I lifted my chin, meeting his gaze with a cool one of my own. “If you want something from me, then ask. Don’t try to manipulate me. That’s a shortcut to pissing me off. I’m sorry for what happened to your twin flame, but that doesn’t excuse you taking the man I love from me.”
He pressed his lips together, his mouth tightening. “I didn’t take the man you love. I reclaimed a part of myself.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I manifest in times when my people are in danger by awakening through a soul that can merge with mine. A soul that has been created from a fragment of my own. Back then, that soul was Ilyarien, and in this life, that soul is Araz.”
A fragment of his soul? No… “This is bullshit.”
He exhaled heavily, shaking his head, making me feel like the student at the back of the class that couldn’t work out a math problem.
“As a god, I have taken many forms, loved and lived many lives, but it wasn’t until I became Ilyarien that I found my twin flame. The soul that could burn as bright as a god’s.” He searched my face, his gaze intense. “And I found her again in this incarnation, as Araz.” My neck heated, blood rushing to my head as comprehension dawned. “That soul was you, Leela.”
Breath exploded from my lips, hot and incredulous. This was too much. Too impossible. “This is ridiculous.”
He leaned in. “Look at me. You know me. Your soul recognizes mine because youaremy twin flame.”
What he was saying was so far-fetched that my mortal mind refused to entertain it. “I knew Araz. I know his body. I lovedhim. Not you. I have no idea who or what you truly are.”
“You loved Araz because he carried my signature. Because his soul was a fragment of mine. Araz was me, and I am him. It has always been the way. It just took time for me to find him and for us to merge.”
“Time when your people were suffering. Forced to procreate with Asura and produce drohi. Considering the fact that you’re a god who says he’s supposed to protect his people, you did a piss-poor job of it.”
“Dammit, woman, have you not been listening?” His topaz eyes flared brightly for a beat. “I was captured. The prison I was in weakened me. They locked me away and buried the truth beneath a lie. They named me the primordial evil. I’ve been trapped for eons. But a connection was formed when Araz put on the ring passed down the Agni djinn bloodline through generations. I finally found the fragment of my soul that could pull me free of the endless void the Asura had thrown me into. Araz and I merged and became whole.” He reached for me. Ipulled away, and he curled his fingers into the palm of his hand with a sigh. “I’m still here…” he said, his voice a soft throb that my body ached to answer. “I am many names, but I am always one and the same. The ancient soul, Iblees.Yourtwin flame. But in this lifetime, in this body, I am Araz. Does that help you to understand?”
My vision blurred, throat pinching. I wanted to disregard his explanation, to claim bullshit again. To say this was impossible once more, but I’d been taken from my world by a ferryman with a green face and carried to another on a ship that sailed the ether, so impossible no longer held much weight. But still, my heart rebelled.
“If you want to help, then give him back to me the way that he was. Whole or not, he was perfect, and he was mine.” Iblees watched me with a stillness that made my ribs contract. “Say something.”
“I cannot say the words you wish to hear. Araz is but a name for my becoming in this lifetime. Love me for my soul or not. That is your choice.”
I bit the inside of my lip to stop it trembling and blinked back tears. “I want to know what happened in the labyrinth. How did you take over his body?”
Iblees made a sound of agitation, his expression long-suffering and so like Araz that it gave me pause. “You are a stubborn woman indeed. But that is why I love you.”
He said it so easily, velvet words wrapping around me, teasing my pulse into a gallop before I could temper my emotions.
“Answer the question.”
“Very well. There was no time to explain everything to Araz. I needed his consent for us to merge, and I obtained it by offering to save your life. I confess I did not tell him my divine name. It would have confused him and made obtaining consent harder,and we were running out of time to save you. You…my twin flame. Our twin flame.”
“And yet you left. You told me I owed you a debt and flew away.”
“And you do owe me a debt. You promised you’d come back to me.” He tipped his head to the side. “Admittedly, I may have delivered the line in derision to throw off your companion. I did not know who to trust and whether the truth would be used against me. You made a vow on our wedding night. When we stood under the moonlight on our balcony, you vowed that should fate ever tear us apart, you would always find me, and I vowed the same.”
The balcony. The moonlight… “My dream…”
His smile softened the harsh lines of his regal face. “Yes, Leela. You dreamed of it. There is a part of you that remembers, and now that we are together, you will remember more.” He reached out to caress my cheek, and this time I didn’t pull away. “Araz loved you deeply because he was always a part of me waiting to be made whole. And you loved him, and through him, you loved me also. He is not gone. He ismore. He is me. I am Iblees. I walked as Ilyarien once, and now I walk as Araz.”
I shook my head, even as my resolve melted, my heart wanting to believe. “You’re not. You’re not him.”
“May I show you?”
“How?”
“In the only way that you can truly believe. Through your senses. Let down your guard, Leela, and you will feel me. You willfeelour connection.”
I wanted to. Gods I wanted to feel him. To feel Araz. To feelsomethingthat would prove the words that he was saying because, gods, I wanted him back. I needed him back so much, and the evidence I’d seen so far…the djinn, the Asura,the children…none of it screamed evil. Everything I’d witnessed spoke of survival and truth.
