Page 69 of The Divine Lies We Weave

“Would that not be easier?” Leela said. “Then if I do kill you, or the Viperess does, then I don’t have to feel too guilty, and you don’t have to still be in love with me.”

Rajesh’s fingers paled against the railing. “Who said I was still in love, damiji?”

“Aren’t you?”

“No.”

He answered so bluntly that it hurt. Leela bit the inside of her cheek and turned to the moons as they rose in their glorious peaks. It shouldn’t hurt as much as it did, but her heart twisted with a distant ache of the time when they were just Rajesh and Leela, passing their ceremony days and preparing for a lifelong time of happiness. When Leela couldn’t wait to see Rajesh after a hard day in the fields.

“Sure.” Leela pushed off the railing, preparing to leave. “Glad we clarified that.”

“I told you I can’t,” Rajesh said, stepping in front of her. “You know why. But doesn’t that mean we can’t talk like old friends? We were friends first, remember?”

“Friends turned lovers, and somehow I don’t think I can step back in time,” Leela said, flashing him her hardest glare. “I can’t just forget and move on, Rajesh. Not when… Not when we were…”

Rajesh stepped back and glanced at the ground. “I understand.”

“Do you? Because I can’t do it. I refuse to act like nothing has happened. Not in the last seven years. Not in the last six. Not even in the last few days. Because if I do, then I lose you all over again.”

Rajesh held her gaze. The light-heartedness in his eyes peeled back, and a sharpness took hold instead.

Good. It meant Leela didn’t need to see the expression she had fallen for. It meant she could hate him more than she could love him. She needed distance from Rajesh in more ways than one.

“Deal then,” Rajesh said, tone dismissive. “We agree to hate one another.”

“Deal.”

Without another word, she turned on her heel and rushed back to her room where she screamed into her pillows.

16

RAJESH

The dreams never stopped. They made him toss and turn over most nights, causing his mind to fester and pull back into the fateful moments before he harnessed the Purple Scorpion—before he told Leela he couldn’t love her.

He never said he didn’t love her.

Only that he couldn’t.

There was a difference.

But he knew Leela, and he knew her mind would have changed ‘couldn’t’ into ‘didn’t.’

Rajesh groaned and rolled out of bed. He grabbed a glass of whiskey and sat down in the chair across from the lit fireplace, letting the flames flicker and burn with a gentle crunch. He absorbed them, watching as they twirled like graceful dancers, each one as elegant as the last.

You wish to find the wish-fulfilling tree?

Yes.

He’d been waiting for the Scorpion to show himself. Most days, Rajesh was able to cast him out of his mind altogether, the heat at the base of his spine gone. But when he was vulnerable, or the emotions took over, the Scorpion always found a way to weasel in.

The Scorpion sighed. You tried. And failed.

I am aware. Thanks for the reminder.

And what makes you think it’s in these kingdoms? What of the kingdoms across the world? Are you willing to travel continents to find it?

If I must. There are monsters everywhere. I could use it as an excuse to hunt down the lustisha.