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Chapter 39

I’VE NEVER BEEN THE JEALOUS TYPE

W e alternated between jogging and walking, and I was sure it was for the benefit of us potentials. The irritated looks on the elite team’s faces was enough to confirm it. After a while, the elite team split so there was a small group ahead of us and a small group behind. Jasha and Pashim stayed in the center with us, while Guru Mihir made up the lead.

The road was cracked and overgrown. The silhouetted remains of a town were visible in the distance to our left, and open plains lay to our right. It reminded me of home—if home had been devastated by war.

Had there been technology here once? Had the humans here ever had a chance to evolve scientifically, or had magic dampened that possibility?

“How many elite teams are there?” Dharma asked .

“A few,” Pashim replied. “There is a drohi team led by Araz and several teams led by ascended.”

He jogged beside me, so I was sandwiched between him and Araz, but he hadn’t spoken to me directly yet.

How long had we been on the move? Surely I should be feeling tired by now? Were we going uphill? The terrain shifted, the town fell away, and the road crumbled, leaving us on an uneven, overgrown trail. Our pace slowed a fraction.

“The settlement is up ahead,” Araz said.

“Have you been here before?”

“I was here when it was built,” Araz said, “and again when we filled it with people.”

“It will be good to see them again,” Pashim said.

Brush and woodland crept up around us, swallowing us surreptitiously until we were in a forest, thick with the scent of nature and the soft distinct sounds of nocturnal fauna. Moonlight dappled the ground, soft earth muting our bootfalls.

“What is that?” Joe asked from up ahead. “That glow.”

I spotted it a moment later—a silver glow rising from the ground and into the sky like a translucent shield.

“It’s the boundary.” One of the elites fell into step beside us. Her hair was shaved at the sides in a mohawk, which loaned her delicate features a little hardness, which I assumed was the reason for the hairdo. She wasn’t much taller than me. A demigod or an ascended? “The tantrik Jadu that protects the settlement begins there,” she continued. “It’s quite impressive how they sow the magic into the earth. Maybe you’ll get to see them create one someday.”

“Leela, this is Pooja,” Araz said fondly. “She ascended a few months ago and made it to elite almost immediately. She is one of our best.”

“Thank you, Guru Araz.”

“I’m no guru,” Araz said.

“You helped train me. To me, you are a guru.”

He’d trained potentials? “You did training?”

“Yes, he did,” Pashim said. “But he stepped down a week before your arrival here, and I took his place.”

“Why?”

Araz’s eyes flinched, and realization hit me. He’d planned to be free.

Pashim quickly changed the subject. “Passing through the boundary might sting a little. We are not human, and it will recognize that, but it will also recognize that we are not a threat and admit us.”

He was right; passage was like being pinched all over, but the discomfort was short-lived, probably because my brain was distracted by the huge domed structure that lay beyond it. Its base was a wall that had to be at least fifteen feet high. The spokes that connected to make up the dome sitting atop it glowed with an ethereal light. It reminded me of a greenhouse without the glass.

“Wow,” Joe said. “Is that glow magic? ”

“No,” Pashim said. “It’s bijli harnessed from the earth. The second line of defense against an attack.”

“You need guns,” Dharma said. “I’m sure bullets would work on a revenant.”

Did the drohi even know what guns were? A quick glance at Pashim and Araz’s confused faces was answer enough.

“Guns are weapons from our world. They expel projectiles. Bullets made of metal that pierce a body and damage organs.”

“Your technology does not work here,” Araz said. “And your bullets would not stop a revenant. Only an astra weapon can, and only a god is gifted one of those.”

“Wait a second,” Joe said. “Are you saying that the weapons we have now are useless?”

Jasha chuckled. “I like this one. He makes quick connections.”

“They are not useless,” Pooja said. “They can inflict damage and maim. Enough for you to make an escape. But you will not succeed in a killing blow with one.”

“Great,” Priti said.

“You have your drohi for that,” Pashim reminded us. “A drohi can banish a revenant. Until you receive your astra, we are your lethal weapon.”

“Our objective was to keep the humans safe, not kill monsters,” Dharma reminded us. “The elite team can do the killing. We just need to be smart.”

The dome grew larger and higher the closer we got, and the air fizzed with power. A huge arch was built into the structure, and a gate sat in the center with a single-story gray building beyond it. A man came running out as we approached.

He looked to be in his late twenties with the kind of face you could trust. He grinned at us through the gate.

“Mihir, you made it.”

“Anu, it’s good to see you again.”

“One moment, old friend.” Anu dipped out of view, and the sounds of cogs turning followed as the gate slowly slid open. We followed the elite into a courtyard area that was walled off. There was a fire pit to one side of it with benches and a well to the left.

A set of double doors, closed and bolted with a thick length of wood, cut us off from the settlement proper.

Anu closed the gate with a turn of a wheel built into the side of the arch. “I will inform Zar that you have arrived.”

“The convoy is packed and ready to leave?” Guru Mihir asked.

“Almost.” Anu ran over to the double doors and hefted the bar up. “Come, come.” He pushed open the door and ushered us through. Squat buildings, whitewashed by the moon, sat at the bottom of a gentle rise. There was another well and a bell tower too. It reminded me of the quaint villages back home.

Our party dispersed into smaller groups, but I stayed by Araz’s side as the elite strode off to inspect the several carts lined up on the road. Each was covered in tarp, tied down firmly, and hitched to a pair of equine creatures that looked like a cross between a horse and a hunting hound but were the size of a large donkey.

A group of people sat under a shelter on the side of the road. Their hardy boots and winter wear marked them as ready for a trek. Guru Mihir joined them, speaking to them in a hushed voice, but one of the women broke off and headed our way.

Her kohl-rimmed gaze found Araz, and my stomach clenched. I didn’t like the way she was looking at him. And now she was smiling, all even white teeth. And what the fuck? Araz was smiling back, and oh gods, that smile…It was devastatingly beautiful.

Why was it aimed at her?

“Araz, it’s been a long time,” she said.

The up and down look she gave him was one that hinted at intimacy. I stepped closer to him, and her gaze flicked to me. “Hello.”

I smiled thinly. “Hi.”

“Aradha, this is my demigod, Leela.”

Her smile lost some of its wattage. “You were bound…” She frowned. “Oh…Araz, I am so sorry.”

Heat stained my cheeks. “Excuse me?”

She made an ‘o’ with her mouth. “Goodness, I meant no disrespect, just that…I know it isn’t something Araz was hoping for.”

He’d spoken to her about his wants and desires? Which meant they’d been close…closer than maybe just sex. Emotionally close? “How do you two know each other?”

“Remember I told you I helped build this place,” Araz said. “During that time, I was stationed here a lot, and Aradha and I became friends.”

“Oh, come now, Araz. We were more than friends.” She looked up at him through thick lashes, clearly flirting.

I was so done with this bullshit. “Okay, I get you. You guys had a thing back when. But he’s mine now, so put your tongue back in your mouth and keep your eyes to yourself.”

She gasped and then let out a bark of laughter.

“What the fuck is so funny?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. Nothing at all.” She held out her hand to me. “It is truly nice to meet you, Leela.”

What was going on here? I took her hand and shook it, totally confused, because I’d just delivered a smack-down, and shouldn’t she be more upset or pissed off or something? But no, she was grinning like an idiot.

“The Shakti do know what they’re doing, Araz,” Aradha said. “She is perfect for you.”

I looked up at him to find him watching me with a mixture of awe and annoyance. The awe I’d take, and the annoyance could suck it.

“Oh, well,” Aradha continued. “At least I have Pashim to keep me entertained on the long road ahead.” She redirected her flirty smile at him. “You’ll be my escort, won’t you?” She lightly touched his arm, and my hackles rose. She arched a brow my way. “Don’t tell me he’s yours too?“

I was acutely aware of both Araz’s and Pashim’s gazes on me. I opened my mouth to speak, to say that Pashim was free to make his own choices, but Pashim beat me to it.

“No. No, I’m not hers.” His smile, while wry when aimed my way, morphed to something warm and inviting when it settled on Aradha, and my insides rioted. “I’d be happy to be your escort for the journey,” he said, smooth and dulcet.

I wanted to claw out her eyes.

I had no right to feel this way.

Maybe I’d just pluck out her eyelashes.

Gosh, I needed help.

Pashim and Aradha stepped away, talking in low voices, and I turned to Araz. “So you slept with her then?”

He blinked sharply. “What of it?”

I had nothing. “Whatever.”

“You’re jealous.”

No point in denying it. “Yes. Yes, I am. And I hate it.”

I made to storm off, but he gently gripped my elbow and pulled me against his body, leaning in so his cheek kissed my temple.

“I find I quite enjoy it.”

Be still my fluttering nether regions. What was he doing? Capitulating? I couldn’t get my hopes up, but his words were like warm treacle clogging up my heart.

“Convoy is ready!” Guru Mihir called out. “Potentials escort the central carts, elite teams make up the front and rear. Let’s move.”

The street behind us was now filled with people climbing up onto carts or taking position beside them. Men, women, and…children.

“Come on,” Araz said. “Let’s take position.” We joined the other potentials in the center of the convoy and took a spot beside a cart carrying a heavily pregnant woman and a young boy of maybe five or six. He had a very serious expression for someone so small, but when he caught me watching him, he smiled shyly. He’d lost a front baby tooth, and he looked adorable.

“Hi, my name’s Leela, and this is Araz. What’s your name?”

His eyes rounded when they fell on Araz, and he puffed out his chest. “My name is Viki and I’m going to be a warrior when I grow up. Mother says I can help guard the settlement.”

“I believe you will do an excellent job,” Araz said. “Are you excited for your new home?”

He looked to his mother for the answer to this one, and she gave him a watery smile. “Viki’s baba is the head agriculturist of our colony. The new settlement is a crop farm. We have no choice but to go. But we will miss our friends and family here.”

“Maybe you can come visit.” I knew I’d said something dumb as soon as the words were out of my mouth because how would they do that without risking death? “I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right. Your life in the sky is very different than ours here on the dharti. There is no freedom to roam. Not unless we choose to remain below the earth.”

“And we are moving!” Jasha called out.

The cart lurched into motion, and the woman settled into her nook among the boxes, her son tucked beside her.

The doors to the entry courtyard swung open, and we trundled out, back into the night. Back into potential danger—except now we had valuable cargo to protect.