Page 39 of Lost and Stolen Gods
Part Three
All work and no play makes Leela an exhausted demigod, and why am I speaking in third person? Yeah, this next part is going to hurt like a bitch…
Chapter 15
I’LL MAKE MY BED AND LIE IN IT TOO
Resourceful 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 nowourroom 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 lessgrrrand 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,” Pritisaid, breaking me out of my thoughts. “No more seeds.”
