Page 10 of Damned and Broken Gods (Labyrinth of Gods #2)

I barely felt the icy bite of the lake as I walked in to meet him, and the chilly caress of the water did nothing to faze me as it climbed my body. The bank fell away, and I kicked out toward him, into the circle of warmth he’d created.

He grasped my hand, hauling me toward him and against his taut, hot frame. For a moment, I was flush against his body, skin to skin, every delicious inch of him pressing against me.

He sucked in a breath, his eyes like fire, consuming me for a beat before he gently put distance between us, his hand still in mine.

“Are you warm enough?” he asked, his voice low and intimate.

I swallowed past the thickness in my throat. “Yeah, I’m good.”

We drifted, kicking water, a mere foot apart, our hands linked.

“Can you swim underwater?” he asked.

I’d taken a diving course and some lifeguard classes a few years ago, even worked as one at the local pools for a while. I was a confident swimmer. “Yeah, I can dive.”

“And how long can you hold your breath?”

The last guy that had asked me that question hadn’t been referring to diving. “Around two to three minutes.”

His eyebrows went up. “Good for a demigod.”

“Why, how long can you hold your breath?”

The corner of his mouth quirked. “Twelve minutes.” His eyes darkened, and my pulse sped up.

Was he thinking what I was thinking? I ducked my head, wishing for the heat in my cheeks to ebb. “Right, so…why did you ask?”

“I want to show you something.” He turned to Chaya, speaking in the language of the drohi before gliding toward me a fraction, his body close, his lips coasting against my ear. “It’s a secret. You cannot share it. Do you vow?”

Was this the kind of vow we had to seal with a kiss? He pulled back to study me and must have read the question on my face because that insufferable smile of his returned in full force.

“Just words, Leela. This time.”

I nodded. “I vow.”

“All right, come with me. Stay close.”

He dove, and I followed, pushing deep into the azure waters. Araz was up ahead, his powerful frame aiming for the deep dark blue below.

How deep was he planning on going?

The water grew colder and darker, and I was starting to panic when I spotted the large rock formation and the aperture within, large enough to admit a drohi and easily a demigod my size.

Araz turned back and gestured to the aperture.

I nodded.

He swam in, and I followed. The aperture led to a short tunnel that opened into a pool. Araz kicked up for the surface.

Was this a way out?

I swam faster, eager to be out of the water and take a breath. A shimmering green surrounded me, growing brighter as I rose.

Araz broke the surface, and I joined him a moment later, sucking in a lungful of air and pushing hair off my face.

He cupped my shoulders. “Are you all right?”

I nodded, breathing, just breathing. How was he not breathless? I looked up at the stone ceiling covered in luminous green moss. A rough circular stone ledge extended around us. “What is this place?”

“This isn’t the place I wanted to show you,” Araz said. “But it’s close. Come.”

He swam for the ledge and hauled his naked ass out.

That ass…

He glanced over his shoulder and arched a brow. “Your face is red again, Leela. It’s merely a body.”

Yeah, but it was his body. “Right…” I swam over to the ledge a few feet from him. “So you’d be fine with me stripping naked and wandering around?”

His eyes narrowed, and a stab of satisfaction rocked through me.

“Does it bother you that others see me unclothed?” he asked.

“God, no. You can do what you want with your body. I just…It’s distracting.”

“Yes…I believe I would too be distracted by your naked body.” He stepped closer. “I believe I’m distracted now.”

The pulse in my throat throbbed hard as I met his dark gaze.

His jaw flexed, and he took a measured step away from me. “Follow me.”

I ignored the stab of disappointment at his withdrawal. “Follow you where?” There was no exit that I could see in the stone chamber, aside from the one we’d entered through.

“You’ll see.”

I trailed after him, my attention on any other point but his ass, and the chamber that looked circular and uniform was anything but.

It curved slightly outward, the formation like an optical illusion hiding a slender doorway.

Araz slipped through, and I hurried after, stepping into a room made of rock that glistened as if embedded with diamonds.

The chamber was high and domed with a spiral ledge that hugged the walls and led to a large platform above. Water poured in from an aperture beside it to create a waterfall that spilled into a small pool in the center of the room. Rock formations surrounded the water, perfect for sitting on.

“Oh…Wow…”

“Do you like it?” Araz asked with a tentative smile.

“It’s beautiful.”

“I found it a year ago,” he said proudly. “Some of the drohi know of it, but not all of them. It’s a sanctuary if we need. A hiding place if we desire.” He pointed to the large platform above. “There’s a tunnel up there. It leads to the forest and the rakshasa bridges.”

“The rakshasa have their own bridge off Prashikshan?”

“Yes, the bridge you arrived on is only for drohi and their demigods.”

“Why did you bring me here? Why show it to me?”

“Because…because I wanted to give it to you.” His voice softened. “This part of me. A parting gift.”

My throat pinched. “What? You’re leaving? You didn’t tell me?” I injected humor into my tone even though my heart was hammering.

“Not yet, but soon. If you keep your vow, then soon…”

If …I could break it. I could keep him with me. Make him stay until he understood that his war didn’t have to happen. Until he changed his mind and…What kind of monster would that make me? Using my power against him?

“Leela?” He hooked a finger under my chin and lifted my gaze to his. “You could come with me.”

My heart thumped hard. “What?”

“Once you ascend, once you free me, you could come with me. See the world as I have seen it.”

My stomach flipped. To be with him, to be free with him.

To see his world with him. To stay…with him.

A deep tug bloomed beneath my ribs, a sharp yearning.

I reveled in it for a moment, letting it rise, allowing it to touch my heart for a fraction of a second before exhaling and pushing it away.

Because what he was offering could never be.

“Leela?” He stroked my bottom lip with his thumb, and my eyes fluttered closed. “We could be together,” he said, his voice an aching throb.

Oh gods…My eyes heated, and I breathed through my nose. “And then what? You want me to fight alongside you in a war I don’t agree with? A war I don’t think needs to happen?”

His expression shuttered. “No, I suppose it was a fanciful notion.” He lowered his hand, and I immediately missed his touch. “Once the bond is broken, this will be easier. Until then, we keep our distance as we have done so very well thus far.”

“Right.” Dammit, I would not cry.

His gaze softened, and he sighed, grazing a knuckle down my cheek.

“The bond is strong. The promise of what could be is…intense. So we would be forgiven for tasting the possibilities. But every time we cross that line, we make it harder to return. You have a soft heart, Leela. I don’t want to bruise it.

I believe, given true power and control, you would make a fine queen. ”

“You don’t know that I won’t have control. Not for certain.”

He smiled wryly. “Then let us see how it unfolds once we are on opposite sides.” His gaze dropped to my lips, flicked back to my eyes, then down again, as if drawn to my mouth by an inexorable magnetic pull.

I found myself doing the same. Watching his mouth, aching to trace the curve of his top lip.

A soft growl vibrated in his throat, and he turned away, muttering to himself, words I didn’t understand.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he bit out. “We should go.” He strode for the stone door.

I ran to catch up, snagging his arm. “Araz, talk to me, please.” My voice trembled with emotions I didn’t understand. Emotions that felt too big. “Please. Talk to me. You brought me here, and now you’re mad at me?”

His shoulders heaved on a sigh. “I’m not mad at you, I’m angry with myself for my weakness, for dressing my own desires in lies.

” He turned to me, his eyes bright. “I brought you here not to gift you this sanctuary but to share it with you. A part of me, because I want to be closer. I need it. Like breathing. Like the very air. And it enrages me that I could be so weak.”

I let go of his arm, burned by his words. “So wanting me is a weakness now?”

He exhaled, breathing away his angst and turmoil so his face smoothed out to an expressionless mask. “Yes. Wanting you is a weakness I cannot afford.”

His words landed like a slap. “Well, you won’t have to want me for much longer.

Like you said, the bond will be broken soon enough.

” I slipped past him and through the door, eager to get away from him and the conflicting emotions his declaration evoked.

Heat spiraled in my chest at his callousness, while an ache bloomed in my heart at his plight because it was my plight too.

If we did end up on opposite ends of a war, then wanting him could ultimately be my weakness.