Page 114 of The Divine Lies We Weave

Rajesh screamed. His mouth opened, wide enough to almost rip the skin of his cheeks.

Leela flinched and covered her ears. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong, and she wasn’t sure if this was because of their previous endeavors or if he was creating a monster. No. This had to be the sandstorm.

“Rajesh?” Leela asked when his screams finally ended. She peered over the edge, half expecting him to be gone or for a monster to stand in his place.

Rajesh lay there, sweat dampening the carpet and strands of hair matted against his face. His breathing was rapid. Chest heaving and fingers shaking.

“Rajesh…” Leela said, tone drowned in sympathy as she jumped from the bed and landed at his side. Hesitantly, she steadied her hand over his shoulder.

He flinched. “Don’t.”

Leela recoiled as though she had been slapped. She sat up as Rajesh rolled over and grabbed his shirt. He pulled his pants back on and stood by the window, a hand on his hip and fingers embedded in his hair. He continued to take deep breaths, each one shuddering through him.

Leela didn’t know whether to approach him or let him be. What happened? What monster had he birthed?

“Rajesh,” Leela said, almost demanding him to look at her or at least speak. “What happened? Did I⁠—”

“No,” Rajesh said, shutting his eyes. He wiped his hands down his face, fingers still shaking.

The look haunted Leela. She watched as he stood there and gazed at his hands as if he were afraid of them. Tears sat in the depths of his eyes and sweat continued to slide down his face and back.

Slowly, Leela uncoiled herself from the floor. She draped her shirt back on and wandered over. She raised a hand over his shoulder to see if he would shrink away again. He looked like a wounded animal about to collapse and break under her touch.

Leela bit her lip. She didn’t know what to say or do as the air shimmered between them. All the vulnerable edges of their past had come collapsing down on the bed only moments ago, but this… this was different. Something was terribly wrong.

“Rajesh,” Leela said, licking her lips. “Please.”

Rajesh shook his head. “I… I… I can’t do this.”

Leela frowned. What did he mean by that?

He finally turned and met her gaze. She drowned all over again, this time by an emotional weight she couldn’t comprehend. Oh yes, something was terribly wrong.

“What happened?” she asked, cautious so as not to spook him. “What did you create?”

A tear slid down his face. He shut his eyes and bit his lip, a crease burrowing between his brows. When he pulled himself together, he looked out the window and let out a hiss between his teeth.

Leela broke. The man whose every version she had come to love was breaking—no, collapsing—before her.

“What happened?” she urged.

“I didn’t mean to,” Rajesh said. “I didn’t know I could… But I did. I created it.”

“Created what?”

“I knew about the other emotions. About anger. Fury. Lust and anxiety. But not love.” He locked his gaze with hers. “Never love.”

“I don’t understand,” Leela said, dropping her hand. What did he mean ‘love’? Before their voyage, he had been adamant on never being able to love her because it might lead to heartbreak. He had never mentioned a monster born of love.

Rajesh slid a hand over his face, dragging his hair across his eyes. “I didn’t know it was possible, believe me. I knew lust and heartbreak would bring monsters. I was warned about those. But what I just birthed wasn’t a lustisha. It wasn’t even a soulkisser. It was a giant beast that moved quicker than anything I’ve ever seen and would split this realm apart if it had the chance.”

Leela took a hesitant step back, gaze never straying from his. Images of a monster bigger and quicker than the lustisha flashed in her mind. What if it had more heads? More hands to kill or legs to crush people beneath them? Leela couldn’t imagine such a thing.

But what did this mean? Leela tried to sort through her thoughts. Tried to better understand what this meant for them. She had been warned about the heartbreak, but love? Their love would be the destruction of their world.

The destruction of humanity.

If she didn’t do something to stop it all from crashing down.