Page 10

Chapter 9

I’LL TAKE A FLYING CARPET OVER A VORTEX ANY DAY

A demigod. I was a fucking demigod. Was that how I’d forced the revenant away? What did this mean for me exactly?

“Don’t get excited,” Araz said. “A demigod is merely chaff here.”

“Yeah? Well, then it seems you went to a lot of trouble for chaff.”

“Every war needs its cannon fodder.”

War? There was a war going on? A war with the revenants?

A crackle of power rushed over me before I could question him further, the jolt forcing me to tense. I grabbed hold of him as bright light seared my vision, and a violent gust of wind slapped my ass.

At least I hoped it was a gust of wind. “Is it the revenants? Are they back?”

“No,” he said stiffly. “Now let go of my buttocks. ”

His…Oh fuck. My hands were cupping his ass like a lifeline. I let go of his assets as if I’d been burned. ”I’m sorry.”

A growl of displeasure was his only response.

“I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Of course, you didn’t.”

God he was insufferable, and I was about to tell him, but it was hard to focus on words when I was being dragged down his body and forcefully rubbed against ridges and planes of taut muscle. Every synapse in my brain was suddenly hyper focused on every point of contact between us.

A rich, clean, and fruity smell, like fresh cranberries, spiked in the air for a moment, then was gone. Had I imagined it? But my boots were on the ground now, and there was commotion behind me.

I should step back and turn around, but I was captivated by the play of moonlight across his face. The way it tipped each dark lash in silver and highlighted the smooth high planes of his cheekbones, settling in the dip above his top lip and sweeping over his full bottom one. He had a wide mouth, nicely formed, that curled slightly at the edges as if urging him to smile, but there was no humor, no mirth in his eyes.

Why were the beautiful ones always assholes?

His left eye twitched, and when he spoke, his tone was cruel and cutting. “Stop embarrassing yourself. You’re pathetic. ”

He might as well have dumped a bucket of ice cubes down my top. “Go fuck yourself.” It was the best I could do around the lump of embarrassment clogging my throat.

“Everybody brace yourselves!” Umbra yelled. “Vortex incoming.”

I tried to pull away from Araz, but he grabbed my waist with one hand, holding me still as the wind buffeted us and a vortex of air descended from the sky.

“What the fuck is that?”

“That, little mortal, is the stairway to the Asura domain.”

The whirlwind descended directly on us, and my boots left the ground. My scream buffeted into silence as air filled my lungs and panic took over because I had to be free, I had to get away.

The world swirled and smacked me in the face, and I was upside down then right way up and floating, unable to breathe.

Then silence.

Weight settled in my belly, but I kept my eyes closed listening to someone’s pathetic whistle of a scream.

“Close your mouth,” Araz growled against my ear. I did so, and the scream cut out because it was my pathetic whistling scream. “Now let go of me.”

Oh, fuck, I was wrapped around him like a koala on a tree. Legs around his waist, arms wound round his thick neck .

“This one seems to have taken a liking to you, Araz,” one of the other monolith warriors said.

Someone snickered, and my cheeks flamed as I ordered my body to move, to unlock and let go of him.

Araz grabbed my arm and tore me off him, flinging me to the ground.

I hit hard, a shock of pain shooting up my spine. Tears sprang to my eyes, blurring his looming form.

“Hey!” Dharma rushed forward, insinuating herself between us. “What the fuck is your problem?”

Araz lifted his chin and looked down his nose at her, his top lip lifting in revulsion, then strode off.

Another elite approached and folded his epic frame into a crouch so he could look me in the eye. His brown skin was marked with tattoos, that ran up the sides of his cheeks and onto his forehead. When he spoke, I recognized his voice as the one who’d been bantering with Dharma earlier.

“Are you hurt?” he asked. His tone was neutral, giving me no clue as to the sincerity of his enquiry.

“My tailbone and my pride.”

“You’re lucky it isn’t more,” he snapped. “You’re lucky he did not accidentally drop you in the vortex.” His eyes lit up as if he was relishing the thought then went dull and flat a second later. “Stay away from him if you value your life.”

“That’s enough, Jasha,” Umbra said, clipping over to join us. “You are dismissed.”

The look he gave her could have curdled milk while it was still in the cow. But she held her ground, and he slowly stood and rolled his shoulders. “You cannot dismiss that which you do not command, tantrik .” He said the word as if it was a curse, and Umbra’s left eye flinched.

He walked off, leaving me to pull myself off the floor with Dharma’s help and finally get a proper look at my surroundings.

We were on a gray stone bridge surrounded by mist. The air was thinner so that I found myself having to take deeper breaths. Wait…We’d been swept up into a vortex. Into the sky, so were we?—

“Are we in the clouds?” someone asked.

“Slightly above,” Umbra replied, “but we need to climb farther. Don’t worry about the breathlessness. It will pass once your essence asserts itself. Follow me.”

She set off before I could ask what she meant about essence asserting itself . We followed, keeping to the center of the bridge because none of us wanted to find out if we could float.

Mist billowed and swallowed Umbra. “Hurry up,” she called from within.

Once we were in it, it wasn’t so bad. A little wet, and it smelled odd, but visibility was about seventy percent, and I was sure we were on an incline.

The mist began to thin.

Yep, definitely an incline.

But damn was it hard on my lungs. My steps slowed as we climbed and climbed, Umbra walking ahead as if she was on a fucking stroll. Her staff was now clipped to her back by a fancy holster. She’d had ghosts coming out of that thing. How the heck was that possible?

So many questions.

The mist chose that moment to drop, leaving us on a bridge with no barriers, surrounded by clear blue skies and…Oh…wow…Bridges on bridges wove together and intersected to create weaving paths that connected and diverged, leading to landmasses in the sky that housed spires and turrets, domes and arches. This…this was a whole world.

Umbra turned to us and opened her arms. “Welcome to Aakaash Sansaar, the domain of the Asura and now, your new home.”