Chapter 27
THE MAN OF MY DREAMS…
The journey back down the mountain was much quicker and easier than the ascension, probably because I was so fueled with hope. We now had the power to free him in our hands. Or in C’ael’s body, at least.
Jasha spoke of the potential portway in the sea, making plans on how we might access it once the storm calmed in a few days.
Now that we had a way to free Araz and stop the primordial evil, the incentive to confirm, one way or another, if the structure was truly the doorway we were looking for was heightened.
Jasha peeled away as soon as we got to the village, eager to speak to his troop. I was left with C’ael and his silence. The slight downturn to his mouth and the slump of his shoulders made my chest hurt. We needed to talk.
The rain picked up before I could instigate a conversation, and we ended up running the rest of the way to our residences.
The building was empty. I followed C’ael upstairs to our quarters, leaving muddy boot prints in my wake. Back in our room, C’ael ushered me into the bathroom with fresh towels, ordering me to change. The flat look in his eyes made my gut squirm with unease.
I stripped out of the wet clothes quickly, drying off and pulling on a dry tunic and loose pants before joining him in the bedroom once more.
He stood by the window watching the storm, his arms loose at his sides.
“Hey.” I bumped his arm with my shoulder. “We should talk about what happened in the temple. The flame and your origins. It’s a lot.”
“It’s nothing I didn’t suspect,” he said flatly. “I’m fine.”
He looked down at me and smiled, but there was no warmth in it.
Just…sadness. “C’ael, what aren’t you telling me?
” He’d been connected to the flame, to Araz for long minutes while Araz spoke through him.
Had Araz said something to him? Something he didn’t want me to know?
Heat bloomed across my neck. “C’ael, you know you can tell me anything, right? ”
His expression softened. “Yes, I know that, and if there was something to tell, then I would share it, but there isn’t. I just feel…different.”
Of course he did. Not only had he absorbed a flame that belonged to a djinn god, but he’d also just discovered he was a part of that god.
That he’d been born from divine essence.
Fuck, that was a lot for anyone to take in.
It was probably spawning questions about autonomy and existence, and for someone already struggling with figuring out his place and purpose in a world he was dragged fully formed into, that was an added layer of confusion.
“I’m not sure how much of my conversation with Araz you heard, but I want to reiterate, just in case you didn’t hear it…
You are your own person. Your own entity.
You may have come from Iblees, but you’re now C’ael.
Like an ember jumping from a hearth to start its own fire… That’s what you are now. You…are you.”
His throat bobbed, and his eyes misted. “Thank you.” He pressed his palm to his chest. “But I feel him now. His fire inside me. I’m…I’m afraid…”
My scalp prickled. “Of what?”
“That it might consume me.”
My pulse skipped. The thought of losing him, of him being consumed. Of him ceasing to be him made me cold. “Did he say that to you? That there was a risk or—”
“No,” C’ael said quickly. “He didn’t say that, I just…” He exhaled and shook his head. “It’s just so much to take in.”
I pressed my palm over his hand, over the spot on his chest where Iblees’s flame lived. “You are C’ael, and you’ll stay C’ael no matter what. We’ll get the flame to Araz, and we’ll kick the primordial evil out of his body.”
“And then what?” he asked. “What do we do then? The primordial evil will still be out there…somewhere.”
“We can worry about that once we get to that point. One step at a time. Taking away his vessel will give us the breathing room we need to come up with a permanent solution. Maybe Araz will know what to do. He said we could speak in the dreaming, so maybe he’ll find me tonight.”
C’ael nodded. “Yes. One step at a time. We’ll be together soon enough.”
Together…Oh fuck. “The others…We were supposed to meet back at camp, but now…”
“We can’t go back to the mainland. There is no time,” C’ael said.
“I know.” Neither of us said it, but I knew he was thinking it just as I was. What if they were gone like Zarael and the cloud ship? What if they’d all been unmade?
When the time comes, you will stand against him alone.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “We move forward, and we take the flame to Araz. There is no going back.”
That night C’ael fell asleep before me. Strange because I’d never actually seen him sleep before.
The potential of seeing Araz in my dreams made it hard to drift off.
Rain pattered on the roof and tapped on the windows, the wind alternating between whispers and howls.
The drapes were open, and the sky flashed intermittently as if some larger entity was taking snapshots of the world.
The storm would die out in a few days, and then we’d find the portway to Aakash Sansaar.
I wouldn’t entertain any other thought. After all the loss, all the horror and pain, it was time for it to be over.
Time for Araz to be free and for the evil that had plagued this world for too long to be vanquished.
Vanquished…
Yeah, I’d need to come up with a way to do that. People would look to me for a plan.
Chandra had a plan. A dagger to trap the primordial evil in Araz’s body. Horror tightened my chest. What if he used the dagger before I could get to Araz? But no. Chandra couldn’t use it. Only I could use it. I had the Deva blood needed. I blew out a breath as the knot in my belly unraveled.
Gods, I needed to shut down my overactive brain and go to sleep.
Sleep meant the possibility of a liaison with Araz. But what if he didn’t find me tonight, or what if he did find me, but I woke and forgot?
My brain hurt, and so did my heart.
C’ael draped an arm around my waist and pulled me close, mumbling something in his sleep. His lips brushed my temple, and the tension in my body seeped away.
I exhaled and closed my eyes as the warm lethargy of slumber finally crept over me.
Nani set a bowl of lentils and a plate of sabji in front of me. “Eat up,” she said. “It’s your favorite.”
Warmth filled my belly as if I’d already eaten the food, as if it was comforting me from the inside.
I broke off a little roti, ready to scoop up some sabji, but an itch bloomed in the back of my mind.
A feeling that I was supposed to be doing something.
That I was meant to be…waiting. I was waiting for something.
I looked across at Nani, back at the counter, rolling pin moving over dough as she expertly rolled out more chappattis. Did she know what I was waiting for? It was something important. Something—
The door to the garden opened, and a figure stepped into the room.
Tall, broad, dark hair streaked with gold, topaz eyes burning a path across the room to settle on me.
Mine…
I shot to my feet, molten heat rushing through my veins. “Araz!”
The kitchen misted away, leaving me standing in a clearing by a river. Tall silver-barked trees surrounded me, and Araz…Araz was here with me.
Wait…I had to be sure it was truly him. “Say it.” I held my breath. He’d know what he had to say. If it was truly him, then he’d know.
The corner of his mouth lifted, soft amusement lighting his eyes. “Bananas.”
My vision blurred, and I ran toward him.
He caught me, strong arms crushing me to his chest as he pressed kisses to my head and my temple.
I lifted my face to him, bathing in his regard as if he was the sun and I was starved of its light.
His kisses rained down on my cheeks, finally finding my mouth.
Lips warm. Firm. Real. His cranberry scent, sharp and clean, purely him, made my head spin in the most beautiful way.
He was here. He’d found me just like he’d promised to.
“Leela, Leela, Leela.” He kissed me again and again, each contact deeper until my head buzzed with emotions and my body ached with desire.
I clutched at his tunic, tearing at it to get to his skin, to feel him beneath my palms, warm and silken, taut and mine. I wanted my lips on him. To taste him. To devour him.
He pulled away slightly, his large hands cupping my face. “I want you,” he said breathless, his gaze searing me. “I want you here and now.” He brought his lips to mine, the contact a soft caress. A question. My pulse leapt. “Can I have you, Leela?”
Those words were an echo from the past, from our first intimate night together. My eyes heated, and I nodded, lips trembling as I held back a tide of emotion.
“Yes. Yes, please.”
He scooped me off my feet and carried me toward the bed that had appeared behind us.
I laughed softly. “Benefits of a dreamscape, huh?”
His eyes smiled down at me, dark hunger burning in their depths, and my amusement was crushed beneath a wave of desire that twisted low in my belly.
“Oh…”
“I’m sorry.” He swallowed hard. “Is it too much? The connection. The need.”
His fingers flexed where they held me, squeezing and releasing and squeezing again. I closed my eyes for a beat, clinging to him as need washed over me, coalescing between my thighs and pulsing there eagerly.
“Leela…” His voice was gruff, and when I opened my eyes and looked up at him, I saw my longing echoed on his face, in the tension of his jaw and intensity of his gaze.
“I want you inside me.”
He exhaled on a growl and slowly lowered me onto the bed, covering me with his body. His dark pupils drank me in, his warm breath on my cheek evoking a twist and throb of desire between my thighs and setting my pulse pumping eagerly, hungrily.