Page 45

Chapter 44

THE TRUE GAME

I sat cross-legged at the foot of our bed while Araz leaned against the headboard. It was creeping close to dawn, but I doubted that either of us would sleep. We had this powerful knowledge in our grasp that could change everything, and heck, it had already changed things for us.

It wasn’t something to be hoarded. “We should tell the others the truth about the bond.”

Araz canted his head, the corner of his mouth lifting. “Let us say that we do. What do you believe will happen?”

My scalp prickled in that way it did when being called on in class to answer a question while I hadn’t been paying attention. “Well, they’ll know…the drohi will know that they can be free, and they’ll be happy and…and have hope.” And I sounded like a moron. I winced. “That’s the wrong answer, isn’t it? ”

His expression softened. “No, Leela. There is no wrong answer here. I’m asking for your thoughts. Now answer me this: Do they look unhappy now? Despondent? Trapped? Have any of them expressed a wish to leave?”

I thought back over my time here, over the many conversations with the many drohi and… “I…I guess not.”

“And do you know why?”

Now that he’d forced me to think about the situation, the answer to this one was easy. “Because they don’t know any different. This is their home. Their way of life.” But to me and the potentials, outsiders from another world, the whole setup was oppressive, with a clear hierarchy that favored only the gods.

“They don’t want to be free, Leela. This is all they know. All they have ever known. They were raised for one purpose and one purpose alone: to be useful to the gods. It’s been drummed into them since birth.”

“Maybe, but there are some that doubt, that want more. Like Chaya, for example. I’ve seen it in her eyes. And Pashim. He had a thirst for knowledge, something that’s forbidden to your kind.”

“Doubt and the desire for more mean nothing unless you have something to aspire to. The desire to escape wanes when you have nowhere to go.”

“And you do?”

He looked away. “You know I was not raised here.”

“Pashim told me. ”

“Yes…Pashim was…he was my anchor for a while. And then…then he was my best friend. And after that my brother. But even he did not fully comprehend my desire to leave.” Araz exhaled through his nose. “I never shared my past with anyone. I pretended that I’d forgotten because I knew it was the only way for me to survive and hope…Hope to one day return to…” He exhaled again. “I want to tell you the truth so that you understand why I must someday leave you.”

My throat pinched. “Tell me.”

“I was raised free, in a colony in the far north where winters were harsh, but our inner fire kept us warm. My people, the agni djinn, were my family. We lived in harmony with the land, and life was good until the reapers found us.” His throat worked. “They came just before the first heavy snowfall, sneaking across our borders and into our homes, slaughtering my people. The males fought back while the women and children ran.

“I couldn’t understand why they’d come. What they wanted. And my mother finally broke and told me the truth. That I was oath given. Born to be gifted to the gods. A child of a Danava. Valuable because agni rarely produced offspring with any other race.

“They’d come for me . Slaughtered my people to get to me . I wanted to give myself up, but Mother was insistent. She made me swear to fight, to run, to not let them have me.

“But they found us. They found us, and they killed her and…my sister…” His mouth twisted. “They violated my sister in front of me. Violated and laughed. I would have burned them all. Killed them all, but they were bigger, stronger…” He lifted his arms and made fists with his hands. Shackles bloomed to life on his wrists.

I gasped and reached out to touch one, but they melted away.

“They control me now. Control us all. But the ones raised here don’t know. They don’t understand what it is that they’ve lost.”

But I did. I finally did. “You’re going to go back to your people, aren’t you?”

His eyes narrowed, and he nodded.

But it was more than that. He wanted more than that. Oh….of course. He wanted revenge. “What are you going to do, Araz?”

“Mother told me tales of the free drohi and the djinn tribes. She told me that when the time was right, I would find them.”

Comprehension fluttered at the corners of my mind. “Araz, what do you plan to do?”

His mouth curved in a thin cruel smile. “I’m going to raise an army, and then I’m going to bring down the gods.”

Araz planned to start a rebellion. A new war, and I’d just promised him the freedom to do it. Not just promised but given him an oath.

“Araz, the Asura are essential to stopping the devouring force.”

“Are they?” He sat forward, eyes slits of gold that challenged me to think. To see. “I don’t see any born Asura fighting on the battlefield. They remain here in their sky city hiding behind their oaths while we, the drohi, fight their battles. They made demigods to use as cannon fodder, and yes, they ascend some of you, but who do you think has the final say on the selection?”

“You’re talking about bringing down a whole institution. We don’t need to do that to affect change. We can fix things from within. The potentials and I?—”

“Dammit, Leela, you’re not listening.” He exhaled and closed his eyes. “It doesn’t matter what you think. We have a deal now, sealed in breath and blood. You will free me, and I will have my vengeance. You can’t stop me, not without breaking your oath.”

The irony of that statement was obviously lost on him, but I wasn’t afraid to point it out. “You’re holding me to an oath now too? So how does that make you any better than the Asura?” He flinched as if I’d slapped him, and I continued. “Don’t worry, I would have honored it regardless.”

He had the grace to look ashamed. “Leela. You’re new to this world. You don’t understand that change can only come if the gods fall.”

“I understand that. I just believe that the fall can come without an all-out war, especially when we’re already in the middle of one.”

His jaw tensed. “I won’t stop you from affecting change in any capacity you see fit. You can do what you wish once you’re a god. But I will follow the path that I see fit.”

He’d had the best part of a century to nurture his rage and plan his revenge. He’d lost his home and his family, been enslaved in the name of a greater good that he hadn’t chosen. And as much as my heart ached for him, I could not, would not accept that war was the only solution. I wasn’t going to change his mind in one conversation, but maybe in time I could show him that my way would be better.

I relaxed and nodded. “Fine.”

He tipped his head, eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Fine?”

“Yes. Fine. Now I’m tired, so I’m going to get some sleep.”

He eyed me warily as I climbed under the sheets.

“You can stroke my hair if you like.”

“Leela, this is a very strange way to end such a deep and meaningful discussion.”

“I’m not ending it, just hitting pause.”

He seemed to consider this for a beat, then his hand fell to my brow. “Very well. We shall sleep. ”

But sleep didn’t take me till the first light of dawn stained the room because the voice of reason inside me warned me that things might not go as I planned. That Araz might indeed leave.

I needed to be prepared to let him go.

He curled his body around mine, cradling me against his much larger frame.

Yeah, guarding my heart would not be easy.