Page 151 of The Divine Lies We Weave

“Does that mean you’ll tell me?”

Rajesh shuffled closer, his whiskey breath hot against her face.

Leela stilled, refusing to let it affect her.

“There is the furybeast, which, by the name, makes sense,” Rajesh said. “Born of fury. Then there are the drakion, which are wilder emotions, like splits of happiness or sadness. Emotions I can’t quite change but happen every day. Then, the gullomer, which is when I’m guilty of something. The soulkisser, which is when I might feel high spits of anxiety.”

Leela frowned. She understood the others, but the name of the last monster made no sense.

Rajesh caught hold of her expression. “Anxiety sucks out your soul, right? The thoughts that are forever going? Tearing parts of your soul apart?”

Leela understood. She also understood that the angstent was born of anger. “And then the lustisha, born from heartache.”

Rajesh refused to move his gaze away from hers. “Lust and heartache sort of go hand in hand. And heartache creates the biggest monsters of all.”

Leela sucked in a breath, her pulse thundering in her ears as she saw how the words impacted Rajesh in that moment. She almost tumbled, losing her hold on the railing. She caught herself and righted her footing, a blush riding her cheeks.

Rajesh raised a brow. “You okay, damiji?”

“Yeah. Fine. Just… weak,” she said, fumbling for an excuse for how he looked at her.

His brow raised higher, then lengthened into a smirk. “I don’t ever remember making your legs weak.”

Leela shoved him, and he chuckled. “My legs work perfectly fine, thank you.”

“Oh, I’m aware.” His chuckle deepened.

Her cheeks burned. “Can’t you just control it?”

“My words or…? You know I can’t pass up an opportunity to taunt you, damiji. You squirm easily.”

“Your emotions.”

Rajesh snorted. “You don’t think I try? To control emotions in my profession? It’s quite hard to do, really, damiji. Have you ever tried?”

Leela turned away. She thought of the last week and the sort of monsters her emotions would have made. She had no control over it.

“I understand,” Leela said. “Emotions, bad. Monsters, bad. You… bad.”

He smirked. “Am I?”

“Yes.”

A strange glint nestled in his eye, and Leela mentally prepared for what he was about to say. She didn’t like where this conversation was heading, especially with how close he was, with the whiskey hanging off his tongue.

He leaned closer, lips brushing her ear. “How about we give that theory a try…?”

Leela flushed. “What happened to hating each other? I thought we made it clear⁠—”

“Yeah, and then I realized that it’s kind of hard to do when my emotions need to be leveled,” Rajesh said. “It’s best I keep hatred from my system. One way to stop that is with this—” He shook the bottle in his hand.

She was about to respond when the ship rocked, and her vision swayed. She was smacked against the railing, her hip ricocheting against wood.

Rajesh jolted, crashing into her. He steadied her as the ship groaned and bucked.

“Shit,” Rajesh said. Snapping around, he unsheathed his godsblade.

Leela steadied herself against the railing and gasped. When her vision cleared, she noticed darkened skulls and fingers breaching the surface, and a horde of skeletons, some with weapons gleaming in the sun, thundered toward the ship. Others charged with jaws wide, screams splitting the air. Skeletons hauled themselves over the sands, one by one, until there were hundreds scattered across both sides of the ship.