Page 107 of Lost and Stolen Gods
Ah yes, she’d offered to get some air with me. “I’m okay.”
“I know, but…they were going to kill you.”
“But Araz protected her,” Remi’s drohi said. “As a drohi should.” There was pride in those words.
Remi pulled me into a hug. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Is that Leela?” Dharma said from somewhere behind Remi.
The next moment, I was surrounded by my friends and offered hugs all round, and it hit me that this was my family now. These potentials, these demigods. For the first time in my life, I had real friends, and I couldn’t help but wonder how much of my loneliness back in my world had been because I’d shut myself off.
Hug time over, everyone drifted off, and I went in search of Pashim. He was at our usual table, but as soon as he saw me, he shot to his feet and crossed the room to pull me into his arms.
I melted into the embrace. “I’m fine.”
And I was. Maybe too fine for someone who’d almost been killed a few hours ago.
Where was my trauma? It had to be a demigod thing.
He smiled down at me, but it looked off. Like there was something missing. I didn’t like it.
“I wanted to come and see you sooner,” he said, “but Araz told me to let you sleep.” He guided me to our table.
“You spoke to Araz?”
“Yes. He came to see me this morning and told me what happened.” A muscle in his jaw jumped. “I failed you. I vowed to protect you, and I failed.”
“Whoa, it’s not your fault. How were you to knowI’d leave the barracks or that someone would attack me right outside?”
“You could have died.”
“I know. But I didn’t.”
“Because Araz saved you. Because he was watching even though…” He took a shuddering breath. “I cannot compete with the bond.”
“Compete? Who said you had to compete?”
He closed his eyes on an exhale. “I have never in all my many years felt this drawn to a woman.”
His candor was a fist around my heart so that each beat was suddenly an effort. “What about Arti?” My words came out in a whisper. “You loved her, didn’t you? She was pregnant, wasn’t she?”
He let out a soft laugh that held no humor. “Is that what you’ve heard?”
“It’s not true?”
“Sit.” He took his usual seat, and I slipped into mine. “We are bonded to the demigods that we would be most compatible with, and love happens. Yes, I loved her, but not as a lover. The rumours of a pregnancy are untrue. But this…you. There is no bond between us, and yet… I know you are not mine. The Shakti gave you to Araz, I must not intervene, and yet I find myself unable to stop.”
It seemed that the bond always made love bloom in some capacity be it lover, friend, sibling bond or more of a parent-child one. The dynamics varied, but what determined them? Why was the bond forcing Araz andme into a romantic situationship? Why make us want each other sexually?
“What are you thinking?” Pashim asked.
“Chaya says that the longer Araz fights the bond, the weaker it will become. She says to wait for its hold on us to fade.” I wasn’t sure why I was telling him this or what purpose I expected it to serve, but it brought the beautiful light I loved back into his eyes, and I realized that was what had been missing.
“I am glad he didn’t fight it last night,” Pashim said. “If he had, he would not have found you in time.”
“But the threat is over. The rakshasa are the ones who tried to kill me. The flowers and then taking me into the woods.”
“The pack alpha refuses to accept responsibility for the flowers. He insists that attack wasn’t theirs.”
