Page 101 of The Divine Lies We Weave

“Leela…?” He stood before her, cupping her cheek underneath his thumb once again.

“Yes?” Leela glanced back.

“I don’t regret it,” Rajesh said.

She didn’t regret it either, but weren’t they being careless at a time like this? Wasn’t it selfish of her to suddenly want to spend forever with a man she couldn’t? He had always been someone special. Someone she could trek and get lost in the world with. Someone who accepted all her jagged edges and scars and still wanted to stay.

“Neither do I,” Leela whispered against his lips. “But it was probably ridiculous.”

Rajesh smirked. “Ridiculously amazing.”

Leela playfully slapped his shoulder, and he laughed. “Don’t think it will happen again.”

“Well, we might not have forever together, and maybe we’ll find this tree and end this rivalry.” He leaned in closer. “Then maybe the Viperess gets her wish, and you’ll never see me again, and we only have this moment to remember.”

Leela’s chest tightened. “Maybe.”

Rajesh stepped back, his eyes lacking their familiar sparkle. “Maybe…”

She glanced over the muscles. His shirt was still on the ground. Her fingers sizzled from touching every crevice, sliding along his shoulders into his curls, which hung like limp vines around his face.

She imagined never seeing Rajesh again. Never talking to him and laughing with him. Never teasing the flames out of him until he caved.

Biting her lip, she tried to feel something other than the underlying hatred for the situation. No. She couldn’t picture never seeing Rajesh again. He had become too important, and she knew she could never let him go. She had to find a way to deal with this Viperess issue or she would lose him.

A small part of her understood why Rajesh had done what he had. He let her go to stop creating more lustishas. He was trying to save the world.

Her chest tightened. She felt selfish.

She really shouldn’t have done that.

“Come on,” Rajesh said, walking toward the exit. “All that work means I need some food.”

Leela rolled her eyes but followed.

While her thirst had been quenched, there was a nagging thought at the back of her mind.

What if she did kill him? And she never got to touch him again…?

What if she had just opened the gates to unlocking another lustisha…?

22

RAJESH

Days passed with the blissful spread of dawn. The crew members that left took a tinier ship back to the den, and they would’ve reached home by now. Surely, his mother would be disappointed and frustrated that he had gone after the tree instead of sticking with his job.

But how could he not go after the wish-fulfilling tree now? He couldn’t stand being the reason Leela died, and he refused to kill her.

Figured out a way yet?

We keep heading north. Toward the Whispering Mountains.

Toward the mountains said to house the biggest monsters of all. Of course. Of course, we have to head there.

The Scorpion clicked his tongue. You said you wanted this.

I know what I said. Never said I’d like it.