Page 7

Chapter 6

I’M NEVER PEEING IN THE WOODS AGAIN

I wasn’t sure how long we’d been traveling. My solitary confinement consisted of a large wooden crate on wheels. There were gaps in the wood, enough for me to catch glimpses of the cobbled road and the flash of foliage bordering it.

Should have kept your mouth shut, Leela. I’d been doing so well, too, but the rage, when it hit, seemed to come from nowhere. No, that was a lie. It was always there in some capacity, simmering away, waiting for the moment to rise. But I’d learned to control it. To put it in a box and conceal it behind a smile, because the last time I’d let it out fully?—

No. Not going into that memory.

The cart holding my prison rattled as it hit a divot in the road.

My ass was numb, and I desperately needed to stand and walk around to get my circulation going, and I needed to pee. God, I needed to pee.

The cart hit another rut, and my bladder reminded me just how badly.

Fuck it. They couldn’t treat me like this. Like an animal. I hammered a fist on wood. “Hey! Hey, I need to pee. Hey!”

The cart came to a rumbling halt, and then sunlight pierced my prison as the top of the crate was hauled open by one of the guards.

He winced at the sight of me crouched and cramped. “Here, let me help you.”

I took his hand and the offered assistance. “I think my legs have gone to sleep.”

He studied my legs in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

“Pins and needles.”

He continued to stare at me blankly, and it hit me, if this was another world, then they probably didn’t have his turn of phrase here.

“The blood circulation is compromised.”

His frown cleared, and comprehension colored his features. “The yaksha have excellent circulation,” he said with pride.

“Um…Good to know.”

He kept hold of my hand as I climbed out of the crate, and I got my first proper look at our entourage of carriages—large opulent affairs made of gleaming rosewood, the kind I’d only ever seen in historical movies. I bet they had padded seats. Fuck me and my mouth. I could have been traveling in comfort if not for my stupid temper.

Dharma hopped out of a carriage ahead of me, followed by Priti and Remi and a guy with messy blond hair and a black eye.

Had he fought Lomis?

They spotted me and hurried over. “You okay?” Dharma looked me over. “Did they hurt you?”

“No, we did not.” The guard looked offended. “Your friend needs to relieve herself, and you must also need to do…mortal things.”

“Are you telling me that you don’t shit?” Dharma said with a curl of her lip.

He blinked sharply, then pursed his lips, twin spots of color appearing high on his cheekbones. “This is not a subject I wish to discuss.”

Another guard, shorter, stockier, and heavily bearded, appeared behind him and slapped him on the back. “Don’t mind Eesha. Yaksha are notorious prudes when it comes to speaking of the baser things. Ironic considering their connection to nature. But my kind, the rakshasa, don’t have such issues.” He grinned, flashing blunt white teeth from the forest of neatly groomed hair on his face. “To answer your question, yes, we shit, we piss, and we rut. The former not so frequently. The food of our world is different than yours, and not much is wasted. Now that’s cleared up, you mortals can go piss in the woods. ”

I shared a look with Remi, because what the heck were yaksha and rakshasa? But Dharma and Priti had gone still, sharing a look of their own.

They knew.

“Be quick,” Umbra ordered from somewhere up ahead. “The sun will set soon.”

I didn’t get the chance to query why the sun setting was an issue before we were joined by the other humans from Lomis’s haul and ushered into the woods by the yaksha guard and his boisterous companion.

The forest closed in around us as the guards led us away from the road, and I moved closer to the sisters. “Do you know what we’re dealing with here?”

“Creatures of myth,” Priti said. “From the tales my grandmother told, yaksha are nature spirits, and rakshasa…They’re demonic shifter creatures who devour flesh.”

Remi glanced over at the rakshasa. “He doesn’t look demonic.”

“You mortals have much to learn,” Eesha said. “Like how sharp a yaksha’s hearing is.”

“And a rakshasa’s too,” the bearded guy said. “No matter, you’ll be educated soon enough.”

Why did that sound like a threat?

“Here is good,” the bearded guard said. “That large flatleaf tree will do. Go fertilize it.”

“Cor, please, have some decorum,” Eesha said.

Cor leaned in and loudly whispered, “You didn’t mind the lack of decorum last night. ”

Eesha’s cheeks flushed bright red. “Cor, please!” But there was a definite twinkle in his eye now.

We took it in turns to pee, covering one another to provide an illusion of privacy, but knowing everyone was listening made it harder to find release. It took Remi the longest, and we all had to cover our ears, even the guards.

By the time we were done, the sky was the rich russet of impeding sunset. We’d just set off for the road when a low humming sound vibrated my ears, and a moment later, a wave of dizziness washed over me. I’d climbed a mountain once, and this breathless, lightheaded feeling felt just like an altitude change.

The moment passed as suddenly as it hit, leaving the world as silent as a tomb.

My scalp tightened, and ice pooled low in my belly.

“No,” Eesha said. “It can’t be. The passage route is safe.”

“What’s happening?” the guy with the black eye asked. His good eye darted this way and that, scanning the gloomy forest.

A loud crack like lightning spliced through the silence, then a rage-filled roar shattered it.

“Get to the carriage!” Cor bellowed. “RUN!”

My body reacted to the unseen threat, falling into a sprint toward the road. It was as if someone had turned up the volume so that the thud of our boots and every snap and crack of bracken, even the wind in my ears, was amplified .

Someone screamed, and horses whinnied in terror.

I caught movement in my periphery, something large and dark running parallel to us.

“Don’t look!” Eesha ordered. “We’re almost there. The carriage is safe if you?—”

A hulking dark form smashed into him, whipping him off his feet and carrying him away. His scream cut off abruptly.

“Keep running!” Cor called from behind us. “Get to the road.”

I glanced back to see him dive into the gloom after his lover just as another inhuman screech drifted up from somewhere to our left. My thighs burned as I pumped my arms to go faster. Dharma was up ahead, pounding earth like she’d been born to do it. Something tracked us, moving at equal speed so that my insides formed knots.

The road came into view.

Screams, roars, and bellows of exertion filled the air, rising and falling in a symphony of battle.

We beelined for the nearest carriage.

“We can all get in,” Dharma cried from up ahead. “Move it.” She was at the edge of the road when the thing tracking us broke cover to leap into her path.

She skidded to a halt and fell into a crouch, her breath coming short and shallow.

We all froze, staring up at the monster blocking our route to safety.

Over seven feet tall, the figure was humanoid, and made of black, corded muscle, as if someone had stripped the skin from its body, then charred the remains. Its shoulders were too wide, its waist much too slender to hold the weight of its upper body, and its thighs were slabs of pulsing muscle. It stood, chest heaving, talons clacking, and even though it had no eyes, there was no doubt in my mind that it was looking right at us.

“Leela…” Remi said my name in a trembling whisper.

“Don’t. Move.”

The thing sniffed, the action opening crimson apertures in its face, then it opened its mouth and roared.