Chapter 34
IT’S WAKE UP TIME
BLUE
Mizikiel carries me around like a fucking talisman.
It’s like he knows I’m planning sumtin He hasn’t let me out his sight for more than a few minutes at a time.
Me skin’s itchy, and the urge to scream is trapped in me throat.
I want to be back on me table in the sitting room with him gone for hours so I can do what needs ta be done.
I’m beginning to wonder if he’s using me like a comfort blanket.
Only good thing about it is that I get to map the building over and over, including the fucked-up crimson tunnels he’s built. The demigods still hang out in the east wing when not patrolling. If my plan ever gets to be executed, then I’ll find them there.
Three days of being under constant surveillance and I’m starting ta think it’ll never end when he finally takes me back into the sitting room.
Could it be that he’s going to leave me here?
It’s midafternoon. Too late for lunch—not that he bothers to eat much—and too early for supper—a meal he does usually take.
Maybe he’s planning on an early supper. Maybe he’ll eat and fuck off.
He places me on the table and takes a seat, settling and resting his head on the back of the chair. There are dark smudges under his eyes, and his skin looks dry and pale. I guess destroying a world takes it outta ya.
“You okay?” I dunno why I ask it. Maybe cos he’s in Araz’s body, and I care about that. I care about Araz.
He smiles thinly, a soft laugh escaping his nostrils in a huff. “Let’s not pretend that you care about me, Blue. I know you want nothing more than to be free of me.”
“You’re right there. But I do care about that body you’re wearin’. That belongs to a friend of mine.”
“Friends are simply people with the power to hurt you.”
“They also have the power ta make life better. To enrich it. My friends are my chosen family, and I’m sorry you didn’t get ta have that. I’m sorry you mistook the Deva for friends.”
His eyes narrow. “They were my friends.”
“Nah. If they were your friends, they wouldn’t have fucked you over.”
“You’re insinuating that what happened to me was my fault?” His topaz eyes glow dangerously.
Great. Just what I need, a fucked-off ancient being who can unmake me with a thought if he wants to. “Look, if you want a ‘yes’ rat, then you got the wrong rodent. I tell it how I see it, okay?”
His shoulders relax. “You have no filter.”
“Correct.”
“And your opinion doesn’t matter to me.”
“If you say so.”
“What do you—” His head whips toward the door, and his eyes narrow to slits, then he stands abruptly, chair scraping on the wooden floor.
“You leavin’?” Shit, why’d I say that?
His smile takes on a jagged edge. “Leela is on her way here. I’m not sure how she plans to get past my wards, and I don’t think I’ll bother asking her before I snap her pretty neck.”
Panic propels me forward, and I grab the bars, heat licking at my chest. “You leave her alone, you bastard!”
He lets out a bark of laughter. “I was going to take you with me, let you say a final goodbye before I end her. But now you can stay here and think about your insolence. Maybe a few hours alone will teach you to hold your tongue.”
He storms out of the room, leaving me alone for the first time in days. Fuck, if I’d known being an insolent ass would get me some me time, I’d have pissed him off days ago.
My stomach twists, and I take a deep breath.
Leela is on her way here.
It’s time to escape.
It’s fucking freezing outside. My nose is cold, and my whiskers feel crispy by the time I get to the nest. The green crystal planted outside the nest dome glows softly, enveloping the whole structure in an eerie glow.
There’s no one on watch duty tonight, hasn’t been for a couple of nights from what I’ve seen.
Mizikiel likes to take a turn in the gardens every evening, and he’s been dragging me with him.
This is good. It’s real good.
I scamper to the crystal then left because it’s not the crystal I need to play with.
It’s the stone plaque pressed to the earth beside it.
Symbols stare back at me. Symbols that would have meant nothing to me a few weeks ago, but now…
Now I know which ones I need to touch. I know instinctively how to deactivate the dome.
It takes seconds to bring down the ward, and another to activate the mechanism to open the doorway.
Sweet dry air hits me in the face, and a tingle washes over me, the residue of whatever magic was keeping my anchor friends dormant.
“Hello?” I won’t risk stepping inside. What if the door closes on me? No. I need to stay out here. Keep an eye on incoming. “Ida? Lola? Garu? You there?”
Ida stumbles out of the nest, her large frame wobbling on trembling legs. Dharma…she’s in trouble.
Bina… Garu hisses softly. Her mind is clouded, but I see her do things. Not things she wants to do.
“Yeah, the primordial evil has taken over the royal domain and loads of demigod and Asura minds. I’ll tell you the rest later, but first we need to get your demigods, free Pakshiraj, and go save Leela.”
I scamper toward the east wing, and my anchor buddies follow.
It’s action time.
Bina, Dharma, and Joe meet us in the hallway of the eastern tower.
Chaya, Thanil, and Maya come hurtling down the stairs and there’s a convergence of bodies, tears and hugs, and fuck, I want ta give them time for a reunion, but there is none.
We’re on a clock. Mizikiel is going after my Leela, and I need to save her.
“We gotsta move. Now. Leela is in trouble. I’ll fill ya in on what’s happened along the way.”
Dharma breaks free of Chaya and wipes at her face. “I know what’s happening. Been seeing it unfold. Hearing everything. But I was trapped behind glass.”
“Same,” Joe said. “We attacked Leela…I…I hurt someone bad.”
Chaya puts her arm around him. “You didn’t do those things. He did. He made you do the bad things.”
Bina clenches her teeth, her eyes filled with murder. “Yeah, and now it’s time to attack the fucker.”
That’s not the plan, but I let her have her moment. She needs it. They all do. “He can’t control ya if he don’t have your anchors, same with the other demigods, but there ain’t no time to get to Prashikshan and free the other anchors.”
“Wait,” Chaya says. “What about Keyton? We can’t just leave him here.”
“We have to,” Bina says. “He’s still under the influence of the primordial evil.”
I’ve considered this, and it hurts to say it but… “I can’t help him. You guys woke up cos I woke ya anchors up. You’re all connected. But Keyton…he’s fully under, no way to pull him out.”
“Fuck.” Joe rakes a hand through his hair. “Okay, we’ll have to come back for him. Find a way to free him later.”
Dharma looks up the stairs, her gaze wary. “Yeah, we best go while he’s in stasis mode.”
“You have a plan, don’t you?” Joe says ta me.
I scamper toward the door. “Yep. Follow me. I’ll fill you in on the way.”
The demigods are on high alert as we hurry through the palace, ready to fight any Asura who come at us. But the corridors are empty. No one sees us as we make our way to the gardens.
The sky is red, always red now because of the wards around the domain, so it’s hard to tell what time of day it is, but my body clock tells me it’s late afternoon.
Pakshiraj lays curled on his side on the grass, his back to us, the green dome bright around his body.
“Oh shit,” Joe says. “I remember this. I remember him shifting to this form. I was here. I didn’t know thunderbirds could do this.”
“They haven’t been able ta since the Deva left.” The knowledge is just there in me head. “Something’s changed since Mizikiel was freed. This ward is keeping Pakshiraj in his human form and weakening him. We gots ta free him.” I stride over to the pillar responsible for keeping him caged.
The symbols are the same as the ones on the nest. I tap in the combination I know will undo the wards. The green sheen shudders and drops.
Pakshiraj is free, but he doesn’t move.
Dharma and Chaya exchange glances.
“Pakshiraj?” Joe calls out softly, taking a tentative step forward.
I sense no breath, Garu says from around Bina’s neck.
“He isn’t breathing,” Bina relays for the group.
Ida sniffs the air. He does not smell dead.
Not dead, Lola echoes.
I scamper along his large frame and stop by his face. His eyes are closed, and yeah, he’s barely breathing. His skin has a sickly green sheen to it. The fucking ward must have affected him in more ways than one.
“Pakshiraj.” I poke his cheek. “Wake up. We gots ta go. Leela needs us.” His eyes shift beneath his lids like dreaming eyes do. “Hey! Stop dreamin’ ’bout killing the fucker and wake up so we can go do it for real!”
“Maybe he’s gone into some kind of coma,” Dharma suggests. “The ward could have done that to him.” She crouches beside him and takes his pulse. “Steady pulse. Strong.”
“We need to think of another plan,” Bina says.
Frustration makes me chest tight. “There is no other plan. We need him to get through the wards and rally the unaffected thunderbirds. We need him to fly to Leela and save her.”
“Blue, even if he did get through the wards, we have no way of finding Leela. She has to call him for him to go to her,” Joe reminds me.
My heart sinks because he’s right. The only way for Pakshiraj to go directly to Leela is for her to summon him. I’d thought he’d have time to search for her, but now that Mizikiel knows where she is, now that he’s gone to kill her, we don’t have that luxury.
Panic squeezes the breath from my lungs. Because I have no plan now. “He’s going to kill her. He’s going to kill my Leela.” The thread of hope that I’ve been holding on to frays and snaps. Dark spots fill my vision, and the world begins to tilt. “No…No, no, no.”
The voices of the demigods and anchors are a buzz around me. I fall back against Pakshiraj’s arm, my heart racing.
I can’t lose her. I can’t lose my Leela.
My brain itches, and a voice fills my head. We will not lose her.
I pull away from him, heart hammering at my ribs. “What the—”
He stands in one fluid motion, and all of us stagger away from him. “The lies are dying. The truth is surfacing. The balance of this world is resetting even as Mizikiel attempts to end it all. It is as it must be. The reset before the end.”
“What are you talking about?” Dharma asks.
He looks down at her, his expression filled with sorrow.
“I remember it all now. The wrongness of it. But it is done, and we cannot allow any more atrocity. The way forward must be life.” He looks down at me.
“You, little Blue, are a beacon. You are a part of her even though you are separate. Will you fly with me to find her?”
Fly…Motherfucker. I hadn’t thought this through. Fly. On his back. In the sky. High. My breath comes fast and shallow.
Pakshiraj crouches and looks me in the eyes. “You are small, but you have a courageous heart. It would be my honor to carry you to your Leela. Will you help me save her?”
And just like that, the fist of fear melts, because nothing is keeping me away from my Leela. “Yeah, I’m in. Let’s do this.”