Page 29 of Damned and Broken Gods (Labyrinth of Gods #2)

What Am I Dreaming?

LEELA

A raz did find something for the pain—a bitter tincture that made me warm and fuzzy. His warm breath skimmed my temple, chased by the gentle brush of his lips before sleep dragged me under.

I dreamed of the sea, of an achingly low melody filled with longing, and in that melody was a voice. I wanted to know what it was saying. I needed to understand, and as that desire unfurled, the voice became clear.

Forgotten flame, I feel you. I awaken. And now so must you.

I wanted to ask who she was and what she meant, but she drifted away, her melody changing, calling out not to me but to others. I wasn’t sure who. But it was a signal. One I didn’t understand. Because it wasn’t meant for me.

My dream shifted, the terrain changing until I was standing on the edge of a cliff, waves softly kissing the rocks below and a blanket of stars above keeping me company.

A low hum filled my chest, slowly unfurling into a spark that bloomed into a flame that was both mine and not.

A shared flame, burning with intention. It flared, and my stomach erupted in butterflies.

He was here…He’d come, just as promised. I turned, my heart expanding in my chest as if it wanted to fill me completely and?—

“Leela, wake up.”

The dream fell away as I surfaced. “Wha…” I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and peered up at Araz leaning over me, his eyes like flames. “I’m sorry. I fell asleep.”

“It’s all right. You needed it. But something has happened. I think you might want to see.”

“What?” I pushed up on one elbow, my knee throbbing dully.

“We have to go up on deck. Can I carry you?”

I held out my arms. “Please.”

He scooped me up, cradling me against his chest. I glanced down and spotted my bed and blankets.

He’d brought them into his cabin.

“You’ll need tending to while you heal.” His gaze dropped to my mouth, and the pulse in my throat jumped. He swallowed hard and looked away. “Come. Let me show you.”

I clung to him as he navigated the narrow corridors that led to the deck. Unlike any other ships that I’d come across, this one had no lower deck. But it did have an upper deck. Our quarters were on the main deck, so it didn’t take long to get outside.

It was a clear night, stars blazing, surrounding us in silver light. A memory stirred in the back of my mind. A dream? It slipped away before I could grasp it.

The demigods and their drohi were gathered across the deck, silhouetted in moonlight, and Ramashi stood apart from them, his arms loose at his sides, his head tipped back to the sky.

“Leela!” Vick waved from across the deck as we approached. “Look!” He pointed out to sea.

The ocean was still tonight, rippling gently beneath the night sky, but something moved beneath it.

Luminous and bright. A glow rose from the water, lancing up toward the sky.

More joined the first, moving closer to surround us in a halo of soft pink light.

A balloon swelled in my chest, my breath catching at the sight as tears stung my eyes because I felt them.

I felt their joy and awe.

“What’s happening?” Bina asked.

“The Vainari are returning,” Ramashi said, joining us. “Fragments of memory that Vairanya shed over the centuries. They’ve been summoned, and they have answered.” He looked down at me, his eyes glittering with unshed tears. “Vairanya is awake, and soon she will be whole once more.”

And as he said it, a low hum reverberated across the deck, coming from beneath, from the heart of the creature we rode.

The vibration found its way into my solar plexus, buzzing there as if in communion.

A melody rose in the air, low and aching.

Calling. Forever calling. Pain lanced through my temple, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

Araz’s grip on me tightened a fraction, his breath warming my forehead. “Leela, you’re in pain. Let’s get you back to the cabin. I’ll get you more tincture.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I…I want to stay out here for a while. I want to listen…”

“Listen?” Ramashi asked.

“To the music. I want to listen to the music…”

Araz and Ramashi exchanged glances, and it was Ramashi who spoke, his voice low and reverent.

“Leela…there is no music.”

There was no explanation for my auditory hallucination.

I spent the next day in the cabin, healing.

Sleeping a lot. Araz was always there when I woke, and each time I was overcome with the sense that I was forgetting something vital, as if some important message had been passed to me in my dreams, one I needed to remember.

My knee healed quickly, thank goodness, and I was back on deck by the sixth day of our journey. There was no way I wasn’t pulling my weight if I could.

“You can wax the portside,” Ramashi said. “Make sure the wood stays watertight.”

Alia joined me for this chore. We hadn’t spoken much yet, so it was a good time to get to know her.

She was tight-lipped at first. Almost wary. But I kept chattering, telling her about the mortal world, and after a while I couldn’t keep up with her questions.

“So you have houses just for coffee?” she asked, wide-eyed.

I bit back a smile. “And some places have houses just for waffles.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. “I love waffles.”

The waffles here weren’t exactly like the ones back home, but they were still delicious.

“Tell me what else you have,” she asked.

I told her about television, Wi-Fi, and mobile phones. She drank it all in eagerly.

“You had so much,” she said finally. “It must be so strange to have it all taken away.”

I paused in my polishing, her words striking a chord inside me.

Yes, I’d had a lot. So many conveniences, so many material things, and at the time they’d mattered.

I’d obsessed about money and bettering myself financially.

Of what others might think if I didn’t have the best gadgets or clothes or hadn’t watched the most popular shows or read the award-winning books.

I’d made sure to have all the things I needed in order to fit in, but even then, there’d been a restlessness inside me.

That something I couldn’t name that was missing, like…

like being fed but never being full. And now that I was here, all the past felt trivial. It all felt meh.

I smiled across at Alia. “I guess it was strange to start with, but I don’t miss it anymore. Not at all. I like it here. It feels like…like coming home.”

She grinned at me. “In that case, welcome home, sister.”

“Alia…” Armin, her drohi, joined us, his gaze soft as it settled on his demigod. “Lunch is ready.” He looked over at me and smiled. “Araz has made a feast, and he asked me to summon you.”

Summon me. I loved the way they talked here. “I’ll be right down.”

The two of them left hand in hand, and I turned back to the sea, my palm resting lightly on the wood of the ship’s hull. A low vibration hummed against my palm—a welcome. A hello.

“Vairanya, is that you?”

The hum intensified, and a memory stirred in the back of my mind. A voice, low and feminine. But the words…The words remained a mystery.

Araz’s cooking picked up everyone’s spirits.

Minty, the old drohi cook, was more than happy to park his stocky ass on a chair and put up his feet.

The worn table was laden with dishes that Araz had cobbled together using the limited supplies.

We had dhal, some flat bread, rice, some stew, and small dumplings filled with spicy meat.

This was the first time everyone had gathered in the mess hall at the same time, and it was a squeeze with all the bodies, but as we settled around the table, squished side by side on chairs and benches pulled in from other rooms, a warm sensation of belonging bloomed in my chest.

Araz sat beside me, his thigh pressed to mine, his arm brushing my shoulder every time he moved to bring me a new morsel or a new dish. Opposite me, Armin fed Alia dumplings, and Joe held a spoonful of rice up to Mahira’s lips.

Dharma and Chaya sat farther down the table to my left. Elata and his drohi, Preeya, sat on the other end of the table with Bina and her guy. Vick had squeezed in beside me with Priti and Keyton to his left, and Ramashi had parked himself at the head of the table.

“Pass me the flatbread, please,” Priti asked Preeya.

“Rice, anyone?” Keyton asked.

“Can I have the water jug, please?” Bina said.

Conversation punctuated periods of silence as we stuffed our faces.

“One more day,” Priti said. “One more day and we should see Shantivan, right?” She looked down the table at Ramashi.

“Yes,” he said. “One more day, should the weather hold, and we will arrive at our destination.”

“I’m so excited. Can you please tell us what to expect now?” Priti pleaded.

Everyone stilled, waiting. We’d asked Ramashi about the sea trial several times, but he’d been evasive. We were almost there now; surely, he would tell us something.

He sipped his water, an enigmatic look in his eyes. “If I tell you, then I shall have to throw you overboard.”

“Argh!” Priti groaned dramatically. “Fine, tell us and throw us overboard. Our drohi will fish us back out of the sea.”

Ramashi chuckled. “I guess they would. I do not run the trials, but I have seen enough to know that they are a test of unity.” He raked us all over. “You will be split into two groups, and you will have to work together in order to pass the test.”

“Great,” Elata said, his lip curling slightly. “Whoever gets stuck with Vick is doomed to fail…or die.”

I felt Vick tense beside me, and then he slumped, as if defeated. As if he had nothing left in him to fight back. But that was okay; I had enough fight in me for the both of us.

I fixed Elata with a steady look. “Are you a mean person, Elata?”

He blinked sharply. “What? No…no I’m not.”

“He’s not mean,” Alia said, coming to her brother’s defense.

I nodded slowly. “Okay, because you sounded mean just then. You sounded a little like a bully. In fact, you all do, every time you pick on Vick.”

“He killed his drohi,” Elata said. “Everyone knows it.”