Page 25 of Damned and Broken Gods (Labyrinth of Gods #2)

Goodbyes And Introductions

LEELA

I ’d been without Blue all my life. I’d managed fine, but now, after having had him for a few weeks, the thought of not being able to see him every day made my heart squeeze painfully in my chest.

I didn’t want to say goodbye.

“Guess I’ll see ya in four weeks,” Blue said, shifting from foot to foot.

I crouched and held out my hand. “Come here.”

He hopped on, and I lifted him up so that he was eye level with me. “You, Blue, are amazing. You’re tenacious, outspoken, and smart. So fucking smart. You’re going to be fine. But me? I’m going to be lost without you.” Hot tears filled my eyes. “I’m going to miss you so fucking much.”

He sniffed and rubbed a paw under his nose. “Stop it, yer gonna make me cry.”

I blinked back tears and exhaled. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, come ’ere, chickadee.” He threw himself at my face, grabbing hold of my jaw with his tiny paws and pressing his furry face to my cheek. “Don’t die, ’kay?”

I choked back a laugh. “I’ll do my best not to.”

“And you.” Blue pulled back to look at Araz. “Make sure ya put yer bulging muscles to use and protect her, ya hear me?”

“Of course,” Araz said.

Blue pressed a final whiskery kiss to my cheek then hopped onto the floor, trailing after the other anchors as they headed for the arch across the room that would take them deeper into the complex and toward the nest tower.

Four weeks was going to feel like an age…that is, if I made it past the flight.

I didn’t realize how scared I was until Araz pulled me into a hug back in our quarters. Pressed to his solid form, fear hollowed out my belly and made my chest tight.

“It will be all right,” he said, sounding so sure I had no choice but to believe him.

I clung to him, breathing slowly and evenly as I acknowledged the fear. The same fear I’d felt when going up in a plane with the intention to skydive. I’d been terrified but determined to jump anyway—to raise money for the shelter that was struggling to keep its doors open.

Yeah, it was the same trembling in my limbs, except back then I’d been falling with intention. Purpose. With a safety net literally strapped to my back. But this time there’d be no countdown. No warning. And my parachute would be flying somewhere below me.

I wasn’t alone; everyone was probably feeling the same way. But like Chaya said, there was no way out, only through.

I exhaled and pulled back a little, enough to look up at his face and trace the concern etched in the lines between his eyebrows.

“I’m okay. I’ll be okay. I have you to catch me.”

“You won’t fall,” he said. “You’re a royal, and your resonance will be strong. I know it will be accepted by the Vayujaari who carries you.”

I loved that he was trying to make this better for me. But I needed a reality check. “Let’s be honest. Unless the Vayujaari have a penchant for finding royal resonance more agreeable, I have the same odds of being dropped as everyone else.”

His mouth tightened. “You want raw honesty, then yes. You’re likely to be dropped, and if it happens, then it will be within the first few minutes of your flight, and I will be there to catch you. Do you trust me?”

My chest hummed in answer. “Yes. I trust you.”

“Good.” He lifted his chin, looking down his nose at me. “Now let’s bind your hair tightly to keep it out of your eyes on the flight.”

I’d washed my hair this morning and left it loose to dry naturally. It was now a mass of waves tumbling down my back.

I reached up to gather it at my nape, pulling the tie off my wrist, ready to capture my locks into a ponytail, but Araz gently gripped my wrist to stop me.

“What?” I frowned up at him.

“Let me braid it for you.”

I blinked up at him. “You want to braid my hair?”

His throat bobbed. “Yes.”

Yes. Just yes. Nothing more. But that yes made my stomach tremble. “Okay…”

He led me to the chair by the dresser. “Sit.”

I sat, nursing the tremble in my belly as he moved behind me to gather my hair into one hand, the other reaching for the hairbrush.

He pulled it through my hair in long, even strokes.

The motion soothed the ache in my chest, and when his fingers replaced the brush to thread through my locks, a sigh swelled in my throat, and my eyes drifted closed.

He braided my hair from the crown to the tip, his touch gentle but firm, callused fingers grazing my nape here and there, leaving spots of warmth on my skin that radiated outward.

I leaned back into his touch, a sigh breaking free from the cage of my lips. His hands settled on my shoulders and squeezed gently, massaging away the last of the tension in my body.

Fuck, he had perfect hands. The perfect pressure.

I tipped my head back, a soft moan slipping from my lips, and he stilled. I opened my eyes to find his fiery gaze fixed on me with the kind of intensity that could melt even the most iron-clad panties.

I sat up at the same time as he released me. He cleared his throat and crossed the room to rummage in his wardrobe, even though we’d been told not to pack anything. “We should go,” he said. “If we get to the gate with enough time, you can meet Ilara.”

“Ilara?” I stifled the sudden spike of jealousy that lit up my chest.

“My thunderbird,” he said, struggling to hold back his smile.

Great. “Um, sure. I’d like that. I hope she likes me.”

“I have no doubt she will,” he said, pulling open the door. “Now come. Let’s get this done.”

I stepped forward and pressed my palm to the door to stop him opening it. He frowned, his gaze dropping to my mouth. My pulse jumped, but I schooled it to chill the fuck out. This wasn’t that kind of moment. “Araz, I need you to promise me something.”

“No,” he said.

“No? You don’t even know what I’m going to ask.”

“Yes, I do. You’re going to ask me to save Vick if he falls.”

Shit. He did know. “Will you? Please? Look, I’m not an idiot, I don’t want to die, but I couldn’t live with myself if something happens to Vick and we could have saved him.”

“I’ve already agreed to keep an eye on him, like Chaya and Mahira have.”

“Yeah, but keeping an eye isn’t the same as saving him, is it?”

His jaw ticked, telling me that I’d hit the nail on the head. “If he falls, promise me you’ll catch him.”

He looks over my head at the window, and I can practically hear his mind working. When he speaks, his tone is firm, brooking no argument. “I will save him, as long as there is no risk to your life.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I believe that the Authority wants you dead.”

“You think the Vayujaari are working for the Authority?”

He exhaled through his nose. “They work for them, but they are honor bound beings. So…no, they would not deliberately drop you. So I give you this vow. If I feel the threshold of danger has passed for you, then I will save Vick.”

“But the threshold of danger might have passed for him too by then.”

“Take it or leave it, Leela.”

Urgh. “Fine. I’ll take it.”

At rising sun, the seven of us and our drohis gathered beyond the arch, on the bridge.

“What now?” Joe asked.

“We wait,” Mahira replied.

We didn’t have to wait long before the beat of wings filled the silence, and a thunderbird rose from the other side of the bridge.

Ivory and gold feathers gleaming in the sun, it landed several yards ahead of us on the bridge.

A man I’d never seen before climbed off its back and walked toward us, a slight limp in his stride.

His mouth was a thin line in the cage of a neatly clipped golden beard, his sandy hair pulled up in a knot atop his head.

He looked pissed off, as if being here was some kind of punishment.

Was he an Asura? His gaze swept over us, and as soon as it landed on Araz, his severe expression cracked into a grin.

“Araz, old friend.”

“Garrit.” Araz stepped forward, and they clasped forearms, matching his grin and showing me what sunshine truly felt like. Be still, my heart.

“I’d heard you’d been bonded.” He glanced down at me, then back up at Araz as if for confirmation.

“This is Leela,” Araz said, breaking the arm shake. “My demigod.”

There was a possessiveness in his tone that sent a tingle down my spine.

He frowned. “Leela…that name…” His frown melted. “You’re royal blood?”

“She is,” Araz said.

They exchanged a pointed look that I couldn’t decipher before Garrit stepped back to address everyone.

“The Vayujaari will be arriving shortly. But first, drohi, your thunderbirds will be here any moment.”

“Is he Asura?”

“No. He is drohi. The thunderbird stable keeper. We trained together for a decade before he was injured.”

The limp. I wanted to ask how he got it, but the beat of wings drowned out my thoughts as several thunderbirds rose up on either side of the bridge. They climbed the sky and began to circle. Six thunderbirds for six drohi.

“I thought you said thunderbirds were picky about their riders, so how come all of the drohi here have one?”

The corner of Araz’s mouth lifted. “Any drohi can ride a thunderbird, but not any Asura or demigod can. And yes, they are picky about who they bond to. They might allow all drohi to ride them, but they do not always bond with us.”

“Is Ilara bonded to you?”

He smiled softly, looking up at the sky.

“Yes. Yes, she is.” A sleek white bird with gold wings and silver head feathers broke away from the circle above and swooped down toward the bridge, vanishing out of sight.

“There she is. I’ll be there to catch you, Leela.

Do not fear.” Araz broke into a jog toward the edge of the bridge and leapt.

My heart shot into my throat. “Araz!”

He rose a moment later, firmly ensconced on Ilara’s back.

Our gazes locked for a beat, his steady and filled with assurance.

Mine? I have no fucking idea what I looked like in the moment, blood thundering in my head.

But relief made me weak. Ilara turned, taking him from me and up into the circle of thunderbirds above.