Chapter 35
HOW MUCH MORE WILL HE TAKE?
LEELA
Icouldn’t breathe. I couldn’t fucking breathe.
C’ael pulled me into his arms, making circles on my back. “It’s okay. In through your nose, hold for a beat or two, and out through your mouth. Slow and easy. It’s all right. It will be all right.”
I did the breathing, focusing on each one until the tight fist around my lungs eased its grip. Then I addressed his lie. “It is not going to be okay. They’re dead. Ravi, Kalani, Yudh and Dhoona, and any allies they brought with them. Gone. Unmade.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Chandra said. “Maybe they hadn’t reached the camp yet.”
“That’s unlikely,” Zarael said. “Bearing in mind the amount of time that has passed since we parted ways.”
Chandra shot her a quelling glance, but I was glad for her blunt, honest assessment. I just needed a moment.
I pulled away from the group and crossed the ship, striding past stunned faces until I reached the bow.
I blinked back the hot tears. I needed to pull my shit together.
I closed my eyes and exhaled.
The turmoil inside me eased, and I wiped my eyes, looking up at the orange skies. We’d be at the vortex soon.
My stomach tightened, a soft burn lighting up behind my sternum, the feeling at odds with my inner monologue.
Something shifted far below us, hidden beneath the clouds. My stomach twisted as the clouds erupted, spitting out a thunderbird with golden wings and silver head feathers.
Ilara?
Her eyes glowed crimson.
The primordial evil locked gazes with me over her head, his lips curling in a cruelly satisfied smile.
“There you are, little queen. Finally in the flesh.” The whoomp, whoomp of wings filled the air as several Asura rose out of the clouds below to surround the ship.
Eyes like blood, their intent clear. “And now it’s time to die. ”
One moment Ilara was swooping toward me, the next I was shattering and reassimilating on the other side of the ship beneath the awning that housed the ship’s wheel.
Chandra hugged me tightly. “We have to do it now,” he said, his gaze flitting over my head. I followed it to find C’ael standing, jaw tight, body thrumming with the need for action. “Mizikiel will be circling back for another chance to grab you. We need to get him off the bird and onto the deck.”
Around us, the djinn fought the Asura, channeling water from the air and smashing it into the winged gods as they swooped and slashed with glowing blades. They had astra. The divine weapons would decimate our regular ones. Fuck.
A glowing arrow arched toward the deck, splitting into three, each finding its mark in a djinn. Their bodies exploded to ash.
Someone screamed. A whirlwind of air and water slammed into the Asura with the bow, but he exploded out of it, shooting another arrow.
The djinn dove or teleported to avoid being hit, and the deck shook as the arrows smashed into it.
Zarael shot into the sky, her body surrounded by lightning. Jaantor joined her, storm laced with flames swirling around his form. Together they held the ship. Reformed it. Steadied it.
But Asura landed, astra blades cutting down my comrades.
I spotted Ramashi and Bhartina fighting back-to-back, a dome of air and water moving around them like a shield as they parried using glowing silver blades, but each connection with a golden astra sent a ripple through their defenses.
“The djinn should be able to fight off the Asura,” Chandra said. “Astras aren’t meant to be this powerful against them.”
But the rules had changed.
Ilara’s screech cut through the commotion.
“Mizikiel is coming!” Chandra said. “Are you ready, C’ael?”
I looked between them. “What are you going to do?”
“I’ll transport Mizikiel to the deck, and C’ael will transfer the flame.” He gripped my shoulders. “Do you have the blade?”
“What? Yes. But why?”
“Just a precaution, Leela. Only a precaution.”
My stomach twisted, but I nodded.
He pulled me close and kissed my temple. “I love you, Leela.” He was gone before I could respond.
C’ael grabbed my hand. “We can do this. Come on! We must get to the bow.”
They’d planned this. Together.
Wings of foreboding fluttered in my belly, but there was no time to examine the feeling.
I ran with my hand in C’ael’s through the zing and clash of blades and the spray and bite of icy water as the Asura and djinn fought.
None turned to attack us, the crimson-eyed Asuras’ focus remaining on the djinn.
The primordial evil was saving me for himself. My death at his hands. Why? I wasn’t sure. And then it hit me.
I was a tether.
Araz’s tether.
His reason for fighting.
But if I was gone…
We came to a halt just as Ilara swooped toward us, the bastard on her back. A second figure appeared behind him.
It was Chandra, his dark hair whipping in the breeze. I caught the moment of shock on the primordial evil’s face as Chandra wrapped his arms around him. They vanished, materializing a few meters from us a moment later.
The primordial evil let out a roar, and Chandra went flying across the deck.
His topaz eyes locked on me, a terrifying snarl pulling back his lips.
“Now!” Chandra yelled.
C’ael appeared behind the primordial evil and wrapped his arms around him.
The primordial evil froze, his eyes flying wide, his mouth dropping open. Then his back arched.
A glow bloomed across his chest, golden and bright.
The flame.
C’ael was putting the flame inside him.
“Argh!” the primordial evil roared, the sound one of agony.
His head fell forward, and his gaze zeroed onto me, soft and filled with yearning. Love and…sorrow?
No.
“Not. Enough. Leela…run…” His head whipped back, a triumphant bellow tearing from his throat.
A shock wave of energy burst from his body, knocking C’ael across the deck.
The primordial evil dropped his chin. A slow, smug smile lifted his lips, eradicating any sign of Araz.
“Did you truly think a little flame would be enough? He’s too weak to fight back, not when he’s not whole.”
But the flame was meant to make him whole unless…My gaze flew to C’ael across the deck. Our gazes met, and I saw my conclusion echoed in his eyes.
“No…” The word was for him. For C’ael. But the primordial evil answered me.
“Oh, yes, Leela. It’s time to breathe your last.”
Chandra appeared beside me, his arm shooting out as a blade appeared, glowing gold and lethal. “You’ll have to go through me first.” A soft shimmer surrounded Chandra, and his form swelled, power radiating off him in waves that stung my skin. What was happening?
The primordial evil’s eyes narrowed. “You…Vritra.” His tone dripped with venom.
Vritra?
Which meant this was Chandra’s pure power, the element he’d kept suppressed all this time. It was heady and heavy, making it harder to breathe.
“Yes. It’s me,” Chandra said. “I locked you away. I captured you. And if you want her, you’ll have to pass through me.”
“No,” C’ael said, appearing between Chandra and the primordial evil. “You’ll have to pass through me.”
“You?” His lip curled. “You’re nothing. A pathetic side effect of the merge. You think your connection to Iblees gives you power? You’re nothing but a fragment. An echo.”
He didn’t know…He didn’t know what C’ael…who C’ael truly was. He had no idea what he was about to do. My heart squeezed, tears blurring my vision.
“You think your tears will soften me,” the primordial evil sneered at me.
I looked to C’ael. “I love you, C’ael. I’ll always love you.”
He nodded. “I know. Always.” He turned to the primordial evil and ran straight into him, misting into nothing as he made contact.
The primordial evil jerked and twisted, his body arching. Golden light bloomed at his chest, and then his head fell back, and dark mist poured from his mouth, shooting up into the air.
Chandra grabbed my shoulders. “The blade. Get it ready.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
He cupped my face. “We can’t allow him to go free, Leela. We must trap him now.”
“But Araz—”
“Not Araz. He won’t go into him. Not now.” Behind us, Araz fell to the ground unconscious. “He’ll find a new host. A powerful one.”
“No…”
“Yes, I must do this. I can contain him. I can keep him inside, but you must use the blade.”
“Chandra, I can’t do this without you.”
“You won’t have to. I give you my core.” He pulled me close and kissed me on the mouth.
Warm, bright energy spilled down my throat, and memories filled my mind.
Running down the shore barefoot, my hand clasped in his.
His laughter teasing mine to break free.
Card games, and meals, and walks in the moonlight, and his lips on mine, his body above me, and love…
I’d loved him in a quiet way. In a deep, anchored way once.
He broke the kiss, taking the memories of another life with him and leaving me stranded in this one.
“I will always be with you,” he said, his gaze tracing a path across my face.
But he wouldn’t. Once the primordial evil took his body, he’d be eradicated.
The only reason Araz hadn’t been burned out was because the primordial evil hadn’t been able to access Iblees’ core power and claim it during the merge.
It had forced him to share the body with Araz.
But Chandra had just given me his core. There was nothing to be claimed but the vessel born to house great power.
I couldn’t let him do this. I made a grab for his hand, but he backed away, shaking his head.
“For all the pain. For everything. I love you.” He turned to the swirling mist that was the primordial evil and held out his arms in invitation.
The air vibrated like a summoning, and the mist rushed toward him, slamming into him with a hiss.
Chandra swayed on his feet as the primordial evil filled him, his head turning my way, eyes filled with command.
I pushed down the sobs and drew the blade, gripping the hilt tight, thighs bunching.
Chandra’s eyes closed as the last of the dark mist entered his body.
And when they opened, I buried the dagger in his chest.