Epilogue
FOUR YEARS LATER
There was a figure on my bedchamber balcony, but there were no alarms going off inside me. No power rising to defend me.
Whoever was out there wasn’t a threat.
I slipped on my fancy slippers, carefully clutching the pleats of my sari as I crossed the room toward the gauzy drapes blowing in the breeze.
Moonlight kissed my skin as I stepped outside, breath snagging at the sight of the woman standing and looking out at the palace grounds.
It had been years since I’d seen her.
She was taller, somehow, dark hair now streaked with starlight. Her body had filled out and become more athletic, but…it was her.
“Priti?”
She turned slowly to face me, a slow smile blooming on her lips. “Look at you,” she said. “You look so regal.”
I glanced down at my cream and gold sari, the royal colors. My colors. “I suppose I do. It still feels surreal, though.”
“Good,” she said. “That means you’re still grounded. That means you’re still one of the people.”
She tipped her head to one side, moonlight glancing off her cheekbones. “It’s good to see you again, Leela.”
My stomach quivered. “Priti, why are you here now, after so long?”
“Long?” She frowned. “How long has it been here?”
“Four years…How long has it been for you?”
She shook her head. “Time has little meaning in my world.”
The first trickle of unease skated up my spine. “You’ve changed so much.”
It was her turn to look down at herself. She blinked, exhaling softly, and her body morphed, changing shape into the one I knew so well. The starlight melted out of her hair, and her smile warmed. “Is this better?”
My chest tightened. “Priti, what’s going on? I don’t see you for years, and now you show up on my balcony?”
She slow-blinked. “I planned to come back sooner but…time got away with me. A consequence of breaking the rules, I suppose.”
“What rules?”
She smiled wryly, and for a moment she was my Priti once more. “Plucking a soul from the battlefield before a death blow could claim his life.”
Battlefield? Realization washed over me. “Keyton? You did save him that day.”
“I saved him from pain but not death. That he embraced willingly once on the other side. It was his time, but…I could not bear to see him mortally wounded. I guess I still hold some attachments.”
“Some? Priti, you’re still you. Even though you carry the mantle of death, you’re still Priti.”
She blinked sharply, and then her expression relaxed. “I am, aren’t I? I need to remember that.”
She’d been there to take Keyton. Had she been there for the others? “Did you…did you see Ravi and Kalani when they passed?”
“They did not pass.”
“What? But…they’re gone.”
“Gone, but not dead.”
But they hadn’t come back which meant… “They’re still in Patala, aren’t they?”
“They are where their destinies call to them.”
“So why are you here? I’m pretty sure it’s not just to see me.”
She smiled. “No.” She took a step to one side. The air beside her shimmered, and a young woman stepped forward. I’d know that heart-shaped face anywhere.
“Nani?”
She beamed at me, her eyes filling with tears. “There you are, beti. My Leela.”
My mouth trembled, and I took a step toward her, vision blurring.
“You can’t touch her,” Priti said. “She’s not form or flesh.”
I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat and focusing on the woman who’d raised me. “I’m sorry, Nani, for what happened back at the—”
“No, beti. No…there is nothing for you to be sorry for. I’m honored to have protected your bloodline. To have raised you. Loved you. You have been my greatest achievement, and I will pass on now with no regrets. I love you, Leela. Always.”
My chest tightened, and I took a shuddering breath. “I love you too. Always.”
“Until we meet again.”
The air shimmered, and Nani’s form vanished.
I exhaled, my breath a shiver. “Thank you.” I ducked my head, wiping at my eyes.
“You’re welcome,” Priti said. “You deserved the closure of a goodbye. I’m glad to have given it to you, however…delayed.”
I looked up to find her watching me with an indecipherable expression.
“What is it?”
She lifted her chin, looking down her nose at me. “Today is a big day, Leela. A day when the tide turns toward a new future.”
Today was the New World celebration. A coming together of the people in harmony, but I didn’t feel like she was referring to that. “Priti, what do you mean?”
She bridged the distance between us and lightly touched my cheek. A shiver skated over my skin, precognitive and unsettling.
I searched her face, my mouth suddenly dry. “Priti…”
“Your love is your greatest weapon, Leela,” she said. “Allow it to guide you, and the balance will not waver.”
She vanished, leaving me standing alone on the moonlit balcony with a pounding heart and a serious case of foreboding.
I stood on the balcony, the sense of fullness inside me threaded with unease. My conversation with Priti and meeting with Nani was beginning to feel like a dream.
I wandered back into my bedchamber, coming to stand before the mirror that showed me the woman I’d become.
Regal? That’s what Priti had called me.
But I was just me, in nicer clothes.
“Come on, chickadee, we ain’t got all night,” Blue called from the doorway, pulling me from my thoughts. “Your people await.” He was dressed in a deep blue tunic edged in silver, his dark eyes bright with intelligence.
I couldn’t help but smile at how dashing he looked. “I’m surprised you managed to tear yourself away from your work.”
He huffed. “Those scrolls ain’t gonna organize themselves. Them Authority wankers hid a lot of shit. I’d kick their asses if they were still alive. People deserve access to history. The real stuff, not the bullshit they made up.”
Waking up happened slowly, and for the people of Svargana, it was a work in progress. Our world had almost been decimated by Mizikiel. Now as the hollow places bloomed with life once more, as the earth knit itself back together, the people also healed.
“Priti was just here.”
“No way.”
“Yep.” I filled him in on the visit, on seeing Nani and Priti’s cryptic words.
His whiskers twitched. “She could have been warning us ’bout somethin’ or just telling ya the truth. Love is your greatest weapon, chickadee. Look where it got ya.”
The knots in my belly unraveled. He was right. Love had powered me through it all. “Let’s just…get through tonight. We can worry about the future when it arrives.” I adjusted the pleats on my sari. “How do I look?”
“Ya look like a queen,” he said softly. “I’m so fecking proud of you.”
“And I’m proud of you.” He’d taken to being a sage like a duck to water, and even Bhoomika looked to him for knowledge now.
He’d been blessed with a connection to the knowledge keepers that none of us understood fully yet.
Maybe when they awoke from their slumber, they’d explain it to us.
But for now, we had Blue, and he was all that we needed.
“Where’s tall, dark, and sexy?” Blue asked.
Araz exited the bathroom as if summoned by the description, towel hanging precariously low around his hips, hair damp and spilling down his shoulders.
He paused and canted his head, eyes narrowing. “Something otherworldly was here?” His shoulders bunched, and my stomach contracted in the needy way it did around him.
I ignored the pull. “Priti was just here.”
He arched a brow. “Do we need to worry?”
“No. She brought Nani to see me before she passes on.”
He crossed the room toward me, still damp and dappled with droplets of water. “Are you all right?”
I smiled up at him. “Better than ever.”
“I’m sorry I missed meeting her.”
“Me too. She would have loved you.”
“And I her.” He wrapped me in his arms, nuzzling the spot beneath my ear.
I resisted the urge to melt into him. “Araz, you’re getting me all wet.”
Araz chuckled, the sound low and filled with innuendo.
“Fecking hell,” Blue said. I’d almost forgotten he was in the room. “Half an hour. No hanky panky. People are waitin’ to see their king and queen.” He ducked out, muttering something about divine hormones.
Araz kissed my neck, then released me, standing back to take me in. “You look more beautiful every day. Divinity suits you.”
My cheeks warmed at the compliment. Even after all this time together, he could make me blush. One look. One touch and I melted, and the way he was looking at me now had heat blooming low in my belly.
I exhaled and looked away. “We don’t have time for that.”
He tipped his head to the side, topaz eyes bright and hungry. “You’re right. There isn’t enough time for the things I want to do to you.”
We’d made love earlier, but there was no limit, no set time for love. We’d learned not to ration it. After everything that had happened. After we’d almost lost each other, every moment was precious.
But not tonight. Tonight, we had a celebration to go to.
The New World ceremony to celebrate the rebuild of our world. Of Aakash Sansaar and Svargana.
Araz kissed my cheek and vanished into the walk-in closet. “Have you thought any more about who you’d want on the council aside from who we discussed?” he called out from the depths. “The people need to see stability in the ranks.”
“I know. I’m thinking. I promise.”
I’d been ascended and crowned all on one day after Mizikiel destroyed himself. I’d never understood why he’d done that. He could have fought me. Probably would have won, but…he hadn’t.
His final words filled my mind. Unforgotten even after all this time.
Every living thing has an end, so a new beginning can take root and bloom…It’s inside you now…
The blue light…I’d had nightmares about that for a while, but the nightmares had faded soon enough. Still, there was a part of me that was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Pashim and his spectral troops made sure to keep an eye on the mountain where the throne was now simply a stone seat. I wasn’t taking any chances.