Page 132 of The Divine Lies We Weave

“Who do you think got to harness the Scorpion next? To use the morals of a mortal who wanted the curse gone from their family?”

Rajesh frowned. He didn’t understand that part. He was still stuck on the part with his father. “What did you do to my father?”

“A mysterious illness? A lustisha suddenly appearing and breaking the walls of your village on the same night you harness the Scorpion?” The Viperess chuckled again, a sickly sweet chuckle. “Your father died so you could harness the curse, so you could breathe a lustisha free and have it tear down your sandstone walls. All I needed was a broken woman who would give anything to get the revenge she wanted. To come swinging back into your arms. To get closer. To then drive the dagger up into your heart and kill you and the Scorpion. Revenge is best served when it is in bloodshed and heartache.”

Rajesh was too dumbstruck to speak.

All of it was planned. Down to the fact that his father got a mysterious illness. At the time, it had been odd—his sudden onset chest pain, the way his heart couldn’t handle the coughing fits as he spasmed at night. It was a stage driven by the hands of a cruel puppeteer. The Viperess had orchestrated the entire thing and pulled the wool over their eyes.

The memory rose all too clearly—the way his father lay on the floor of their hut, Iravan and Nalini by his side. His mother had cried as she held their father’s hand during his final rattling breaths. As soon as his flame went out, an indescribable pain overcame Rajesh. The Scorpion had latched onto him with scathing fingers, wedging in and taking over all his sense and direction.

It was then he knew he needed to leave Leela. To never speak to her again or crave her, for the safety of the world—so she could never feel the same pain his mother felt.

“I don’t… I don’t understand…” Rajesh mumbled. He continued to stare into space, trying to piece it all together. What parts were staged? What parts were real…. if any of it?

He kept trying to speak, but what could he say other than what the fuck?

“All good, mortal?” the Viperess cooed. “Or are you still going to hide behind that bed of yours?”

Rajesh stared in disbelief at his uncontrollably shaking hands. He clenched them as he did his jaw to steady himself. His emotions were out of control, and he felt the sandstorm creeping along the edges, like a dark beast about to consume him.

It all made sense and didn’t make sense at the same time. How was he meant to process this? Everything had been a lie. What parts had been real?

What parts had been real?

What parts….?

Rajesh knew by the fifth time he asked himself the same question.

It was Leela. She had been real. Their love had been real, even when they were children without vengeful Flames. That had been real, and she was still very much inside her body, and he needed to get her out.

Gripping the hilt of his godsblade, it took everything in him to stand and stare at the Viperess. He snarled, hands shaking at his side. But he stood. He stood because he wasn’t going to let some asshat of a Flame destroy the last real thing he had.

A coy smile curled her lips. “There’s a good boy.”

“You think you’ve won this war?” Rajesh snapped. “But what have you really won?”

She chuckled. “Oh mortal, I am not even done yet. This is just the beginning of my plan. Remember, I’ve had centuries to think this all through, and so far, everything has gone or is going as planned.”

Rajesh felt like the world was on his shoulders. He’d always felt that way, but now, it was as if it were almost too much. The sandstorm. His emotions. How he was unable to ever love without the fear of heartbreak.

He was tired.

He was ready to let it all go.

If the Viperess wanted the Scorpion dead, then perhaps he should let her. The gleam in her eye told Rajesh she was never going to stop. She would keep going, and going, and going, until she had ripped the world apart to destroy the Scorpion. Unfortunately, Rajesh was just the lovestruck fool stuck in the crossfire of an eternal war.

And now, he was ready to lay down his weapons.

Muscles tight, he forced himself to look the Viperess in the eye. But it wasn’t her he was talking to. “I’m sorry, Leela. I really thought getting to the wish-fulfilling tree would help save us. I guess I was wrong. Just promise me you’ll keep going. Destroy this bitch with everything you have.”

“Lying down so easily? What does the Scorpion say?”

“He’s not here.”

The Viperess hissed. “Typical. He has refused to acknowledge he is at fault, again.”

“And so have you.”