Page 57 of The Divine Lies We Weave

But Leela didn’t focus on the looming giant. She needed to get to her family.

Her heart slammed against her ribcage as she reached her hut. Smoke wafted from underneath the door. She skidded to a stop as flames ate the walls, spreading from the windows in a fiery, thundering blaze.

No…

Leela refused to believe her family was inside. She grabbed the doorknob and instantly screamed in pain. The skin on her palm burned and bubbled, and she swore. Pain shot up her arm and tears stung her eyes.

“MOTHER!” she called. “FATHER! DIYA! ANIKA!”

She screamed over the raging inferno. But there was no way her family would survive the flames, and Leela sank into the ground. She slammed her fist against the sand and screamed as loud as the fire. Loud enough her entire body hurt.

Why wasn’t she in there? Burning along with her family?

A small thought passed, enough to draw her out of her raging emotions. Perhaps they weren’t inside at all. Maybe her brain was scrambled from the scenes of today, and she wasn’t thinking straight.

Without a second to waste, Leela shot to her feet and ran. She looked around the hut. Through the small scattering of forest around the village. She ran, screaming for her mother, father, and sisters. She looked everywhere, trying to evade the drakion in the village. Surely Anika had run. She was smart enough to, right?

Right…?

She stopped at the top of the dune and froze. Staring through the light of the flames burning down her village, she looked at a body slumped against the ground. She knew his frame without needing to question it even as the light refused to touch him.

“Rajesh!” she cried.

Despite everything, she ran to him. Her legs buckled under the height of the dune, and her feet were unable to catch her in the sand. She reached Rajesh’s side moments later. She pushed him over, trying to assess his injuries.

His lips were parted, a bloody streak across his forehead staining his dark curls.

Leela pressed her ear to his chest, trying to find the familiar beat she knew better than her own.

Nothing.

“No…. No… NO!”

She screamed.

And screamed.

And screamed.

Until the ship from the palace descended and took her on board. She barely registered the village now strewn with drakion and human bodies. She barely noticed the ship taking her away.

She barely registered someone shaking her awake.

“Leela!”

Leela’s eyes snapped open. She stared into a pair of dark brown eyes. A thick layer of sweat coated her skin and stuck her hair to her forehead. She brushed it aside to see who was sitting across from her.

Her stomach rolled.

“Are you okay?” Rajesh asked.

Leela stroked her collarbone, a method that calmed her when she had cruel nightmares. She focused on him, wondering what he was doing in her room.

Rajesh wore a red shirt covered in dust and a pair of black pants tied at the waist. A look of concern, and what she could only say was fear, lingered in his gaze.

She gritted her teeth. “What do you want?”

Rajesh inched back. “I heard you screaming. I came to help you.”