Chapter 36
A SHORT-LIVED TRIUMPH
The primordial evil glared at me from behind Chandra’s eyes before dropping his gaze to the dagger. He blinked, and for a moment I was sure I saw Chandra looking back at me.
“I see it…” he said. “Inside you.”
“Chandra?” My voice trembled.
He blinked sharply, lip curling. No. Not Chandra.
I stepped back and yanked out the blade, my chest heaving. “Welcome to your new prison, you bastard.”
Around us, the commotion died. The Asura who’d been attacking us stilled, their heads falling forward, blades winking out. I bit back a sob, my insides trembling as I kept my gaze locked on the primordial evil, now trapped inside my friend’s body.
I sensed my other friends around me. But I didn’t dare take my eyes off the primordial evil.
He ran his hand over the blade wound, and it knitted beneath his fingers, and then he looked up at me, a frown marring his features. “I was not expecting that.”
He was weakened now, his power stripped by the power of the blade. “It’s over, Mizikiel.”
His throat bobbed. “That name on your lips…” He took a deep breath.
“I was trapped inside Araz. Iblees’s core power was out of my reach.
It took everything to keep Araz weak. To maintain control.
I couldn’t leave, not without expulsion, and staying was making the unraveling so much harder.
” He smiled, slow and satisfied. “You freed me.”
“What? No. You’re trapped in Chandra.”
“No, Leela. I’m not trapped. I now have a vessel that belongs solely to me.”
“But the dagger—”
He let out a bark of laughter. “Whatever power that blade might have had is long gone. So, yes, you’re right about one thing. It is over. For you.”
Around us, the Asura came back to life and attacked.
Mizikiel reached for me, and heat surged in my chest. I threw out my hands, and blue power erupted from my fingers, smashing into him and forcing him away from me.
What the fuck?
His expression echoed my shock.
His lip curled. “I offered you the honor of death by my hands, but you don’t deserve that. You can die here with the rest of your grunts.”
He shot up into the sky, wings bursting from his back, and vanished into the clouds. More Asura landed on the ship.
We were outnumbered three to one. The ship was crawling with astra-wielding Asura.
The looks on Zarael’s and Jaantor’s faces said it all. There was no winning this one.
An Asura rushed toward Araz’s fallen from.
“No!” I beat him to it, falling to my knees to cover my drohi with my body, my cheek pressed to his, arm around his head to shield him.
A fiery tingle rushed over my skin and the Asura screamed.
I exhaled, my heart in my mouth as Araz wrapped his arms around me. I lifted my head to look down into his face, bathed in the golden glow of the light surrounding us. A ward. A shield.
“Araz…”
He returned my gaze with topaz eyes ringed in startling green looking up at me as if seeing me for the first time.
“Hey…it’s me, I—”
Whoomp. Whoomp. Whoomp.
My head whipped up, heart sinking as thunderbirds rose to surround the ship. But wait, they didn’t have crimson eyes.
I spotted one with golden head feathers and yellow eyes.
Pakshiraj!
A tiny figure appeared on his head.
Wait, was that Blue?
The golden dome around us shuddered as an Asura slammed an astra into it, and beneath me, Araz growled, the vibration traveling through me in a way that was wholly inappropriate for the situation.
I looked down into his beautiful face, feeling the fire in his eyes echo the flame burning in my chest.
He smiled, wild and feral. “Let’s bring these Asura to heel.”
With Araz on his feet and Pakshiraj and his kin on our side, the battle lasted mere minutes. The Asura who’d been in Mizikiel’s command retreated quickly, leaving us to lick our wounds and regroup.
Araz pulled me into his arms. With his chin resting on my head and his heart thundering against mine, the fact that Mizikiel had escaped didn’t matter.
A gust of wind cooled the sweat on my brow and washed the scent of blood from my nostrils as if trying to cleanse the evidence of death form my senses, but the deck was bathed in the blood of Asura and djinn. Blood that shouldn’t have been shed. There was no erasing that.
My stomach twisted, a fist of grief clutching at my throat.
C’ael was gone.
Chandra was gone.
Ravi, Kalani, Yudh, Dhoona, Pashim…Oh gods, what had become of Pashim?
Araz kissed my temple. Soft words soothed the tumult in my chest. Heat bloomed at my solar plexus—calming and sure.
There was work still to be done.
I stood taller to meet his eyes and saw my thoughts reflected there.
Yeah, I had him back, but our work wasn’t over.
His jaw flexed, and he nodded slowly. “We need to get the ship to Shahee Kshetra.”
“Leela!”
Blue? Gods, how could I have forgotten he was here? A wave of guilt washed over me, but the moment I spotted him running toward me, there was no room for any other emotion but joy.
I caught him as he leapt into my arms, vision blurring as his furry face kissed my cheek.
“Leela, my Leela.”
“Blue…You made it. You came for me.”
He pulled back to look up at me with dark eyes. “Course I did, and I brought backup.” I looked across the ship, catching a glimpse of Pakshiraj as he swooped past, circling us with the other thunderbirds.
“You flew here…For me.”
He shrugged. “Meh, no big deal. I needed to get out of me cage anyway.”
“Cage?”
“Long story, I’ll tell ya later. First, we got ta stop Delulu Dude from getting into his realm.”
“Blue is right,” Araz said. “If Mizikiel enters his realm, then crossing the threshold to find him will be impossible.”
“Not impossible,” Blue said. “Deva can cross, and Vritra did once, and Leela has Deva blood, so…”
Yes, the Deva had created Vritra, not to cross over to the realm but to overpower Mizikiel.
They’d created him to bring the ancient to heel.
But regular Deva had managed to cross the threshold at one time, which meant I could do so too.
But there was something more. A kernel of power simmering inside me now.
A gift from Chandra, transferred in his first and last kiss.
One he’d known I’d need. Not a key to the threshold but his power. I could use it to overpower Mizikiel.
“We stop him before he escapes,” Araz said. “He ran because he’s weakened by the transition. He could have used transference, but he flew. The body that now houses him is not as strong as mine.”
But that wasn’t strictly true. “Chandra was Vritra.”
“Motherfucker,” Blue said. “Vritra was the one that brought Mizikiel down the first time around.”
I blinked at him in surprise. “How do you know that?”
“Long story, but I know stuff now, and yeah, Vritra’s body is perfect for Crazy Boy. Better than yours, Wonder Pecs. But I don’t think he realized it till he took it…” Blue tapped his chin. “So why did he run?” He looked across at me, his eyes narrow slits, and then they popped wide. “No way…”
“What?” Araz and I said in unison.
Blue’s gaze skipped over my face. “It has to be…”
“Blue, spit it out.”
“Chandra is in a vessel born to hold Vritra. A vessel connected to Vritra’s essence.
And Mizikiel has taken it over. But there’ll still be a part of ’im trapped inside for a little while.
Mizikiel won’t be able to burn away his essence that quickly.
Right now, he’s bonded to it. The essences entwined with Mizikiel in control.
So if we destroy the vessel, then we end Mizikiel. ”
“Only the Vajra can do that, and we have no idea where it is.”
“It’s here,” Blue said. “The Deva hid it somewhere no one would look. They hid it in a bloodline, and now I’m lookin’ at her.”
Araz’s hot gaze bore into me, and heat flared over my skin, tightening and pulsing behind my breastbone.
His eyes narrowed, and he cupped my face, his fingers hot against my cheeks.
“I have felt something in you for the longest time. I believed it to be related to the bond forged between us. But now…Now I wonder…” His expression closed.
“We can’t know for sure. It’s too risky. ”
Chandra’s words came back to me. I see it…inside you.
I gently pulled free. “I think Blue is right. Chandra said he saw it inside me. The moment before Mizikiel took him over.”
Araz frowned and shook his head. “Even if you are the Vajra, we can’t be sure you’ll be able to destroy the vessel. The Deva used the Vajra once and failed to end him. Why would now be any different?”
“Cos he’s weaker now,” Blue said.
Blue was right. “He…he gave me his power before he invited Mizikiel in. I believe he wanted me to know the Vajra was still out there, for that reason. To end his vessel. To stop Mizikiel. He wanted me to find it.” And in the moment that he was taken over, he’d seen it. In me.
Araz’s jaw clenched. “We stop him before he goes through.”
Gods, he was stubborn. “And if we don’t then—”
“Then we will formulate a new plan. And if that fails then I will cross the threshold to Mizikiel’s realm with you.”
“You can’t,” Blue said. “Only Deva can—”
“I am Iblees,” Araz snapped, then he pressed his lips together and exhaled through his nose. “I will come with you,” he said to me, his tone softening. His eyes blazed, the green ring around the irises brightening. The same shade of green as C’ael’s eyes.
My throat pinched. He was a part of Araz just like he’d promised, but it didn’t change the fact that he was gone…No longer C’ael.
I swallowed hard and exhaled. C’ael had sacrificed his autonomy, his self, not to free Araz but to save this world. I would not let that sacrifice be in vain.
I lifted my chin. “Too many have died for us not to see this through. We do whatever it takes to stop Mizikiel. You said it yourself in the dreamscape, Araz. You were willing to lay down your life. Preparing me to end you to save this world. Now it’s my turn, and you have no right to stop me. Now get me to Aakash Sansaar. Fast.”