them out, giving him the vow he needed to hear. “I promise you.”
“I love you, Leela, so very much. I will find you in the dreaming.”
“Wait, how will I know it’s truly you? I know I’ll figure it out once we’re together for a little while, but I want to be sure from the start. We need a code word.”
“A code word? What word would you like me to say when I find you?”
“Bananas.” It was the first word that came to mind, and it kind of fit, because this whole thing, every moment since I’d come to this world was kind of bananas.
There was a pause in which I felt his amusement, and my heart clenched with nostalgia, for the familiarity and surety of this connection.
“Very well,” he said. “Bananas it is. I’ll find you soon.” The flame sank into C’ael’s arm, lighting up his skin for a beat before dimming.
C’ael fell away from the pit, his body slumping, and I ran forward to catch him.
He looked up at me with soft eyes filled with shadows, and a fist tightened around my heart.
“C’ael—”
“We should get back to the settlement before the storm gets worse,” C’ael said.
“Are you okay?”
He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m fine.”
It was the first time he’d lied to me.