Kalani, Yudh, and Dhoona stepped up to the vortex.
“I will go first,” Yudh said. “Kalani will ride in the middle with you, and Dhoona will make up the rear. Are you ready?” he asked, looking right at me.
“Yeah, we’re ready.”
The wind picked up, whipping at my face as the vortex rose.
“See you on the ground,” Yudh said, then he jumped.
Keyton gripped me tighter. “Hold on.” He leaped, taking me into the vortex. I clung to him, my face pressed to his chest.
Araz’s voice filled my mind. “Look around…there is nothing to be afraid of in a Pavan vortex.”
I lifted my head, vision blurring with tears as I took in the miasma of color around me, then closed my eyes, allowing myself a moment of weakness to imagine that I was in Araz’s arms. He gripped me tighter, lips brushing my forehead.
“I’ve got you. I won’t let you fall,” Keyton said, shattering the illusion.
I blinked back tears and lifted my chin, looking into warm brown eyes filled with longing and sorrow.
His chest rose and fell in a heavy sigh, and he smiled wistfully. “It’ll be all right.”
I forced a smile of my own. “Yeah, we’re going to be okay.”
He glanced down, then hauled me up. “Land incoming. Wrap your legs around me and grip with your thighs.”
I obliged, a pang slicing through my chest as he echoed Araz’s instructions from what felt like an age ago.
The colors around us melted, blurring into a white haze, air sucking at my skin. We landed, the impact reverberating through me. Keyton stepped out of the vortex and set me on my feet, and the sound of voices replaced thewhooshof wind that had been the background noise for the last several minutes.
The ground beneath my boots had a red tinge. And a mountain range was visible in the distance behind Keyton. The vortex stood to our left, spitting out my demigod friends and their drohi. Kalani emerged with them, and once Dhoona stepped out, the vortex rose into the air and vanished.
Where was Yudh?
Two worn and dusty carriages were stationed by the side of an overgrown road, several large males clustered around them. Our Asura guard, no doubt.
Yudh stood to one side, chatting to a large male who had his back to us. There was something familiar about his stature. The closely cropped hair…
My pulse kicked up as I walked slowly toward them. Could it be?
Yudh glanced my way, and then the man turned to face me, emerald gaze locking on to mine.
My heart leapt into my throat as his face broke into a grin.
“Ravi…”
He strode toward me, and I rushed forward to meet him in a hug that squeezed the breath from my lungs and made my eyes water with a cocktail of emotions I couldn’t name.
“I’m here,” he said. “I’ve got you now. I’m so sorry…so fucking sorry.”
A sob clawed up my throat, but I swallowed it, breathing through the wave of grief and hugging him tighter. He was here. And the journey to greet a monstrous flying serpent suddenly didn’t feel as grim.
Ravi’s troopwas made up of a demigod, two Asura, a rakshasa, and a tantrik mage called Shalani. Her name stuck because she had such an infectious smile. She was young too, just turned twenty, with a bubbly attitude that hadn’t been tainted by horror yet.
It was an hour-and-a-half trek to the Puranee Ghaatee, and I chose to make it seated in the driver’s cab of one of the carriages with Ravi, while my friends rode inside. Yudh and Dhoona walked up ahead with Shalani. The Asura guards drove the carriage behind us, and the demigod and Raksha flanked our party.
The road we traveled was worn and overgrown, wild fields on either side and mountains in the distance to our left and right.
The route had been mapped, checked, and cleared on Chandra’s orders soon after I’d agreed to take this test. There was still a possibility of attack, but according to Ravi, it was low. The only reason the vortex hadn’t taken us right up to the mountain was the possibility of attracting aerial attention from the devouring force as the region on the other side of the mountain was a hot zone for revenants and other devouring force beasts.
