Page 45 of Damned and Broken Gods (Labyrinth of Gods #2)

The Box Opens

ARAZ

“ D on’t come out, Malu,” Ma says. “No matter what you hear. Promise me.”

I shove against her. “No. I can fight. I can help.”

She cups my shoulders. “Maloch!” I go still, because she only calls me by my given name when she’s angry, but when I look into her eyes, I see no anger. Only shadows of sorrow.

“Ma…” Tears blur my vision because I know. Deep down I know that if she leaves me now, she will never come back.

“Listen to me, child. You will fight. You will be a great warrior. But not today. Today you hide. Today you live. Promise me you will not come out of hiding until they are gone.”

“Ma, I?—”

“Give me your word.” She shakes me.

“I give you my word.”

She shoves me into the chest and closes the lid before I can say any more.

“I love you,” she says.

And then she’s gone.

My heart beats hard, my pulse throbbing in my head. Screams filter in through gaps in the wood. My stomach twists.

“No! Get out of here!” Ma says. “You have no right. No business?—”

The sound of flesh striking flesh is followed by a thud.

Anger flares in my chest, but my vow keeps me still.

“Ma!” Heena screams. “No!”

“Let her go, you filthy animal!” Ma cries.

The sound of fabric tearing. Male laughter.

My young mind struggles to piece together the picture, but I know enough to understand what’s happening. I won’t, I can’t stand by and do nothing.

My thighs bunch as I make to stand.

But suddenly there is silence.

Deathly silence.

My stomach contracts as the sound of boot falls echo around me.

This isn’t what happens.

This isn’t right.

A soft whistling sound drifts through the gaps in the wood, and my pulse stutters. The boot falls get louder, moving toward me, and I shrink, instinct warning me that whatever is coming isn’t good.

This isn’t meant to be happening.

The boot falls stop outside the chest, and the whistling cuts off.

There is a moment of deep silence, and then the lid lifts and red light floods my vision.

“Ah…there you are…” a smooth male says. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Something inside me tugs, and then light fills my vision.

“Araz? Oh my god!”

The light clears, and Leela’s face fills my vision. My chest flares with sudden heat, and she blinks sharply.

“Araz? Can you hear me?”

My throat burns as I summon words. “I hear you. I’m here.”

There’s a shiver at the back of my mind and an odd ache in my solar plexus. Something…something isn’t?—

“Oh god!” Leela throws her arms around me, and pain lances through my abdomen, shocking me fully into my skin.

Her scent envelops me, grounding me, and in that moment, with her tears blessing my skin and her breath heating it, the pain doesn’t matter.

All that matters is her.

I’m somewhere between dreams and waking when Leela returns to our room. I feel the bed dip when she sits by my hip, but something stops me from opening my eyes.

Her fingers graze my cheek, and she sighs.

“I have to say something to you. Because if I don’t say it out loud, then it will eat away at me.

But…I’m glad you’re asleep so you can’t hear it.

” A soft exhale. “Gods, I sound crazy, but here goes…I am wholly, irrevocably, insanely in love with you. So much so that when I thought you might die, I wanted to die too. I can’t deny it any longer, but I know…

” She pauses, her breath labored as if she’s holding back tears.

“I know that we can’t be together. I know that you have to leave.

I know that I can’t be a priority to you, not forever, but…

I wish…I wish that you could stay. That you’d choose me.

” Her voice cracks. “That you could be free to love me.” My heart fractures, every instinct in me wanting to open my eyes and gather her into my arms, but I hold firm.

I remain still as stone and allow her this confession. “I wish…I wish I could be enough.”

I feel her retreat, and heat burns the backs of my eyes because everything she wishes for, I wish for too. But it can never be. Because I am bound by duty. By code.

Leela is a wish that must remain unfulfilled.