A golden light bloomed at his chest, and the air shimmered outward from it, coalescing into a gold rope that floated toward me, already connected to me. But there was another thread coming off it. A crimson one reaching for the primordial evil.
Araz’s lips pulled back from his teeth in a snarl. He was about to attack. To show himself to the primordial evil. Bad. That was bad. I couldn’t allow him to be seen.
The primordial evil tensed, his head beginning to turn.
“No!” I grabbed his face and crushed my mouth to his, hoping that Araz would heed my warning.
A low, keening sound hit me straight in the solar plexus. Araz’s pain. My eyes heated, but I held fast, my mouth against the evil bastard’s lips.
Please go, Araz. Please be safe.
I cracked an eye to check. The golden threads pulsed as if carrying the message, and Araz’s fists clenched tight.
Go…please. A sob formed in my throat. A wave of emotion I couldn’t vent. The golden thread pulsed again, as if venting it for me. I felt his answer deep in my chest. A promise to return. To survive. To come back to me.
I hear you. I fucking hear you.
He inclined his head and stepped back into shadow.
The fist around my heart squeezed, and I made to pull away from the primordial evil, but his grip on me tightened. His mouth parted against mine, tongue laving my lips to gain entry.
A hot pulse of desire rocked through me, the telltale clench low down shocking me.
I tore free, my chest heaving as an insane possibility rose in my mind. “You want me…”
“What?” His voice was gruff. His topaz eyes dazed.
Oh gods. I was right.
He stood tall, his face smoothing out like stone, and my heart lurched because I was certain I’d hit the nail on the head.
The evil fucker wanted me.
He grabbed my throat again, squeezing hard enough to make my eyes water.
“I can’t kill you here, but I can make you wish you were dead. Over and over. I can hurt your mind even as your body lies safe, wherever it is.”
“Then…do…it. Better than…fucking you.”
He released me abruptly, shoving me away from him. I stumbled and went down on my ass, and he advanced, fallinggracefully into a crouch in front of me. He tipped his head to the side, a thin smile on his lips.
“You’re right, Leela. I do want you. I want to find you and watch the light in your eyes die.Thatis my vow.”
I didn’t understand his obsession with me, and I didn’t care to. “No need to find me. I’ll come to you. And the day that I do will be your last day in that body.” I stood slowly. “Now get the fuck out of my dream!”
He reached for me, but a billowing mist rose to swallow him.
I was ready to wake up.
“Leela,you were whimpering in your sleep,” Pashim said when I opened my eyes.
“Bad dream.” My voice cracked, and I cleared my throat.
“Want to talk about it?”
“No.” I snuggled into him. “It’s over now.”
I tried to settle, to slip back into sleep, but my brain was too wired, running over the dream and…wait. I’d seen Nani in my dream before the primordial evil pulled me away. She’d been young and…A possibility occurred to me, one that I should have considered sooner.
