He exhaled and nodded. “I understand.”
“No, Keyton, you don’t. I’m taking you with me as you are. No servitude. No bond. And you know why? Because I fucking can. Now go pack and meet me at Dharti in a couple of hours.”
His eyes lit up, and he stood taller. “Thank you. I…I should accompany you to your destination now.”
I placed a hand on his arm. “No, Keyton. This is somewhere I have to go alone. Trust me. I’ll be safe.”
He looked torn but nodded and backed away. “Very well. I will see you in two hours.”
I turned to the path that would lead me to my destination.
To Lake Pari.
The underwater chambergreeted me with the soft ambience of hidden nature, the walls of the cavern glittering as if a billion diamonds were embedded in the stone. The world said that Araz was gone, but here, in his secret place beneath the lake, he was eternal. Was that his cranberry scent in the air? Did the lingering heat on the rock by the pool belong to him? Was I breathing him in now?
Heat pricked at my eyes, and the chamber blurred. How was it possible to have more tears? How had I not run dry yet? I exhaled shakily and slowly lowered myself to one of the sitting rocks around the pool. The waterfall gushed into it, sending ripples outward. I dipped my feet into it. Warm. Like him. Like my Araz.
I closed my eyes, allowing the tears to slip down my cheeks that were still raw from grief. There was a hollow space inside me now, a pit carved into my soul. The absence of him.
Being here in this place felt like being in the heart of him. It felt like being in his arms. Like being home. I imagined him beside me, his arm brushing my shoulder, and for a moment it felt like he was here, standing right beside me, that if I openedmy eyes and looked up, I’d see him there. He’d smile, reach out, and run his knuckles down my cheek. The scent of cranberries filled my nose, and a warm pulse lighted behind my sternum.
“Leela?” A female voice snapped me out of my reverie.
Chaya stood in the arch, dripping wet, her expression soft with concern.
I stifled a pang of annoyance. “How did you find me?”
“I guessed,” she said. “If I were you, this is where I’d come too.” She walked over to join me by the pool and sat, dipping her legs into the water. “He loved it here. I didn’t come often. Maybe two or three times because even though he’d shared it with me, it was his place.”
“It hurts, Chaya. It hurts so much sometimes I can’t breathe.”
“I won’t tell you that the pain will ease. I don’t know, but I do know that you’ll become used to it. That it won’t hurt as much…in time.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “The whole time heals thing?”
“I know, it sounds prescribed. Like something people say to make grief seem finite, but there is truth in it. The soul is resilient. It has the capacity for great healing if we allow it. If we open ourselves to it. But we cannot heal if we do not tend to our wounds. Tears must fall for healing to begin.”
Her words resonated inside me. I’d cried so many tears, and yet there were still more waiting in the wings to be shed. Grief wasn’t done with me yet, it seemed.
“The only thingkeeping me going is my vow to free my nani and Pashim and to avenge Araz by locking the primordial evil inside flesh. That’s my goal now, and I’ll do whatever it takes to achieve it.”
She smiled at me. “I believe you will, and Dharma and I will be with you all the way. I swear to you that you will not have to walk this path alone.”
I blinked away fresh tears and lifted my chin. “Thank you. For coming to find me and for your kind words.”
She smiled slightly and nodded. “Come now, we should go. The sun is rising, and the others will have questions if you’re not at the house when they wake.”
I stood slowly and gave the cavern a final sweep before following Chaya to the arch.
“He’d be proud of you, you know,” she said.
“I know. He believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself.”
We’d had a deal. He’d help me ascend and I’d free him. He’d planned to raise an army and wage war on the Asura, and I’d hoped to change his mind before ascension came, but our time together had been cut short. Our chance to be together stolen. But there was still hope for the other drohi. Freedom was still in the cards for them.
It was time to tell my friends the truth about the demigod and drohi bond.
Chapter 4
