Page 24 of The Divine Lies We Weave

And he was alive.

Not dead.

But very much living and breathing.

Leela finally blinked.

Rajesh trailed his gaze over her body the same way she did him. His eyes were wide, as if he had just seen a desert spirit. His blade clattered to the ground at his feet. His lips—the lips she used to kiss—were wide with fear, then confusion… then relief.

“I… L—Leela?”

Her response clogged in her throat. The night’s chill dug into her bones and held her steady within its cage, unwilling to release her.

She needed to talk. Needed to stand and punch him in the face. How else was she meant to react to seeing the man she presumed dead but was actually standing before her?

She soaked him in. The way his black V-neck shirt with tiny straps billowed in the wind. His baggy black pants stopped at his ankles. A dusting of sand coated his features, the dark depths of his eyes still lined with thick lashes, his wild black curls stuck with sweat against his square jaw.

As shocked as she felt, what she really noticed was the small curl she used to play with still leaning against his forehead, the way his eyes bore into hers and the new scars painting his body. He had aged into a fine man. Still as gentle and handsome as the last day she saw him.

“Rajesh,” she finally said past the thick lump in her throat.

“Y—you’re alive?” He gasped. His eyes gleamed, and Leela almost wanted to jump in and smell the familiar scent of burnt toast and the sweetness she craved for many endless nights.

But it didn’t stop the last words he’d said to her six years ago from surfacing and drowning her all over again. “So are you, apparently.”

“Captain!” A man ran up to Rajesh, huffing. He put his hand on Rajesh’s shoulder.

Rajesh didn’t move. He only stared at Leela.

“Rajesh?” the man asked.

“Yes, Tanmay?” Rajesh said, eyes still locked on Leela.

“We need to escort the dead to the Awakening,” he said. “What should we do with the others?”

“Do the ritual,” Rajesh said. “I’ll be along shortly.”

Tanmay glanced at Leela and his captain before he shook his head and ran off.

Leela had no idea if Jaya was still beside her or had left to attend to the wounded. She was too busy staring at her ghost she barely registered tears sliding down her cheeks until they were at the end of her chin and chilly, shocking her back into reality.

Why couldn’t she speak? Why couldn’t she bring herself to talk? She had talked endlessly with Rajesh, through the nights they were meant to be sleeping, knowing they had early shifts in the fields in the morning. It wasn’t like she didn’t know him. She knew everything about him.

Beside the one obvious thing.

He was alive.

And he hadn’t come to find her.

Rajesh cleared his throat. “Are you injured?”

His husky voice sent a shiver of desire right through her. But she reminded herself that last time they spoke, he didn’t love her. That she couldn’t ever be anything more than his soul mate. A silly series of rituals the village believed would create greater bonds by connecting children at the age of sixteen and then assessing their bond over the next few years. Leela and Rajesh had passed every one. Walking over the flames without a single burn or mark, a symbol that the Flames were at their mercy. Or the time they had to embrace one another for a whole day to appease the Ravens, known to know the inner workings of the heart.

His arms had been Leela’s safest place.

Now despite him standing there, all she wanted was to run in the other direction. He left her. Had he even tried to find her?

Did you, mortal?