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Chapter 15

I’LL MAKE MY BED AND LIE IN IT TOO

R esourceful was my middle name. Okay, so it wasn’t, but it totally should have been. If Araz thought that I’d cower in a corner of what was now our room with no bedding or blankets, then he was seriously delusional.

I headed out to explore and found that we were housed in a communal building. The floor we were on had one more room on it. And there were three rooms on the floor below. The next floor housed a massive kitchen/dining area with a sitting room coming off it.

There was one long picnic-style table in the center with four regular tables dotted around the room. Two sides were taken up with kitchen countertops made of dark granite, twin sinks, and three stoves. Pots and pans hung from hooks and sat on special racks, and a long, rectangular window, high on the wall at the back of the room, showcased the night sky .

Dharma and Priti were sitting at one of the smaller tables while their drohi worked at the stove.

The female drohi had changed out of her ceremonial outfit and into a long, flowy skirt and loose cream shirt. Her curls were held back by a green scarf, and she looked less grrr and more approachable like this. So did Priti’s guy. He had curls too, but his were a chestnut brown. Both drohi had the same almond eyes and straight noses. Were they siblings?

The relief at seeing the girls left me weak, and I was grateful for the hugs they offered as soon as they spotted me.

“Where’s your drohi?” Dharma asked.

Tears sprang to my eyes, but I blinked them back quickly. If I was going to have any hope of making things work with Araz, bitching about him straight off wasn’t going to help. He’d acted like an asshole, but as much as I’d like to think I could master ascension alone, it would be stupid not to try to win him over.

After all, they wouldn’t pair us with drohi if we didn’t need them. And they wouldn’t have paired me with him if they didn’t believe us to be a good match.

Maybe there was a way to make him see it. Okay, so he’d wanted to be free. But that option was off the table unless I died, and despite what he’d said and how he’d behaved, I had to believe that when push came to shove, he’d come through for me. Because otherwise, why pair him with me?

There had to be a way to make it work .

Or maybe I was delusional.

Still, I fixed a smile on my face and answered Dharma’s question. “I got Araz, but he’s a little disappointed. He was supposed to be freed tomorrow so…”

The two drohi at the stove stopped working and looked over.

“Araz was chosen?” Dharma’s drohi asked.

“Yeah, much to his dismay.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry. But I’m sure he will come around. There is much honor in battle. If he had left, he would have been lost for certain.”

The other drohi snorted. “This is Araz we speak of, sister. He is not like the rest of us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing.” The female drohi shot her brother a stern glance. “Idle gossip is not honorable.”

I shrugged, done with the topic of Araz for now.

Time to change the subject. “Something smells good.”

“Dhal and potatoes,” the female drohi said.

“And flatbread,” her companion added.

I loved lentils, especially when Nani used to make them. Red lentils were my favorite, and she’d make them every weekend for me with delicious paratha slathered in butter. We’d sit at the table together for that meal and catch up on our week. How lonely had she been without me? How many weekly suppers had she taken alone?

“Chaya and Keyton offered to cook for us,” Priti said, breaking me out of my thoughts. “No more seeds.”

“Really?” My stomach grumbled, and I looked down at it and winced.

“There’s plenty if you’d like to join us,” Chaya said kindly.

“Although Araz should be making your meals,” Keyton added, shooting Chaya a firm look.

Chaya pressed her lips together. “Can you see that happening tonight?”

Keyton sighed. “Good point. Come, Leela, sit. I’ll make some chai—or coffee, we have that too. If you’d like something less spicy like chucky chips, noodles, or lamb chops, we can make those also. The food here is as varied as the demigods that have come to Svargana. We have learned much about mortal food. There is even a domain that cultivates the necessary ingredients to please the ascended gods.”

Any kind of food right now sounded good, but I didn’t want to take advantage. “I’m happy with whatever you’re making now. Please let me help.” I might as well familiarize myself with the kitchen and learn how to make the staple dishes here, because I doubted Araz would do it for me. Oh, wait a second. “Maybe I can cook something for Araz?”

Chaya’s brows went up. “You want to cook for your drohi?”

Why was she looking at me like I’d suggested buying him a diamond ring? “Is it not allowed? ”

“It is not forbidden, but…it is not done…usually.”

“Call me a trend setter then. Please. Show me how to make the flatbread and maybe some of the dhal too?”

“You know what,” Dharma said. “We should help as well.”

The sisters joined us at the counter.

The drohi looked momentarily thrown, but then Chaya smiled, and her beautiful face lit up.

“Very well, wash your hands and we will begin.”

An hour later, I headed back to my room with a neat metal tiffin filled with food for Araz, a bag with bedding for my own bed, and a head filled with information. Turned out it was customary for drohi and demigods to share a bed to build their unique bonds. But the way Chaya had said it implied that that these bonds could get intimate, and then there’d been an awkward silence and some blushing on Dharma’s and Priti’s parts.

I was glad I was sleeping in my own corner, even if it was a makeshift bed on the floor. Keyton told me it was Araz’s responsibility to make sure I was taken care of, and that included obtaining clothes and essentials from Dipika, the barracks matron, whose quarters were on the ground floor .

I couldn’t see that happening anytime soon so resolved to do it myself as soon as I’d dropped off the food and bedding.

Araz wasn’t in the room when I entered, so I set the tiffin on the desk, made up my bed, then headed back out to find Dipika.

The ground floor was Dipika’s domain. She managed our wardrobes, washing, and food stores. Basically, if you needed something or ran out of something, Dipika was the person to go to. Chaya had explained that these barracks were specifically allocated to off-world demigods, but as they didn’t get too many of those, when not in use, the barracks acted as a spill-over space for the native demigods.

Dipika was small, quick, and curt. She reminded me so much of Nani that it made my heart hurt. She led me to a room filled with racks of clothes and shoes then began compiling a wardrobe in my size by just looking at me.

“You’ll make sure you leave your laundry in this basket outside your room at night so it can be dealt with,” she said. “Your drohi should have come to see me as soon as you were paired.” She sniffed. ”Highly irregular.”

“I’m sorry.” My stupid eyes filled with tears.

She tutted at me, then softened. “Oh child, you must be firm with your drohi. Some will take liberties, especially with the demigods that are not of this world.” She smiled, and it took everything I had in me to not bawl.

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

She handed me a basket of clothes and essentials like soap and a jar of what she explained was toothpaste.

The light flickered, and she scowled up at it. “The bijli is always temperamental in these barracks.”

“Bijli?”

“The light and power harnessed from lightning. It is called bijli. You should take some candles just in case.”

I waited for her to add candles to my basket, then followed her out of the huge dressing room.

She left me at the stairs with instructions to come see her if I needed anything else, and I made my way back up, eager to slip into the nightwear she’d provided and then into my makeshift bed. A bed in the same room as Araz. No, no, do not think about that. Do not dwell on it.

This was my room too now, and he’d have to deal with it. My inner pep talk helped to inflate my bravado, leaving me ready for whatever confrontation was to come.

I opened the door to my quarters to find that Araz was back.

And he was naked.