Chapter 31
WHEN ONE DOOR CLOSES…
Chandra looked up through the water, his icy blue eyes warming as they landed on me.
He was here.
He’d come through the portway, and he was here.
Cyleena brought us to a halt. I pressed palms to the air pocket, my heart in my mouth as he turned his attention to Ilyapani. The water vibrated, moving away from him in ripples to press against the eel.
The electricity running along her body died, and she turned to him.
C’ael sagged, finally free of holding up a shield. He fell back in the water, eyes fluttering closed, but Uliana grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him up toward me.
My gaze flicked from C’ael to Chandra, to C’ael then back to Chandra as he swam right up the eel and placed his hand on her neck. Her eyes blazed white then burst with color, gold and green surrounding inky black pupils drenched in eons of pain.
The shackle around her neck fractured and disintegrated. Her form rippled and morphed, shrinking until she was a fraction of her gargantuan size. Still huge but no longer monstrous. She swam around Chandra, then darted away, deep into the shadows.
Uliana came abreast of me, an unconscious C’ael cradled in his arms. Chandra joined us a moment later.
He pressed his palm to my air bubble, nodded, then looked down at the portway.
“You’ve come to take me back?”
He nodded.
“Good, because I’m ready. We have to take C’ael too.” I pointed to my friend.
Chandra frowned, then nodded, taking C’ael’s still form from Uliana’s arms.
I glanced at Cyleena, whose eyes were large and dark, her cheeks pale from holding the air around me.
“Let me go. I can swim. I can hold my breath. It’s not far.”
Chandra nodded at her.
I took a breath and held it.
The bubble around me burst. I was drenched in a heartbeat, and in the next, Chandra’s arm was around my waist. We hurtled down toward the portway. The massive stone ring glowing gold and blue got larger and larger. My heart swelled, hope and possibility surging through me.
Araz. I’m coming. I’m—
The water vibrated, and the portway shuddered, fractures forming across its surface. Chandra halted, angling us away from the doorway and kicking out to take us back up.
No, this couldn’t be happening.
The portway shattered, stone pieces floating away, lights dimming until the sea below us was nothing but viscous darkness.
The portway was gone.
Bhartina poured tea for everyone, a strong herbal brew that warmed the bones. I’d dried and changed clothes, but the chill inside me had nothing to do with our sea excursion and everything to do with the fact that our only way into the sky city had been taken from us.
“I didn’t know,” Chandra said softly again. “I didn’t realize that freeing Ilyapani would destroy the portway.”
“It’s not your fault,” C’ael said. He was pale and drawn but recovering nicely. Either he was getting stronger, or the flame he carried for Araz was loaning him power. Either way, without him, I’d be dead.
I met Chandra’s eyes across the table. “I’m glad you’re here. We’ll figure out the rest.”
“There is one other way in,” Chandra said. “A vortex. It’s dormant, but I can activate it.” His throat bobbed. “I created it during the wars. A temporary pathway…” He looked away.
I was about to ask why he’d needed the temporary pathway, but then it hit me.
“You smuggled people in and out of the royal domain?”
He nodded. “I saved as many as I could.”
“Rebels?” Bhartina’s eyes lit up. “You helped them?”
“I did what I could. The vortex from land opens in a pocket reality.”
Wait…Silas could create pocket realities, but he’d been a child during the war. Chandra must have seen the revelation and the confusion on my face because he smiled.
“Silas inherited his skill from his father. The pocket realm was locked away by its creator to prevent any Asura ever discovering a path to the vortex. I have no idea where it is in Aakash Sansaar now, or I would have used it to get to land.”
“Just as well you didn’t,” Ramashi said. “You would have been in the wrong place.”
“True. I found myself where I needed to be.” His pale gaze bore into mine, and warmth unfurled in my chest.
He was my friend, had been Vayelle’s friend too if what Zarael had told me was true. We had so much to talk about. But not now. Not yet.
“The vortex remains,” Chandra continued. “We can use it to get to the pocket realm and find a way out from there. My signature will open a doorway.”
“How do we get to the mainland?” C’ael asked.
“Vairanya will take you,” Bhartina said. “She awoke when you arrived and is aware of all that has happened.”
The Kaalmukha who had brought us to this Isle the first time we’d come here would certainly get us to the mainland safely, but it would take time. Time we were running out of.
“Still, the journey will take a week,” Ramashi said, echoing my concern. “Is there time?”
All eyes went to Chandra. “I don’t know,” he said. “But we have to try.”
Frustration bubbled up inside. “This whole fucking thing would have been easier if you’d just ascended me early. I’d have more than just physical strength to work with.”
“You did have more than physical strength, Leela,” Chandra said. “You could have broken so many times, and yet you stand firm, in mind, and heart, and body.”
“He’s right,” C’ael said. “Don’t underestimate yourself now. We will save Araz.”
Chandra frowned. “Save him?” His gaze flicked to me.
“Oh, Leela. I’m sorry, but the plan must stay the same.
I know you glimpsed Araz in the moment when he stopped the primordial evil from ending you, and I know you hope he remains, but even if he does, we cannot falter.
We must execute the plan to trap the primordial evil in the vessel.
” He reached into the inside pocket of his coat and pulled out a sheathed dagger.
“I have what we need. But you must use it.”
I stared at the dagger. At what had been our only hope, and relief expanded in my chest, exploding from my lips in a rough laugh.
“Leela…” Chandra’s gaze softened with pity.
Gods, he probably thought I’d lost it. I shook my head. “I’m fine. I’m just relieved that we don’t need to use the dagger. We have another way.”
I filled him in on C’ael’s connection to Iblees and Iblees’s connection to Araz. On the flame, and the bridge, and what Araz had told me about the core of power and the primordial evil’s weakness. I told him what the primordial evil truly was.
“Gods…” Bhartina whispered softly. “The Deva betrayed him?”
“Yes, and I have compassion for the being that he was, but none for what he has become.” He’d violated me.
Tricked me into believing he was Araz and then taken advantage of my feelings.
He’d taken over minds, violating the autonomy of my friends and goodness knows how many others.
He may not have been evil to begin with, but he certainly was now. “We can expel him from Araz’s body.”
“And then what?” Chandra said. “How will we trap him?”
“I don’t know, but we can worry about that later. He can’t unmake this world without a vessel to connect him to it, and his immortal vessel was destroyed in the prison. It will take him time to figure out how to attack again, which will give us time to find a way to stop him.”
Chandra nodded slowly. “Yes…You’re right.” He smiled and exhaled. “We have a plan.”
“Chandra, the primordial evil was unable to control you,” Bhartina said. “What about the djinn, drohi, and Asura stationed here?”
“I doubt his influence is strong enough at this distance,” Chandra said.
“And even if it were, I doubt he would be able to control the djinn. Their minds are harder to hold. He may be able to take control of a drohi mind if there was proximity, but I doubt he will want to divert power from the unmaking to do so. The rules on what he can and cannot do are murky at best. We must be prepared for any eventuality.”
Bhartina nodded. “Good. I shall speak to Vairanya and prepare her to leave. We can set sail in a few hours.”
“We?” Was she saying what I hoped she was?
She lifted her chin, her eyes hard. “We could not go with you through the portway, but I am sure we can ride the vortex, can we not?” She looked at Chandra.
He smiled and nodded. “Yes, you can. It is not restricted, merely dormant until I activate it.”
“Then we go with you,” Bhartina said. “All of us. This is our world, and we will fight to keep it safe.”
C’ael agreed to take a nap at my insistence. He might have been carrying the flame of Iblees, but he still needed to recharge.
I tucked him in, kissed his brow, and headed back to the kitchen. The distinctive scent of bitter coffee greeted me as I stepped into the room.
Chandra stood at the counter pouring from a carafe. Everyone else was gone.
He looked over as I entered, and the corner of his mouth lifted. “It is good to see you again, Leela.”
He said it so simply. As if we’d chosen to be apart. As if he hadn’t saved my life and I hadn’t saved his. As if he wasn’t cosmically linked to me.
A lump formed in my throat, and I blinked back tears. “Were you ever going to tell me that you remembered me from another of my lifetimes?”
He stilled and sucked in a breath. “Zarael told you? Of course, she would have recognized the signature of your soul.” His eyes grew soft for a moment, then darkened as if he’d remembered something awful.
“What is it?”
He pressed his lips together. “I have something to tell you, but when I do, you may not see me in a favorable light. You may no longer trust me, but I need you to believe that this man that I am today is not the man that I was back then. That I have changed, and that I will do everything in my power to protect you.”
My chest tightened, but I nodded. “Okay, I’ll bear that in mind.”
He handed me the coffee mug. “Sit. Please.”
I sat opposite him, cradling the mug in my hands, my stomach weaving itself into knots as I waited for him to tell me this awful thing that he’d been keeping from me.
“We were friends, you and I,” he said. “Vayelle…” That name on his lips sent goosebumps racing over my body. “We were more than friends sometimes…” Heat flashed in his eyes, and my mouth went dry.
He dropped his gaze, giving me the reprieve I needed to pull my mouth off the floor and sip my scalding coffee.
“I loved you then,” he said. “I was in love with you, and I believed you felt the same. But then Ilyarien entered your life, and there was no competition.” His chest rose and fell.
“When the war between Asura and djinn began, I was on your side, helping you where I could despite the risk to myself.
I told myself it was because I loved you, but I know now it was because I wanted you to see me as the one you should choose.
I hoped you would change your mind about Ilyarien…
About Iblees. I even helped broker the peace treaty.
“But you still turned to him, and it broke me. It released a part of me that I will never forgive. The part that betrayed you. I let the Asura forces into your inner sanctum on the night of the consummation of your mating vows.”
Ice flooded my veins. “You…You caused Iblees to be captured? You caused my death?”
He swallowed hard. “Yes. I wanted you, and in trying to claim you, I lost you and my self-respect.”
Fire churned behind my sternum, anger bubbling and wanting to rise, but the tears in his eyes, the pure remorse, the waves of guilt beating off him quelled the wrath.
It wasn’t my wrath; it was hers. The woman I’d once been. The one my soul remembered. But that person wasn’t me. I couldn’t allow it to be, because if I did, I’d be consumed by the need for vengeance. Hatred would blacken my heart, and that…that would serve no purpose in the greater fight ahead.
The Chandra that I knew had saved my life more than once. The Chandra that I knew was my friend. “I forgive you.”
“No.” Tears slipped down his cheeks. “I do not deserve forgiveness. Not for that, and not for—”
A djinn burst into the kitchen, his eyes wide. “Bhartina summons you now.”
Chandra wiped at his tears, composing his features. “What is it? What’s happened?”
“A ship has arrived in the sky above the eastern cliff. A ship made of clouds.”
My heart leapt into my throat. I shoved my chair back, heart pounding hard. “Zarael’s here. They made it. They fucking made it.”
The journey from the residences to the cliff top above where the ship hovered passed in a blur.
The cloud ship hovered several meters above the cliff, and a group of djinn and drohi led by Bhartina stood facing two figures dressed in leather and mist.
Relief tore a soft sob from my throat at the sight of my vayujaari friends.
Jaantor stood, hands fisted, jaw tight, but Zarael had a haunted look about her, dark shadows beneath her eyes. She broke away from the others and jogged down to meet me.
“Leela!”
I caught her in a hug. “You made it.”
She buried her face in the crook of my neck, her powerful frame shaking as she soaked my skin with tears. What the fuck? I made soothing circles on her back, locking eyes with Jaantor as he approached.
Where were the others? Where were the civilians? Jaantor must have read the questions in my eyes.
“They’re dead,” he said flatly. “They’re all dead.”